Sky Blog
Contract formation in commercial transactions can be an expensive and intricate process involving multiple stages and players, as well as significant investments in expertise and information. In complex asset purchases, leases, corporate acquisitions, or venture financing transactions, to name just …
Existing research provides limited insight into what draws the attention of tax authorities to public information and how that information is used in the process of examining corporate tax positions. For publicly traded firms in the U.S., the Internal Revenue …
Bill Gates, founder of software giant Microsoft, has suggested that robots be taxed, with the revenue generated used to educate and train the U.S. labor force. While Amazon’s Alexa has her own opinion (more on that in a moment), commentators …
Data standardization – the process of developing and implementing rules for how data are described and recorded – offers significant benefits for financial firms and regulators. Nonetheless, the topic has received only scant attention from academics, and regulatory efforts to …
Clemenceau was right.[1] Reforming a profession cannot be left to the professionals. A cascade of auditing scandals — in the U.K., the U.S., Europe, and South Africa — has convinced many that reform is necessary. The political reaction has …
Can social media help firms improve communication with investors? In a recent paper, I argue that social media communication can give a firm an advantage over competitors in attracting attention to earnings announcements and lead to stronger price reaction to …
The credit bull market finally exhibited signs of fragility in the fourth quarter of 2018, putting the brakes on what had seemed poised to be another banner year for corporate borrowers. The skies may yet clear, but for savvy borrowers …
A number of recent news stories have recounted the quick and dramatic changes that activist hedge funds trigger in the companies they target. In the Atlantic magazine, for example, a 2016 article describes DuPont’s decision to cut 10 percent of …
Do U.S. companies focus too much on short-term profits at the expense of long-term investments, profits, and growth? There is considerable debate among academics, practitioners, and politicians about the relevance of short-termism, its possible sources, and potential mechanisms to mitigate …
The unnerving events of fall 2008 removed all doubt that investment banks and other nonbank financial firms can propagate systemic risk and endanger the world’s financial system. In response, Congress instituted a robust system for regulating systemic risk posed by …
December 2017 marked a milestone in the short history of virtual currency. On Friday, December 1, 2017, the Chicago Mercantile Exchange Inc. (CME) and the CBOE Futures Exchange (CFE) self-certified new contracts for cash-settled bitcoin futures products. The self-certification process …
On October 30, 2018, the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (collectively, the agencies) jointly invited comment on a proposed regulation that, if adopted, …
One of the mysteries in life is how different jurisdictions can be faced with the same legal problem and manage to come up with the same wrong answer. Case in point. Both English and American contract law hold that if …
On October 18, federal regulators released the largest U.S. insurance group, Prudential Financial, Inc., from enhanced government oversight. Prudential had been the last remaining systemically important financial institution (SIFI)—a designation Congress created in the Dodd-Frank Act for nonbank financial companies …
We have recently seen an increase in contentious disputes, some public and many not, between companies and their debt investors. Clashes between borrowers and their lenders are as old as debt itself, but what we are seeing now is something …
Accounting rule makers have long debated whether companies should recognize intangible assets on their balance sheets. At the heart of this debate is whether recognized values can predict future income and cash flows, or whether the high degree of measurement …
Credit ratings provide information regarding a company’s default probability. Ratings are relied upon extensively in regulation and private contracting and play a crucial role in the functioning of the capital markets. However, since the major credit rating agencies (CRAs) operate …
Identity is fundamental in finance. At a time when huge TechFins like Amazon are making inroads into the financial services industry, major questions are arising as to the most effective methods of customer identification and meeting Know Your Customer obligations …
Equity markets are an important source of capital financing for firms, particularly in the United States. These large, liquid markets channel capital from savers to firms and facilitate corporate investment by distributing risks among many smaller investors. There is concern, …
The private equity market is more competitive than ever. Target company multiples have skyrocketed due to both a robust strategic acquisition market, and stiff competition from PE buyers as they vie with one another to deploy $1 trillion in dry …