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Finance & Economics
Sullivan & Cromwell Discusses FSOC Changes to Nonbank SIFI-Designation Guidance
On December 4, 2019, the Financial Stability Oversight Council (the “Council”) voted unanimously to finalize amendments to its interpretive guidance (the “Final Guidance”) on designating nonbank financial companies as “systemically important financial institutions” (“SIFIs”).…
Do Private Equity Managers Raise Funds on (Sur)real Returns?
The private equity industry has become the target of calls for more regulation, with critics and academics concerned that net asset values (NAVs) are inflated around periods of fundraising, particularly in the case of low-reputation funds. These calls are predicated …
Reaching for Yield and the Diabolic Loop in a Monetary Union
One of the repercussions of the housing market collapse in the U.S. in 2007 was global anxiety about excess leverage, debt repayment, and overall credit conditions. Risk-pricing levels increased abruptly for highly indebted countries, making new borrowing to refinance debt …
Insider Trading and Macroeconomic Risk
In a new article, I use network theory to show that there is a hidden link between insider trading and macroeconomic risk. I suggest that current laws on insider trading increase the level of macroeconomic risk for the economy, and …
Fed Governor Discusses Why Climate Change Matters for Monetary Policy and Financial Stability
I want to thank my colleagues at the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, especially Mary Daly, Galina Hale, Òscar Jordà, and Glenn Rudebusch, for organizing this research conference.1 The presentations today provide important insights into the many important
Stablecoins in Cryptoeconomics: From Initial Coin Offerings to Central Bank Digital Currencies
In a recent article, I highlight the links among initial coin offerings (ICOs), cryptocurrencies, stablecoins, and central bank digital currencies (CBDCs). Although these entities exist in different contexts (securities law and capital formation, payment systems, monetary policy), they are intertwined …
Improving Economic Policies for the American Territories
On October 15, 2019, the U.S. Supreme Court heard oral arguments in Financial Oversight and Management Board for Puerto Rico v. Aurelius Investment, a case that centers on the constitutionality of the appointment process for the members of the …
Welcome to Vilnius: Regulatory Competition in the EU Market for E-Money
If you google “Lithuania e-money,” the auto-fill function will suggest that you search for ”Lithuania e-money license.” If you accept the tip, the first result will be Ecovis, which describes itself as “the most experienced finance institution and FinTech licensing …
Does Litigation Encourage or Deter Real Earnings Management?
Securities class actions may deter financial misreporting and flawed disclosure, but how effective are they at deterring managers from taking actions that sacrifice long-term value for higher profits? In a recent paper, we uncover a novel mechanism that extends the …
Corporate Behavior and the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act
How has the U.S. Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 changed corporate behavior? In addition to reducing the corporate income tax rate to a flat 21 percent from a high of 35 percent, the TCJA changed other important rules …
Exequity Discusses Valuing Amazon
It is widely accepted among investors that compensation committees should align executive pay with performance in part by using incentive metrics that contribute directly to shareholder value. For this reason, it is common for incentive metrics to overlap with performance …
Discontinuation of LIBOR
Global financial markets are preparing for the phasing out of the London interbank offered rate, or LIBOR, with the loan, derivatives, securities, and bond markets most affected. As of mid-2018, about $400 trillion worth of financial contracts referenced LIBOR in …
Stock Repurchases and the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act
On December 22, 2017, President Trump signed the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA), which is the largest gross tax cut in American history (cutting more than $5.5 trillion in taxes over 10 years); the act took effect on January …
White & Case Discusses Cannabis Banking Bill’s Implications for Financial Services
On September 25, 2019, the US House of Representatives (“House”) passed, by a vote of 321 to 103, the Secure and Fair Enforcement Banking Act (“SAFE Banking Act”), bipartisan legislation designed to secure and regulate banking services to the expanding …
The Valuation and Governance Bubbles of Silicon Valley
The rise and fall of The We Company IPO bubble is one of those events that, like the subprime mortgage bubble that preceded the financial crisis, calls for an examination of market structures that could have produced such a precipitous …
The Seller’s Curse and IPO Pricing
Benchmark Capital partner and legendary tech investor Bill Gurley recently declared on CNBC, “It took me two decades to figure this out, but I think Silicon Valley’s been on the bad end of a bad joke for about four decades …
Exequity Discusses 2019 Trends in Companies’ Use of Total Shareholder Return
Faced with pressures from varied constituencies, compensation committees striving to demonstrate links between pay and performance regularly consider market-based performance measures such as relative total shareholder return[1] (RTSR). Companies reviewing the mix and designs of their long-term incentives (or …
How Do Auditors Determine What’s Material?
U.S. public company audits all include a simple step to determine whether an amount is large or significant for their clients, otherwise known as materiality. This decision influences the planning and procedures of the other facets of the audit as …
Evidence of Systemic Risk from Major Cybersecurity Breaches
In general economics, “asymmetric information” refers to information about a transaction in which one party knows more than another party, to the potential benefit of the former at the expense of the latter. An example often occurs when consumers and …