Court Stuff

June 17, 2014

It’s Court-time, that busy time in June when the U.S. Supreme Court gets ready for its summer vacation. (Is there any hope for getting away from the ag-based, nine-month school year, when one of our three governmental branches has the summer off?)

Here are a few cases recent cases that caught my attention.

In Clark v. Rameker, No. 13-299, the Court issued a unanimous opinion holding that an inherited IRA does not qualify as an exempt asset. Justice Sotomayor, in her opinion, looks at the characteristics of an inherited IRS—no money can be added, money must be withdrawn, and all money can be withdrawn at any time without penalties—and reached the conclusion that the assets belongs to creditors in

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Business Court in Arizona? Maybe!

June 15, 2014

On May 8, 2014, the Arizona Supreme Court issued an order establishing the Business Court Advisory Committee. The order direct the Advisory Committee to investigate establishing a division of the Superior Court—our trial court—to handle business disputes. The Arizona Republic ran Arizona Panel to Study Idea for Business Courts a few days later, and it provides a decent overview.

One of the great challenges for a business litigator involves deciding whether to arbitrate and, if not, whether a jury should be involved. In many instances these choices are made when a contract or other business agreement gets signed.

Arbitration is often a default choice, too often because it carries positive connotations and courts don’t. In fact, in many cases arbitration

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Juxtaposition: Gluten-free and the Craft Baking Renaissance

June 15, 2014

Gluten-free. Gluten intolerant. Anti-gluten. Gluten-curious. Gluten intolerance is a sham.

Everywhere we turn, we hear about gluten. Celiac disease, or celiac sprue, may affect between 1 in 105 to 1 in 1750 Americans. That’s a big spread, and translates to between 180,000 and 3,000,000 people.

Celiac sprue is a recognized disease. Gluten intolerance, on the other hand, provokes debate. Here’s some information from the National Foundation for Celiac Awareness, and a piece in Forbes, written by Steven Ross Pomeroy and published on from May 15, 2014, titled Gluten Intolerance May Not Exist.

The spread of the gluten free movement does not surprise me. Food movements spread quickly. Remember fat-free? I’d like 20 cents now for every box of SnackWell’s

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Inequality – Part 4

June 14, 2014

I start from the premise that I think I’ve made the case for wealth inequality and why it matters. If I haven’t, speak up or wade in to Piketty’s tome. I’m moving on.

There are no easy answers for closing the wealth gap. When we last had a gap like the one we have now we called it the Gilded Age. Levelers included the Great Depression, World War II, and, really, the American Century. While these events all played a major role in rebalancing, we certainly don’t wish for either of the first two.

My first idea? Mandatory national service for all young people, between high school and college/first job. My program comes with only one condition:  everyone serves!

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Happy Father’s Day

June 12, 2014

Well, another Father’s Day is upon us, just a bit more than 51 hours from now. I’ve now been the subject of 21, and shared a total of 44 with my father.

I like Father’s Day. Lots. I have my two-part ritual, honed over the past decade or more and missed only once, when I attended an old friend’s memorial service back east in 2009.

Part one involves watching the last day of the U.S. Open. I don’t play golf anymore. Too painful for me, and even more painful for those with whom I am paired. I don’t even watch golf anymore on television, but for one day a year.

I really enjoy the last day of the U.S. Open.

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Rule against Perpetuities! (Really!!!)

June 12, 2014

I attended a dinner at a bank—as it happens, my bank—on Tuesday night. The topic?  Current Trends in Trust and Estate Planning. ‘Twas a fine presentation, with decent wine, a good meal, and a speaker worth listening to. And an hour of continuing education credit.

The speaker, a banker, focused his talk on dynasty trusts. There is no particular definition for a dynasty trust:  in simple terms it’s a trust that lasts a long time.

Now, I was in law school between 1978 and 1981, many years ago. I learned about the Rule against Perpetuities. This rule, as I learned it, held that no property in a trust could vest in a beneficiary after all lives in being

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The Wednesday Curator – 6/11/14

June 10, 2014

Wednesday again!

Wow! Just wow!!! In CD 7-VA, Virginia Republicans selected Dave Brat as their nominee, choosing home over House Majority leader Eric Cantor. Here are takes from the New York Times, the Washington Post (I) and (II), and Talking Points Memo. Now, I’m no fan of Congressman Cantor. But still! The man is next in line to be Speaker of the House of Representatives, and he loses to a college professor/Tea Partier he outspends by more than 40-1. In a primary! So much for the meme that the Establishment has retaken the Republican Party. Just wow!

The Koch brothers—Charles and David—have run a large number of advertisements that tell false stories about how the Patient Protection

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In a Rut! Food Edition

June 10, 2014

Do you get in a rut when the issue is dining out? Find yourself going to the same two or three places? (Maybe two or three options represents wide variability for you?)

I have struggled with this issue—well, “struggled” surely overstates the matter, for this is definitely a First World problem, and a First Worlder for “upper–middles” and above—and have no solutions. I have thought about an old-fashioned app, a piece of paper for my car with a list of options in different parts of town, but I have been thinking about that list for two decades and it remains non-existent.

Alas, several weeks ago Tucson Weekly published its 100 Essential Dishes list. It was a fun read, and I

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Working – 2 (Steve Caine)

June 9, 2014

Stephen Caine works at being retired, mostly. Not an easy job, but he’s handling it well, working as the Board Chair at Hillel at the University of Arizona. He also does some travel agency work, working with his wife Heather setting up cruises through www.cruiseholidays.com.

We did discuss Steve’s prior careers, first as a printer and, then, as a financial advisor. Not a totally typical career change, but Steve’s a guy from the 60s who didn’t want to stay in any one place for two long. We talked printing briefly. Steve saw the problems pretty early, selling out by the late 1980s. (There are printers who are very successful, still, but paper as a delivery platform has some serious

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Inequality – Part 3

June 7, 2014

For a while, on and off, I have been promising more on inequality. (I make a fair number of promises and I need to work on that, for I’m not living up to too many of them.) It’s here, it’s about 3-4 times as long as a usual MarkRubinWrites post, it’s depressing, and I think it’s important.

One more thing, and this is really for those who worry about me. Yes, those people do exist, and they know who they are! This post goes somewhere, along with future posts, but none of this is about “soaking the rich” or higher taxes, or a redistribution of income. More taxes may be part of something, but moving money around, alone, goes nowhere.

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