Dictators Hate Financial Privacy

Dictators Hate Financial Privacy

Earlier this year, I began a column about anti-money laundering laws with four observations. As a libertarian, I don’t like that the government forces banks to spy on customers. As an economist, I don’t like that these laws don’t come close to passing a...
The Case for Jury Nullification, Part II

The Case for Jury Nullification, Part II

I wrote two days ago about a jury correctly voting to acquit a Swiss banker who was being prosecuted (and persecuted) by the government. The jury presumably recognized that it’s not the responsibility of foreign national living in outside the U.S. to enforce our bad...
The Case for Jury Nullification, Part I

The Case for Jury Nullification, Part I

I haven’t written in any detail about “jury nullification” since late 2010 and it’s time to rectify that sin of omission. Nullification occurs when a jury votes not guilty because a law is either unjust or wrongly applied, not because a defendant is actually innocent....