Showing archive for: “Financial Regulation”
The Economics of Being Able to Fire People Who Provide Me Services
Via Professor Bainbridge, I read today about the nonsense surrounding Mitt Romney enjoying firing people. I’m late to the this one, but here is the quote in context for anybody who missed it: “I want individuals to have their own insurance,” he said. “That means the insurance company will have an incentive to keep you ... The Economics of Being Able to Fire People Who Provide Me Services
Larry Ribstein’s Top Posts of 2011
Happy New Year TOTM readers. I’ve had a very difficult time returning to blogging. Monday mornings I would normally wake up to a string of four or five of Larry’s posts already up and attracting comments. He had a way of making one feel incredibly inefficient and unproductive by comparison! Of course, there was never ... Larry Ribstein’s Top Posts of 2011
Notes from the tea party caucus of corporate academia
Roberta Romano has just posted her paper, Regulating in the Dark. Here’s the abstract: Foundational financial legislation is typically adopted in the midst or aftermath of financial crises, when an informed understanding of the causes of the crisis is not yet available. Moreover, financial institutions operate in a dynamic environment of considerable uncertainty, such that ... Notes from the tea party caucus of corporate academia
Poets vs. capitalists
Eric Felten writing in yesterday’s WSJ, observes the hypocrisy of the poets who withdrew from competition for the T.S. Eliot Poetry Prize because it was funded by a financial firm. “Hedge funds are at the very pointy end of capitalism” sniffed one self-described “anti-capitalist in full-on form.” The anarchist vegan correctly observed that the funder’s ... Poets vs. capitalists
The EU and jurisdictional competition for hedge fund regulation
The NYT reports: When he rejected a new European accord on Friday that would bind the continent ever closer, Prime Minister David Cameron seemingly sacrificed Britain’s place in Europe to preserve the pre-eminence of the City, London’s financial district. The question now is whether his stance will someday seem justified, even prescient. Mr. Cameron refused ... The EU and jurisdictional competition for hedge fund regulation
Krugman on private equity
Paul Krugman, writing in Thursday’s NYT, sees Romney as a real life version of Oliver Stone’s Gordon Gekko in the film Wall Street. He characterizes Romney and his private equity ilk as job-destroyers, and argues that they should be taxed (and presumably also regulated) accordingly. He contrasts this with the supposed position of the GOP ... Krugman on private equity
Lawyers as responsible business advisors
Katherine Franke argues that lawyers are partly responsible for the financial misdeeds protested by OWS (HT Leiter): Implicit in the OWS protests is a condemnation of an approach to lawyering that regards all legal rules simply as the price of misconduct discounted by the probability of enforcement* * * In recent years we have seen ... Lawyers as responsible business advisors
Decriminalizing agency costs
The WSJ reports on comments by former FBI official David Cardona’s on why there haven’t been more prosecutions of financial executives as a result of the recent financial crisis: “There’s been a realization and a more deliberate targeting by the Department of Justice before we launch criminally on some of these cases” * * * ... Decriminalizing agency costs
Filmmakers imagine finance
Margin Call is the best film to come out of the recent financial crisis. This is no polemic masquerading as a “documentary” (Inside Job) or good vs. evil melodrama (Money Never Sleeps). It is serious film, with superb acting, script, direction and photography, which uses the financial crisis as the realistic backdrop for a timeless ... Filmmakers imagine finance
The NYT on Romney @ Bain
A long front page article in today’s NYT tries to make political hay out of Romney’s time at private equity firm Bain Capital. The article supports the White House’s efforts to, as the article says, “frame Mr. Romney’s record at Bain as evidence that he would pursue slash and burn economics and that his business ... The NYT on Romney @ Bain
The uncorporate approach to poor earnings
Yesterday’s WSJ reported that hedge funds are facing possible investor redemption demands: As the year comes to a close, some investors say they are reviewing how their managers have performed through the recent volatility and are making decisions about whether to cash out of underperforming funds. Investors who want out before the end of the ... The uncorporate approach to poor earnings
The Bulldozer Solution to the Housing Crisis
My inaugural blog on two-sided markets did not elicit much reaction from TOTM readers. Perhaps it was too boring. In a desperate attempt to generate a hostile comment from at least one housing advocate, I have decided to advocate bulldozing homes in foreclosure as one (of several) means to relieve the housing crisis. Not with ... The Bulldozer Solution to the Housing Crisis
