Month: July 2011

institutional ownership reduces First Folio liquidity

From 1893 to 1928, Henry Folger bought 82 copies of Shakespeare’s First Folio.  Why would anyone want 82 copies of a rare and very expensive book of widely published plays?

If Henry Folger’s heirs had received his First Folio collection, they probably would have had a big-ticket estate sale.  But Folger didn’t leave his 82 First Folios to his individual heirs.  Folger established the Folger Shakespeare Library with his First Folio collection as its centerpiece.  Unlike Henry Folger, the Folger Shakespeare Library can exist forever.  As long as it exists, the Folger Shakespeare Library is highly unlikely to sell any of its First Folios.

When Shakespeare’s First Folio became a collector’s item in the eighteenth century, individuals owned most of them.  Since then, First Folio ownership has shifted from individuals to institutions.  Institutions now own all but about 20 of the 232 existing copies of the First Folio.

Buying 82 copies of Shakespeare’s First Folio is now inconceivable at any price.  That’s an institutional effect that makes Henry Folger seem economically sane.

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The First Folio counts cited above are from the exhibition, Fame, Fortune, & Theft: The Shakespeare First Folio, at the Folger Shakespeare Library, June 3 to Sept. 3, 2011.

ability-to-pay determination under Turner v. Rogers safeguards

The U.S. Supreme Court’s Turner v. Rogers decision plausibly requires the equivalent of a simple, explicit determination of present ability-to-pay in the case of an unrepresented child-support debtor facing incarceration via a civil-contempt order.  Individual jurisdictions that do not provide indigent child-support debtors with counsel must implement such due-process safeguards.  Florida’s statute that sets out the legal determination of civil indigent status provides a good example of how the Turner v. Rogers safeguards could be implemented.

Under Florida Statutes, Section 57.082, a person applying for a state-provided attorney in a civil case is required to file a form that includes basic financial information.  The clerk of the court reviews that form using two simple rules:

  1. An applicant, including an applicant who is a minor or an adult tax-dependent person, is indigent if the applicant’s income is equal to or below 200 percent of the then-current federal poverty guidelines prescribed for the size of the household of the applicant by the United States Department of Health and Human Services.
  2. There is a presumption that the applicant is not indigent if the applicant owns, or has equity in, any intangible or tangible personal property or real property or the expectancy of an interest in any such property having a net equity value of $2,500 or more, excluding the value of the person’s homestead and one vehicle having a net value not exceeding $5,000.

Using these rules, the clerk decides if the applicant is indigent or not indigent.  The Florida statute explicitly requires a simple determination of ability-to-pay:

The duty of the clerk in determining whether an applicant is indigent is limited to receiving the application and comparing the information provided in the application to the criteria prescribed in this subsection. The determination of indigent status is a ministerial act of the clerk and may not be based on further investigation or the exercise of independent judgment by the clerk.

The applicant is allowed to request judicial review of the clerk’s decision if the clerk finds the applicant not indigent.  If the clerk determines that the applicant is indigent, the applicant receives counsel under a monthly payment plan that requires payments of no more than 2% of the applicant’s average monthly income.

The Florida statute provides a model for processing show-cause orders for considering incarcerating unrepresented child-support debtors.  If the child-support debtor does not have counsel, he or she should be given the opportunity to have a Turner ability-to-pay determination. The Turner ability-to-pay determination would follow from the Florida model, with the child-support debt due netted from the applicant’s income.  If the Florida model found the applicant indigent, then the applicant would not be eligible to be incarcerated for child-support debt.

Incarcerating indigent child-support debtors is inhumane, greatly worsens the debtors’ ability to earn income, and has large public costs, financial and social.  Incarcerating child-support debtors without due process safeguards is also illegal.  If the Turner v. Rogers decision is reasonably implemented, it is an important step toward justice under law.

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Read more:

meditation on media

The truth is in the candle.  And the candle still burns, and the media cannot overcome it.

The video above contains pieces from: Olafur Eliasson,  Round Rainbow, at the Hirshhorn Museum; Paul Sharits, Shutter Interface, at the Hirshhorn Museum; and Nam June Paik, One Candle, Candle Projection, at the U.S. National Gallery of Art.

superpages yellow pages shrink 48%

While the yellowbook yellow pages directory maintained its size from 2010 to 2011 editions, the superpages yellow pages directory has shrunk 48% in equivalent listing size from the 2009-2010 Northern Virginia East edition to the 2011-2012 edition.  The number of pages in the later directory fell 25%.  Community magazine, area maps, community interest, and coupons sections that existed in the 2009-2010 edition were eliminated in the 2011-2012 edition.  In addition, the print size of individual listings was made larger.  The page reduction and the increase in print size compounded to produce a reduction of 48% in equivalent listing size.

San Francisco recently passed a law requiring that yellow pages directories be distributed only on an opt-in basis.  Telephone companies have recently succeed in getting white page directories to be distributed on an opt-in basis.  These changes are consistent with lessening material resource use and increasing environmental sustainability.

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Statistics on superpages yellow pages directories 2009-2010 and 2011-2012 for Northern Virginia East edition (Excel version)