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The collection of all scholarly commentary on law, economics, and more

Showing archive for:  “Financial Regulation”

Macey on Anticapitalist Claptrap, Private Equity, and Politics

Jonathan Macey (Yale) defends private equity against nonsensical attacks from Newt Gingrich, Jon Huntsman and others (Rick Perry is spared by Macey, but not by Bainbridge) in today’s Wall Street Journal: Mitt Romney’s candidacy is subjecting the entire private-equity industry—where Mr. Romney spent most of his business career—to vicious attacks by journalists and several of ... Macey on Anticapitalist Claptrap, Private Equity, and Politics

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