Showing archive for: “Insurance”
The Demarcus Cousins Saga Ends
We’ve been following the Demarcus Cousins saga. For those who haven’t, Cousins is a blue chip high school basketball recruit who has been bargaining hard with the University of Alabama-Birmingham (UAB) over signing his National Letter of Intent — the letter that commits a player to attend the university and imposes the penalty of giving ... The Demarcus Cousins Saga Ends
The AIG Bailout
A draft of my new paper entitled The AIG Bailout is now up on SSRN. Here’s the abstract: On February 28, 2008, American International Group, Inc. (AIG), the largest insurance company in the United States, announced 2007 earnings of $6.20 billion or $2.39 per share. Its stock closed that day at $50.15 per share. Less ... The AIG Bailout
Wanna Keep This Economic Mess to a Minimum? Honor Contracts.
New York Times business columnist Joe Nocera insists that current economic conditions call for courts to ignore carefully negotiated contracts between sophisticated business entities. Arguing that Dow Chemical Company should be free to walk away from its agreement to buy specialty chemical manufacturer Rohm & Haas, Mr. Nocera contends that “maybe, just maybe, deals that ... Wanna Keep This Economic Mess to a Minimum? Honor Contracts.
College Athlete Drives a Hard Bargain Over Letter of Intent
Seth Davis (Sports Illustrated) has an interesting column on the intersection of two issues I hold near and dear: contracts and college basketball. For those unfamiliar, college recruits in football, basketball and some other sports sign National Letters of Intent (NLI) committing themselves to spend at least one full year at the college. The NLI ... College Athlete Drives a Hard Bargain Over Letter of Intent
Antitrust under President Obama: "I will direct my administration to reinvigorate antitrust enforcement"
Danny Sokol makes some predictions about Post-Obama antitrust, and about my disappointment in what he perceives to be the likely direction of antitrust policy in the Obama administration: 1. increased challenges of mergers and monopolization cases, especially at DOJ 2. more consumer protection work at the FTC with a push to more expansive consumer rights ... Antitrust under President Obama: "I will direct my administration to reinvigorate antitrust enforcement"
Posner’s Definition of a "Private Sector" Response
Many observers have been shocked by the level of government involvement in the U.S. economy in recent days. Among other things, the government has (1) bailed out an insurance company that got “too big to fail,” (2) decided to spend up to $700 billion buying the distressed assets of financial firms (and apparently directly investing ... Posner’s Definition of a "Private Sector" Response
Everything you wanted to know about the Citigroup-Wachovia-Wells Fargo Debacle
Coverage of the Citigroup-Wachovia-Wells Fargo situation has revealed many fundamental misunderstandings of various aspects of the debacle, such that I wanted to offer my thoughts on a few points that have been curiously misstated: 1. A discussion of “fiduciary outs” is a bit of a non sequitur here. Across the ‘net, legal experts have been ... Everything you wanted to know about the Citigroup-Wachovia-Wells Fargo Debacle
Exclusivity Agreements, the Bailout Act, and Section 126(c)
The Wachovia-Citigroup-Wells Fargo dance continues. Now, however, it seems to involve confusion about Section 126(c) of the newly adopted Emergency Economic Stabilization Act (“EESA”). Allow me to take a stab at clarifying. To bring everyone up to speed, last weekend, after Lehman was allowed to go belly-up and Washington Mutual was seized by the FDIC, ... Exclusivity Agreements, the Bailout Act, and Section 126(c)
The unfortunate return of the "strange, red-haired, bearded, one-eyed, man with a limp"
The DC Circuit has reversed the district court in the Whole Foods case. The opinion is here. [HT: Danny Sokol] As regular readers know, we have covered this case extensively on this blog, including most recently this great, lengthy post from Thom on the proper standard of review. I wouldn’t be surprised if Thom is disappointed with the ... The unfortunate return of the "strange, red-haired, bearded, one-eyed, man with a limp"
Hell No, Don't Let Them Go!
My colleague and fellow UCLA alumnus Thomas Hazlett and I have published an op-ed in the Chicago Tribune proposing a partial solution, partially inspired by the early exit of Kevin Love from our beloved Bruin basketball squad, to the problem of early exit by potential NBA draftees. We note that the problem is the NCAA ... Hell No, Don't Let Them Go!
Regulate in Haste, Repent in Leisure: Reforming the Financial Regulatory Scheme
Today, Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson is set to present some comments about the Treasury’s Blueprint for Financial Regulatory Reform, released on Saturday. (A summary of the proposal is here.) The summary of the proposal report provides: “In this report, Treasury presents a series of “short-term” and “intermediate-term” recommendations that could immediately improve and reform the ... Regulate in Haste, Repent in Leisure: Reforming the Financial Regulatory Scheme
Amateurism Is What We Do!
Yesterday, the NCAA settled a horizontal price fixing class action case initiated by former basketball and football players (here, here, and here). It’s nice to see the student-athletes get something, but I wish they would have received more. The suit deals with the difference between the NCAA’s grant-in-aid (GIA) cap and the full cost of ... Amateurism Is What We Do!
