Misc.

•  A New York state appellate court reduced Trumpie's appeals bond today to $175M from the full judgment of $454M. I don't remember if I judged that reduction or pause was reasonable in print. If I didn't, I thought it. It's not reasonable that a bond be set so high that it deprives a defendant of his right to appeal. The judgment in this case was extraordinary. No bonding company had ever guaranteed so humongous an amount and none would. If it is NY s.o.p. to require the full amount in bond to appeal then s.o.p. had to yield. That's what I thought. Now that I think about it, I do remember writing here that Trumpie's "I have $500M cash!" statement doomed his efforts to get this paused or reduced. I don't know how the NY Court of Appeals got around that, but they did. The reduction today, which carries with it a 10-day period for Trumpie to come up with the $175M, is not in any way shade on NY AG Leticia James case or Judge Arthur Engeron's ruling.
  
• In Manhattan, also today, Judge Juan Merchan dismissed Trumpie lawyers pleas for a distant (like after the election (which Trumpie will lose anyway)) trial date in the Stormy Daniels case, The judge set trial for April 15 and that date was etched in fast-drying cement by Judge Merchan.
• Bitcoin reached another record high today. One bitcoin now trades for $70,597.60 per.
• The big legal news of last week, the past year, the past many years, was the settlement that the National Association of Realtors made with plaintiffs in several states accusing the trade group of being essentially a cartel and fixing housing prices. NAR has controlled the market for 100 years. The settlement, a total defeat for NAR, came after five Missouri plaintiffs and a personal injury attorney who didn't know MLS from Major League Soccer scored a complete victory at a jury trial over NAR's high-powered, silk-stocking lawyers. The verdict and settlement liberate, no other word will do, something like 20% of the American economy from the NAR cartel's clutches and is enormous victory for home buyers and sellers. Home prices will drop, benefiting buyers, and sellers will benefit by not having to fork over their half of the 6% commission that NAR all but mandated.