David R. Clark (dot com)

My final exams begin on Tuesday. Light posting until I move back to Michigan May 5.

 I’ve started volunteering with the Muskegon Opportunity.  Check out the website.

Congratulaions to my Fraternity, Tau Kappa Epsilon, on making NBC’s Evening News! 

http://www.nbc4i.com/midwest/cmh/news/video_center.html

The “snow covered car on OSU’s campus” was the result of Andy “Jeezy” Duhon and company with too much time and too many beers.

The Clark Family came down last weekend for their first visit to Bloomington.  All 7 of us went to the IU-MSU game.  Though the outcome was not what we hoped for, and we were subjected to the often-offensive-and-never-funny comments (Note:  Michigan State is located in East Lansing, not Flint) from smarmy Hoosier fans, we still managed to have a good time!

 Photo is during an intense round of Sink-the-Biz at Nick’s.

IU’s President held a press conference today in the Moot Court Room of the Law School to discuss men’s basketball coach Kelvin Sampson.  I was there.  Any excuse to get out of the library, right?

More here.

Camera phone picture I took from the news conference:

I have to admit, didn’t see this one coming.  Rothbury, Michigan to host a music festival?

Just when you thought it was too good to be true — it is.  What kind of rule is this? ”A three-case beer limit — or 72 cans per person — for those camping at the festival” is just one of the nuggets of information on the festival Web site.

I will NOT be in attendance.  Any hippy-hippy jam-jam “festival” that doesn’t include Pinback or Cake isn’t worth its weight in topaz jewelery. 

I received an email from a real all-star student I had in a Kaplan LSAT class last summer.  I could not be happier for him.  Here is part of the message.  

“I was pretty much hopeless after I scored a 141 on the diagnostic, i actually started to think about another career (maybe medicine….). It may sound corny but your excitement motivated me to do well and to take a lot of practice exams! By the end of the LSAT class, I pretty much took every single prep-test Kaplan had to offer! My score on the prep-tests significantly increased and a few weeks before the real deal, I was averaging a 169 on the tests! Even-though I didn’t score a 169 on the real test, I improved my diagnostic by well over 20 points!!

Shortly after the LSAT, I began to be solicited by many schools, all offering free applications, so I ended up applying to over 30 schools (I don’t really know why….Free apps convinced me, I guess). So far, I have heard back from 22 schools - all of which have accepted me, including Ohio State, Wisconsin, Illinois, Minnesota, Cardozo (full-ride), Emory, Notre Dame, Boston College, and the University of Pennsylvania!!!! (emphasis added)  A few big schools still have to respond; however, I already feel overwhelmed with all the options!

I am basically writing to thank you for all your help! You were always willing to stay after or chat outside of the course about the LSAT, and your help really paid off! As bright as the other instructors were, you had by far, the best teaching style! I may have only got  6 questions right on the diagnostic logic games, but on the real LSAT I didn’t miss a single one!!! Thanks once again for all the help! I hope IU is treating you well and that you are mastering law school just as you mastered the LSAT! You should look into becoming the next Bob Verini!”

I accepted an offer for a Summer Associate Position at Warner Norcross & Judd LLP today.  More information to follow.

Because it’s the election season, let’s put tax cuts in terms everyone Can understand.

Suppose that every day, ten men go out for beer and the bill for all ten Comes to $100.  If they paid their bill the way we pay our taxes, it Would go something like this:

The first four men (the poorest) would pay nothing.

The fifth would pay $1.

The sixth would pay $3.

The seventh would pay $7.

The eighth would pay $12.

The ninth would pay $18.

The tenth man (the richest) would pay $59.

So, that’s what they decided to do.

The ten men drank in the bar every day and seemed quite happy with the Arrangement until one day the owner threw them a curved ball . ‘Because You are all such good customers,’ he said, ‘I’m going to reduce the cost Of your daily beer by $20.’

Drinks for the ten now cost just $80.

The group still wanted to pay their bill the way we pay our taxes so the First four men were unaffected.  They would still drink for free.  But What about the other six men - the paying customers?  How could they Divide the $20 windfall so that everyone would get his ‘fair share?’

They realized that $20 divided by six is $3.33.   But if they subtracted

That from everybody’s share, then the fifth man and the sixth man would Each end up being paid to drink his beer.

So, the bar owner suggested that it would be fair to reduce each man’s Bill by roughly the same amount, and he proceeded to work out the Amounts each should pay.  And so:

The fifth man, like the first four, now paid nothing (100% savings).

The sixth now paid $2 instead of $3 (33% savings).

The seventh now paid $5 instead of $7 (28% savings).

The eighth now paid $9 instead of $12 (25% savings).

The ninth now paid $14 instead of $18 (22% savings).

The tenth now paid $49 instead of $59 (16% savings).

Each of the six was better off than before. And the first four continued To drink for free.  But once outside the restaurant the men began to Compare their savings.

‘I only got a dollar out of the $20,’ declared the sixth man.  He Pointed to the tenth man, ‘but he got $10!’

‘Yeah, that’s right,’ exclaimed the fifth man. ‘I only saved a dollar Too. It’s unfair that he got ten times more than I!’

‘That’s true!!’ shouted the seventh man. ‘Why should he get $10 back When I got only two?  The wealthy get all the breaks!’

‘Wait a minute,’ yelled the first four men in unison. ‘We didn’t get Anything at all.  The system exploits the poor!’

The nine men surrounded the tenth man and beat him up.  The next night The tenth man didn’t show up for drinks, so the nine sat down and had Beers without him.  But when it came time to pay the bill, they soon discovered something important. They didn’t have enough money between All of them for even half of the bill!

And that, boys and girls, journalists and college professors, is how our Tax System works. The people who pay the highest taxes get the most Benefit from a tax reduction.  Tax them too much, attack them for being Wealthy and they just may not show up anymore.  In fact, they might Start drinking overseas where the atmosphere is somewhat friendlier.

David R Kamerschen, Ph.D.

Professor of Economics

University of Georgia

Just completed a week of recruiting that included stops at Barnes & Thornburg in Indianapolis, Warner Norcross & Judd in Muskegon and Grand Rapids, and Miller Johnson in Grand Rapids.

I tried to bribe the Muskegon Office of WNJ with Brooklyn Bagels, a strategy I know has been used effectively in the past.  While in Muskegon, I visited the office of Qonverge to talk marketing for Clark Realty.

I stayed at the Amway Grand in Grand Rapids and had an incredible dinner at Cygnus 27, the new restaurant atop the hotel.

Here is a picture from the post-interview portion of my trip.