E tu mama tambien...

Chapter 11 sets a different threshold and regime for repossession, but it's still possible to repossess. What is interesting are the studies that show how the cost of borrowing increased after Chapter 11 was introduced in the U.S.

You can't just say 'VET better'! Vetting presupposes that you can calculate the risk of default, and the likelihood as a credit company that you'll have to incur the cost of repossessing. If there's no ability to repossess, then vetting is pointless anyway -- only an irrational credit companies would take any such risk.

This isn't arm-chair theorizing. There are countries where home repossession just isn't the done thing (mostly for religious reasons) -- in those countries, any rational vetting procedure would produce the answer: don't loan anything. And this is exactly what happens.

I am not a lawyer, and I wouldn't usually defend them, but... [sticks head above parapet]

Humour me an analogy: Nobody likes it when a bailiff comes to your door. But the reality is that if there were no bailiffs to repossess property bought on credit when you didn't pay up, then no-one would loan money. For example, in countries where there is a cultural/religious aversion to repossession of homes, it's almost impossible to get a mortgage, and overall rate of home ownership is lower -- the law of unintended consequences here is that if you as a society refuse to kick people out of their homes, fewer people will actually be able to own their own homes.

I think a patent troll company like this is similar. Nortel engineers worked hard to invent stuff. Shareholders of Nortel invested in the company to pay for that stuff to be invented. The value of these patents as assets which could be sold off is in effect a form of 'embodied energy' created in Nortel. Remove the ability for companies like Rockstar to exist and to seek out license fees from stuff Nortel investors paid Nortel engineers to invent them in the past, and you've retroactively denied those investors from some of the return on their historical investment. The end result moving forward is that people will invest less.

Patents serve a purpose, as does their expiry. I could back a plan to shorten patent lifetimes for some classes of patents, but I believe doing away with the whole system would be counter-productive to innovation.

Step 1. Move to Canada
Step 2...

So behave yourselves -- you won't see us coming if we don't want you to...

https://www.nytimes.com/2003/12/02/international/americas/02CANA.html?ex=1070946000&en=37b83e09654ed443&ei=5062&partner=GOOGLE

Non-paywall:

http://forum.grasscity.com/general-marijuana-news-around-world/31035-canada-steers-closer-europe-than-u-s.html

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x248028

So, if I've understood your argument, you're basically saying "the problem with Africa, Mexico and the rest of the world is that ordinary people don't have enough guns" So poverty, thirst for oil, the war or drugs, etc. has nothing to do with it? This is a troll, right?

Would this help Paul Chambers, the man who was found guilty of sending a menacing messages for his sarcastic Twitter bomb threat? http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=265300406002

... to force someone who wants to start up his own business to squander his time with concerns like this. Given the amount of taxpayer dollars spent per capita on healthcare in the U.S. compared to other western countries, it's certainly not an efficient use of taxes either...

No, I in fact meant to say that "due to" has been used for "because of" in the Queen's English since about 1955.

Get out your Fowler's. "Due to" has been used to mean "because of" in the Queen's English since 1955 - and I mean literally in a speech she made to parliament.

"due to" has been used for "because of" in the Queen's English since about 1955. Your point?

The article would have been much more informative if it had included information about how many of the students failing didn't have English as a mother-tongue. I have interviewed and on occasion hired many U of W students who by virtue of being e.g. Chinese-Canadian had poor English skills but were nevertheless bright and good communicators.

Cool. A patent troll "troll"

http://www.indecisionforever.com/2008/02/27/the-west-wing-obama-and-plagiarism/