Exercising Abilities

According to one prominent view of exercising abilities (e.g., Millar 2009), a subject, S, counts as exercising an ability to ϕ if and only if S successfully ϕs. Such an ‘exercise-success’ thesis looks initially very plausible for abilities, perhaps even obviously or analytically true. In this paper, however, I will be defending the position that one can in fact exercise an ability to do one thing by doing some entirely distinct thing, and in doing so I’ll highlight various reasons (epistemological, metaphysical and linguistic) that favor the alternative approach I develop over views that hold that the exercise of an ability is a success notion in the sense Millar maintains

Robo-Signing, Chain of Title, Loss Mitigation, and Other Issues in Mortgage Servicing: Hearing Before the Subcomm. on Hous. and Cmty. Opportunity of the H. Fin. Serv. Comm., 111th Cong., Nov. 18, 2010 (Statement of Associate Professor Adam J. Levitin, Geo. U. L. Center)

The US is now in its forth year of a mortgage crisis in which over 3 million families have lost their homes and another 2.5 million are currently scheduled to lose theirs. Repeated government loan modification or refinancing initiatives have failed miserably. To this sad state of affairs, there now come a variety of additional problems: faulty foreclosures due to irregularities ranging from procedural defects (including, but not limited to robosigning) to outright counterfeiting of documents; predatory servicing practices that precipitate borrower defaults and then overcharge for foreclosure services that are ultimately paid for by investors; and questions about the validity of transfers in private-label mortgage securitizations. While the extent of these problems is unknown at present, the evidence is mounting that they are not limited to one-off cases, but that there may be pervasive defects throughout the mortgage servicing and securitization processes

New county records of chewing lice (Mallophaga) on birds in Florida

County records for avian lice are less significant than the host records themselves. Considering that most avian lice are host specific, the county records should resemble the area the host would most likely be encountered. Nonetheless, the list cited in Forrester and Spalding (2003) contains few and spotty county records. The main source of material for this publication has been the Marathon Wildlife Rehabilitation Center in Marathon, Monroe Co., Florida. The center takes in specimens of about 90 species of birds per year. The following is a list of the avian lice species, hosts, and localities with collection dates. All specimens were collected by Kelly Grinter, Leslie Straub, or the author. Representative specimens are deposited in the Florida State Collection of Arthropods and/or the author\u27s collection

The Consumer Financial Protection Agency

Examines the current regulatory structures for consumer financial services protection, its limitations, and concerns about the proposal to consolidate consumer protection functions under one agency with research, rule-making, and enforcement authority

Abusive Credit Card Practices and Bankruptcy: Hearing Before the S. Comm. on the Judiciary, 111th Cong., March 24, 2009 (Statement of Associate Professor Adam J. Levitin, Geo. U. L. Center)

The Marquette decision created a regulatory arbitrage possibility that set off a regulatory race to the bottom. Congress should act to close this loophole. There is a reasonable debate to be had on usury regulations, but that is one that should be held in legislatures, not determined by the Supreme Court\u27s interpretation of a hoary statute. A 1970s interpretation of an 1863 law should not be what determines 21st century consumer credit regulation. Congress should permit the states, the laboratories of democracy, to go further than S.257 if they wish in regulating high-interest-rate consumer credit. This essential consumer protection power should be restored to the states. S.257 offers an important protection to consumers and responsible creditors, eliminates an incentive to game the bankruptcy system, and encourages responsible lending. These protections will help ensure fairer, safer, and sounder consumer credit. Now, more than ever, consumers and creditors need reforms that will create a fair and sustainable credit system. I urge the Congress to pass S.257

The Unlit Path Behind the House by Margo Wheaton

Review of Margo Wheaton\u27s The Unlit Path Behind the House

The Inquiring Mind: On Intellectual Virtues and Virtue Epistemology

This is a book review of Jason Baehr's 'The Inquiring Mind: On Intellectual Virtues and Virtue Epistemology' (OUP)