Sky Blog
The greatest single-day decline in the stock market this century, widespread fear and uncertainty, shuttered schools, an end to large gatherings everywhere from NBA games to the South by Southwest festival – these are just a few of the signs …
If stocks were still traded in pits, stock exchanges would have been shut down in China, Korea, Italy and possibly elsewhere a while ago. A bunch of men shouting and feverishly passing each other sheets of papers would have …
Modern finance is fast moving, extremely complex, and contributes to pervasive unknowns. Yet the processes governing how finance is regulated are typically slow, highly deliberative, and often reflect deeply ingrained and incredibly optimistic assumptions about our ability to understand the …
In recent years there has been a surge in research that explores the sources of variation in corporate tax avoidance. Following this stream of research, tax scholars have begun to acknowledge the potential effect of ownership patterns on firms’ tax …
Several decades of research have found that capital structure and financing decisions are influenced not only by market frictions such as taxes and bankruptcy costs but also by conflicts between managers and shareholders. In a new paper, we test whether …
Advancements in financial technology (FinTech) are revolutionizing product offerings across the financial services industry. As of 2018, more than $50 billion had been invested in 2,500 companies that are redefining the way in which individuals participate in financial markets (Accenture, …
Recent years have witnessed a considerable growth of passive funds at the expense of active funds. This trend picked up in 2019, a year that saw passive funds surpass active funds in total assets under management. The continuous decline of …
To assist legal and compliance officers of financial institutions, this memorandum summarizes key recent developments in criminal prosecutions and regulatory enforcement actions involving financial institutions during November and December 2019.
Among the significant matters and trends:
Bloomberg’s multi-talented Matt Levine recently wrote:
One of my favorite recent stories in bond documents is the one about how private equity firms changed a sentence in bond documents, which usually says that companies can’t make restricted payments if “a …
The Financial Stability Oversight Council’s (FSOC) recently revised guidelines (the 2019 Guidelines)[1] on how it will identify and address financial stability risks are a major shift from the guidelines it issued in the immediate aftermath of …
2019 was another strong year for corporate borrowers, continuing a decade-long run marked by historically low interest rates and strong credit markets. Over the last 10 years, total U.S. corporate bonds outstanding rose from $6 trillion to nearly $10 trillion, …
The progress and promise realized and presented by artificial intelligence in finance has been remarkable. It has made finance cheaper, faster, larger, more accessible, more profitable, and more efficient in many ways. Yet for all the significant progress and promise …
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”).…
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 …
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 …
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 …
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
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 …
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 …