Sky Blog
Last week, the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision (Basel) proposed floors and other constraints on the use of internal models for calculating credit risk capital. The proposal aims to reduce complexity and variation in the calculation of regulatory capital among …
In a recent paper, I considered the strength of securities fraud charges asserted in several computer hacker cases filed in mid-2015.[1] Some of the defendants in the cases were the hackers who used computer methods to obtain unauthorized …
Hedge fund activism is the latest rave in corporate governance. Activist hedge funds build stakes in target firms in order to press management for various changes. When managers are uncooperative, they may just be forced to step down. Lest you …
Congress expanded the SEC’s ability to pursue enforcement actions in administrative proceedings in the Dodd Frank Act, bringing the agency’s use of proceedings before its own administrative law judges (ALJs) into the spotlight. A number of respondents have challenged the …
Just six months ago, when the Supreme Court’s current term opened in October, things looked bleak for the class action. Three major cases were on the Court’s docket, and each seemed handpicked as a vehicle for the Court’s conservatives to …
Options backdating? Who would be so arrogant to be still backdating their options? It has been exactly ten years since the Wall Street Journal’s exposé on “lucky CEOs.”[1] The intriguing question though is whether the executives could resist temptation …
The ‘Twin Peaks’ method of financial system regulation is widely regarded as the leading model for the regulation of a country’s financial system. Australia was the first to adopt the model in 1997, has been using it the longest, …
Ever since the SEC adopted Rule 10b5-1in 2000 the rule has been the subject of controversy. Some have questioned its validity, others have claimed that it has been abused. The commentary that follows addresses one suspected abuse of Rule 10b5-1, …
On January 7th 2016, Thomson Reuters and the National Venture Capital Association (NVCA) published their Exit Poll Report, which stated that in the U.S. 77 venture capital (VC)-backed initial public offerings (IPOs) raised $9.4 billion in 2015. Over …
The “meh” economy that accounts for some of the sourness in the American electorate is partly due to a design flaw in the US corporate governance system. One proffered diagnosis is that companies invest for the short term and are …
Columbia Law School is looking for an Editor-at-Large to oversee and administer the Columbia Law School Blue Sky Blog. The Blog, now completing its third year, has grown rapidly and become one of the most read sources of current information …
A widely-held view in financial economics is that CEOs holding a non-diversified wealth portfolio tied to the firm are likely to be more risk-averse when making corporate decisions than what diversified shareholders would prefer. To reduce this divergence in attitude …
Why do we memorialize some bargains in dozens of related contracts, rather than just one? Mergers and acquisitions deals, for example, are often formed through constellations of agreements that I call “unbundled bargains.” At the center of an unbundled bargain, …
The world of corporate governance is undergoing two intense, inter-related debates. One is a debate as to whether profit-maximization in the short term is really different from profit-maximization in the long term, and if so whether American corporations are currently …
Regulators seem to think so. In the Dodd-Frank Act, policymakers made an unprecedented move towards using securities regulation to address issues unrelated to the Securities and Exchange Commission’s (“SEC”) core mission of protecting investors and maintaining the fair and efficient …
To ensure compliance with disclosure and accounting requirements, the SEC periodically reviews reporting companies’ filings, including the Form 10-K. While the SEC is required to review the filings of every reporting company at least once every three years, it may …
Herd behavior is a widely used notion met in different contexts and disciplines, from neurology and zoology to sociology, psychology, economics and finance. In economics and finance the term herd behavior usually suggests the process where agents tend to imitate …
Today, in addition to our usual offering, we present three student posts from the Columbia Business Law Review:
Culture is a potent force in shaping individual and group behavior, yet it has received scant attention in the context of financial risk management and the recent financial crisis. In my paper, The Gordon Gekko Effect: The Role of Culture …
In recent years, the stockholder’s appraisal remedy in Delaware has transformed from a little-noted feature of stock ownership to a potent option for dissenting shareholders. It’s also become a topic of heated debate. In our prior work, we have …