Showing results for: “digital markets act”
More Bailout Fallout: Non-buyer’s Remorse
An interesting story in the WSJ Online today about American International Group (AIG)’s use of a standard tax write-off and the political firestorm it is creating…all because the Washington establishment thought it could hide behind semantics during the bailout era. The benefits at issue were accrued by AIG as it amassed record losses amid the ... More Bailout Fallout: Non-buyer’s Remorse
Gelbach, Helland and Klick on Single Firm, Single Event Studies
Larry Ribstein points to the new paper from Gelbach, Helland and Klick on Valid Inference in Single Firm, Single Event Studies. This is an important paper with implications for finance, securities litigation and antitrust where event studies are frequently used as economic expert evidence. Ribstein gives a good, non-technical explanation of its contribution: Essentially what’s ... Gelbach, Helland and Klick on Single Firm, Single Event Studies
Can the SEC Exempt Small Companies From Sarbanes-Oxley 404?
Last month the SEC Advisory Committee on Smaller Public Companies adopted the following three recommendations concerning oft-maligned Sarbanes-Oxley Section 404: 1. Exempt Microcap companies from S404, subject to certain conditions 2. Exempt Smaller Public Companies from the external audit requirement of S404, subject to certain conditions. 3. The subcommittee strongly endorses recommendation #2. However, if ... Can the SEC Exempt Small Companies From Sarbanes-Oxley 404?
A Federal Reserve Worth Its Weight in…; or, A Gold Standard for the Modern Era
The Federal Reserve has been working with other international banking regulators in the Basel III process to alter bank capital reserves so that they are no longer pro-cyclical and based on unrealistic assumptions about economic growth during bull markets. The Fed now urges that banks need to hold reserves on a counter-cyclical basis. When times ... A Federal Reserve Worth Its Weight in…; or, A Gold Standard for the Modern Era
NASDAQ’s Conversion to a “National Securities Exchange�
Not much, if anything, has been written about NASDAQ’s conversion from a “national securities association� to a “national securities exchange.� (Press release here). Perhaps it’s because few people care, few people were aware that NASDAQ was not already a national securities exchange, and/or it doesn’t really matter. That all may be true, but it raises ... NASDAQ’s Conversion to a “National Securities Exchange�
Whisper Numbers
A “whisper number� once meant the consensus Wall Street unofficial and unpublished earnings-per-share forecast for a public company. Wall Street analysts historically derived a whisper number by ferreting out non-public information from company personnel. The number was then shared with top clients. Studies indicated that trading on whisper numbers could result in abnormal returns (see ... Whisper Numbers
Best Antitrust Articles and Books of 2011
Danny Sokol posted some nominations for best Antitrust Article from a variety of antitrust experts. I was supposed to include my nomination for that list but missed the deadline. Turns out my draft list doesn’t have much overlap with the articles nominated over there, so I figured I’d share my whole list here with all ... Best Antitrust Articles and Books of 2011
I look pretty young but I'm just backdated, yeah
The WSJ this weekend has a long piece on the issue of stock option backdating, “The Perfect Payday.” Here’s the tagline: Some CEOs reap millions by landing stock options when they are most valuable. Luck–or something else? It’s an interesting article, much of which is devoted to debunking the assertion that backdating of options grants ... I look pretty young but I'm just backdated, yeah
"Let the Market Handle It"
Economists, free-marketeers, and law and econ types are often accused of invoking this phrase as a knee-jerk reaction to regulations of all shapes and sizes. The position is sometimes attacked as overly simplistic, based upon an unjustified faith in markets, or just plain lazy. On this score, Don Boudreaux (Cafe Hayek, GMU) has a must-read ... "Let the Market Handle It"
Paths to competitiveness: more spending vs. better laws
As Steve Bainbridge recently noted: Obama said . . . that making the U.S. more competitive means investing in a more educated work force, committing more to research and technology, and improving everything from highways and airports to high-speed Internet. He observes that a better way to increase U.S. competitiveness is by changing the law ... Paths to competitiveness: more spending vs. better laws
Proxy access arrives. Now what?
Here’s the SEC’s release, its summary and another one by Lisa Fairfax. As I’ve said, “peek behind the “shareholder democracy” rhetoric and we see * * * federal control of corporate law [and] turning corporate governance into a political battle between unions and managers.” As for the federal takeover, the SEC’s adopting release says We ... Proxy access arrives. Now what?
Manne and Auer’s Defense of Qualcomm’s Licensing Policy Is Deeply Flawed
Geoffrey Manne and Dirk Auer’s defense of Qualcomm’s no license/no chips policy is based on a fundamental misunderstanding of how that policy harms competition. The harm is straightforward in light of facts proven at trial. In a nutshell, OEMs must buy some chips from Qualcomm or else exit the handset business, even if they would ... Manne and Auer’s Defense of Qualcomm’s Licensing Policy Is Deeply Flawed
