No Patience for Patients Without Borders

Doctors Without Borders is suing Patients Without Border for trademark infringement.

Hat Tip: Nils Montan

Not the best (I liked the Coke commercials), but probably the one most remembered in ten years – Audi joking about a dystopian Green Police state.

The commercial caused some environmentalists to gasp – in a time when unpopular perceived economy killers such as cap and trade are being bandied about in the name of saving the environment, a picture of government overreach cannot be helpful.

Jonah Goldberg thinks that some conservatives will be upset by the light-hearted way the issue is framed.

I think the message of the Audi commercial is distinctly un-American – you are better off negotiating your own exception to the rules of the police state, and Audi will help you do that.  Audi owners can flaunt their green badge of a car as the new American nomenklatura.

The commercial is brilliant if deeply cynical.  In German history, the Green Police was the name for uniformed Nazi Police Officers who may have been involved in facilitating the Holocaust.  That such dystopian visions can reach the zeitgeist through a humorous Super Bowl commercial is disquieting.

And unfortunately for Audi, will probably not help it sell any cars.

New York Governor David Paterson

From Business Insider, rumors of a New York Times Spitzer-class bombshell concerning New York Governor David Paterson.  The underlying scandal is apparently serious enough to compel Governor Paterson’s resignation.  Paterson’s office denies the resignation rumor and says “‘the Times story’ will not run Monday.”

Not exactly a denial there of the underlying rumors, which appear to be sexual in nature.

Wonder what conversations are going on between the Times and Governor Paterson’s office?

UPDATE: Gawker has picked up the ball by asking Paterson’s deputy communications director Marissa Shoenstein about the rumors.  She responded, “There is absolutely zero truth to these rumors. The governor is not resigning.”

Makes you wonder which rumors she may be referring to.  Nonetheless, it is closing in on midnight East Coast Time, and the New York Times does not appear to be preparing to run any bombshell article in tomorrow’s edition.  Stay tuned….

UPDATE 2/8: Something is brewing.  Politico’s Ben Smith first reported that Paterson will sit down with the New York Times tomorrow, and then quoted an Associated Press piece in which Paterson denies everything.

Meanwhile, a ranking member of the legislature tells WPIX News in New York that the source of the Paterson rumors “is the estranged wife of ‘an aide extremely close to the governor.’”

The Sensational Economics Video That is Taking the Hip-Hop World By Storm!

(Or, er, vice-versa.)

Background article here.  Smooth Party Boy John Maynard Keynes throws it down in a rap battle versus Bookish Teetotaler F.A. Hayak.  Keynes extols the virtues of government economic management, particularly in the boom and bust cycles, while Hayak eschews the stimulus packages that cause Keynesian hangovers to instead promote free markets.

The problem with Keynesian theory is that it largely ignores the elegant tools of microeconomics in providing the government an excuse to interfere with the markets.  Politicians are given large amounts of money to spend in order to stimulate the economy.  And spend it they do!  Whether the spending is on useful capital projects or digging ditches, the result is the same – stimulus.  The incentives of individual actors within the system are ignored, with political calculations causing widespread distortions in individual markets.  Low interest rates then cause a de facto creation of money without value, leading to an illusion of real wealth and further misallocation of capital (i.e., housing) within an economy.  When the bust hits, the previous misallocations generate less wealth than a more efficient use of capital would have generated, making the bust worse.  But politicians don’t mind – the bust provides further opportunities to spend and enhance their own power.

Hayak takes the more humble approach – we are not gods, we do not know how the economy functions.   We do know that economies function better with less government interference.  Thus, the government should back off and get out of the way.

Unfortunately, following the Austrian School exemplified by Hayak would cause a loss of power for the government.    So politicians promote Keynesian thinking while ignoring Hayak.  And the media promotes Keynes, opting for a vigorous governmental actor in a compelling narrative rather than a tone poem.

Considering the apparent failure of applied Keynesian theory to revive the present economy, that is a real shame.

UPDATE: Allan Meltzer of Carnegie Mellon says Obama’s deficit spending to stimulate gets Keynes wrong (h/t Instapundit).

Nice site. Mind if I steal it?

Like taking steak from a wolf, stealing from a law firm seems a tad dangerous.    Via LegalMatch law blog, the Law.com story of a Florida firm which discovered an unknown British counterpart lifting its website wholesale.

The aggrieved Florida firm, Gordon & Doner, is apparently a well-known personal injury firm.  The offending party allegedly lifted the design and photos of Gordon & Doner, making some changes but leaving the bulk of the site unchanged.  An attorney at Gordon & Doner discovered the chicanery after doing a search for himself and finding his doppelganger at a British law firm in Manchester, England.  Gordon & Doner has filed action against the host of the offending site, GoDaddy.com, as well as the yet-undetermined British party.

The motivation to do something so stupid is a mystery.  While only a law firm would seemingly have the incentive to build a site by stealing from another law firm, could a firm in a profession as risk-adverse as the legal profession actually be so reckless?

Gordon & Doner’s attorney for this matter, Michael Slavin of McHale & Slavin, has apparently speculated that the copying may have been done to game Gordon & Doner’s ranking on Google.  But why take the trouble to host the site in England?

If it is a law firm that is ultimately found to be the culprit, it obviously is a little light on intellectual property expertise.

(Hat tip: Nils Montan)

The Fruit of Totalitarianism

Yes, North Korea is a big fat bullseye, but Christopher Hitchens manages to wring some value out of beating this starving horse.  Note the irony of his last paragraph, where the race purity obsessed North Korean apparatchik appear to be raising a separate race of Gollums.

The Counterfeit Mafia of Kim Il Jong

[Originally Written April 9, 2009, but still applicable today]

A friend recently asked me why counterfeiting is evil. I explained that counterfeiters were often criminals with far-flung enterprises who would not think twice about dealing narcotics, exploiting child labor and committing many other crimes. He agreed with a wan smile and hint of an eye roll. I was not reaching him.

Some of this attitude presumably comes from a distrust of legitimate businesses. An attitude of moral equivalency towards all business – legitimate and illegitimate – has taken hold. Recent financial news understandably feeds such dark outlooks.

Nonetheless, counterfeiters are worse. Unlike much of the business community now under scrutiny, counterfeiters have a specific intent to steal and deceive. Their cheap fakes trade on the goodwill and efforts of legitimate businesses, costing profits (and ultimately jobs) from lost sales. In this world economy, lost jobs and tax revenue are not easily replaced. And while most counterfeiters are not guilty of enslaving an entire people under a tyrannical regime, there is one counterfeiter who is.

North Korean Dear Leader Kim Jong-il may be the world’s worst counterfeiter. While he sips on Hennessey XO and rattles nuclear sabers, North Korea’s civilian population suffers the horrors of a murderous police state, foraging the land for weeds to eat and toiling to produce fakes that help fuel Kim’s regime.

Using extreme brutality to repress internal dissent and its arsenal to scare off external threats, North Korea functions like a very well-armed mafia family with Kim as its Don. North Korea uses the wages of its sins to fund and fuel its million man army, perpetuating Kim’s cycle of ruthless rule. An anonymous State Department source estimated that North Korea’s illicit activities bring in $1 billion a year, an astonishing figure considering that North Korea only generates a total of $1.7 billion a year in legitimate exports.

Like many criminal enterprises, North Korea has a well-diversified portfolio of illicit activities. North Korea smuggles heroin to Australia, nuclear technology to Syria and Iran, and counterfeit Viagra to America. It was this last activity that drew the attention of American law enforcement. The FBI staged a counterfeit Mafia wedding in a sting operation and invited several known North Korean counterfeiters whom they subsequently arrested. One North Korean suspect carried a briefcase full of counterfeit Viagra as a wedding present.

Meanwhile, North Korea continues to pelt the Pacific with dud missile technology. So the North Korean mafia has not yet figured out how to put nuke to missile, but that day is coming. And when it comes, enforcement of international law against North Korea will be virtually impossible without risking a nuclear war.

The international community is at a loss in finding long-lasting solutions for dealing with the petulant Kim Il-Jong. Consumers, however, can change the world for the better with their buying decisions. By consciously seeking to buy real products, consumers not only help ensure the quality of their purchases, but they also sap a key source of funds for North Korea and other criminals and thugs.

And remember, if you are buying counterfeit Viagra, the rocket you fuel may not be your own.

Writing for the Center for Public Integrity, Te-Ping Chen brings her readers into the murky world of counterfeit cigarettes. Through bribery and sheer volume, Chinese cigarette counterfeiters overwhelm the inspection infrastructure in China and the United States. The numbers are startling. A shipping container of one million counterfeit cigarettes can cost about $120,000 to make, but can sell for as much as $2 million in the United States. A bribe of $20,000 can ensure safe passage out of China, and then it becomes a game of chance stacked in favor of the counterfeiter. Cargo containers are only inspected 22% of the time on average in the United States. While seizures are considered a cost of doing business for these smugglers, a run of bad luck seizures tempted the counterfeiters in the story to attempt to purchase protection from the Italian Mafia. Unfortunately for the villains, the Mafia fixers turned out to be FBI agents.

Te-Ping Chen does an excellent job of detailing the intricate nature of the smuggling world. Through the well-worn trade paths of cigarettes also comes counterfeit money, fake pharmaceuticals, and weapons. Notorious bad actors like the North Korean government profit greatly from the criminality. No doubt, a weapon of mass destruction could conceivably slip through safeguards using these same trade routes.

And what does this have to do with PRO-IP Act? Plenty, in fact. The PRO-IP Act goes to the root of the counterfeiting problem by increasing the price of doing business in counterfeits. Doubling the fines per counterfeit violation is a good start. Increasing diplomatic resources will also help, as it could enhance cooperation with law enforcement at the point of origin. And with counterfeit cigarettes often unhealthier than the real thing, criminal penalties for selling counterfeit items that do bodily harm could possibly ensure long jail sentences for the counterfeiters of cigarettes and other types of potentially harmful contraband.

This is an excellent article – entertaining, informative and even poignant in parts. Towards the end of the tale, two of the counterfeiters at the center of the investigation presented their undercover FBI Agent with two Rolexes as a wedding present for the mock gangster. “These aren’t counterfeit, are they?” asked the agent. “No,” replied the suspect, “these are the real deal.”

You’ll think Goodfellas, and you won’t be far off – or disappointed. Read the whole thing.