Sky Blog
On July 27 of this year, Andrew Bailey, chief executive of the UK Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), delivered a speech in which he questioned the sustainability of the London Interbank Offered Rate (LIBOR) in its current form. The FCA has …
On August 3, the Federal Reserve (Fed) proposed for comment a new supervisory rating system to assess the safety and soundness of Large Financial Institutions (LFIs).1 This is the first change to the Fed’s supervisory rating system since the …
Since the CFPB issued its Arbitration Rule in July, most commentators have focused on ways the rule may be blocked from going into effect. Chief among these is the possibility that Congress will vote to overturn the rule under the …
On August 3, the Federal Reserve (Fed) proposed for comment supervisory guidance for boards
of directors of Fed-supervised institutions1 (i.e., Board Effectiveness (BE) guidance). The proposed BE guidance is the result of a multi-year review by the Fed of …
An over-the-counter (OTC) market and an open limit order book (LOB) market are the two common mechanisms for organizing financial markets. An OTC is a decentralized market, where trades occur only through dealers. The dealers’ quotes are not fully transparent …
The recently released public sections of the 2017 resolution plans submitted by the eight US global systemically important banks (G-SIBs)1 provide a unique window into the banks’ resolution planning efforts that have developed over the last five years. Notably, …
With the recent release of the Trump administration’s tax plan, discussions of tax “reform,” or at least tax cuts, are once again at the center of American law and politics. Although the president’s tax plan is short on details, it …
Congress, the U.S. Department of the Treasury (“Treasury”), and countless legislators have criticized corporate inversions — mergers designed to help American companies lower their tax bills by moving overseas — since McDermott International completed the first one in 1982. Nearly …
With trillions of dollars in assets, sovereign wealth funds (SWFs) play a major role in financial markets around the world. With billions (and perhaps trillions) of dollars’ worth of equity investments around the world, the investment behavior of SWFs is …
The fluidity of labor markets depends on the ease with which one side of the market can fulfill the needs of the other: whether workers can find employment that suits their skills and firms can find adequate substitutes for workers …
The Situation: The IRS had discontinued issuing private rulings on certain transactions related to spin-offs, leaving companies to wonder if favorable tax treatment was likely.
The Action: Recent IRS guidance announced the resumption of private rulings in transactions …
There is a longstanding and growing public debate about the costs and benefits of automation. Earlier this year, Bill Gates argued that robots who take human jobs should pay taxes. Mark Zuckerberg recently warned the graduating class at Harvard University …
In a new research paper, we consider the impact of a group of new entrants into financial services and regulation. These new entrants include technology, e-commerce, social media, and telecommunications companies with often large pre-existing bases of non-financial services customers. …
I want to thank Neel Kashkari for launching the Opportunity and Inclusive Growth Institute and for inviting me to join the deliberations of this distinguished group today [May 22]. This new Institute is another great example of how individual Reserve …
In 2001, hedge fund manager Cliff Asness co-wrote a famous paper, Do Hedge Funds Hedge?1 Sixteen years later, amid significant changes in the industry, it’s worth asking, Are hedge funds worth as much as they say they are? And …
The news media are an important source of information for the U.S. capital markets, especially when drawing attention to questionable behavior of corporate executives. Coverage can, however, pressure companies into making dubious financial decisions like emphasizing short-term earnings over long-term …
How can regulators best respond to financial crises? In a forthcoming article in the Duke Law Journal, I show how a law-and-economics framework can guide regulators’ responses. There are two kinds of remedies for failing to comply with a law: …
Tax planning by multinational enterprises (MNEs) is estimated to generate a worldwide loss of corporate tax revenues of between $100 billion and $240 billion. U.S.-based MNEs alone are believed to retain a total of $2 trillion in earnings outside the …
It is a pleasure to be at the Hoover Institution again. I was privileged to be a Visiting Scholar here from 1981 to 1982. In addition, many of the researchers and practitioners with whom I have discussed monetary policy over …