November 01, 2006

On Oct. 19 we quoted Bruce Carton as predicting a "barrage of deafeningly loud disapproval from the plaintiffs' bar and consumer groups" over the Paulson Committee's proposals for curtailing securities suits. Right on schedule, we heard in Sunday's Times from the most comic expert witness in Milberg Weiss's stable, wearing his "Times columnist" hat. If you're still clutching your sides in helpless laughter over this from Seth Mnookin, Larry Ribstein can restore some perspective (here, too).

The pity is that in the hermetic world of the Times Sunday Business section, they probably imagine that running Ben Stein somehow gives them a claim to balance, since he channels the views of the plaintiff's securities class-action bar from a "conservative" point of view, while other writers there do so from a more conventional liberal point of view. (See also Ted, below.)