Sky Blog
In 2010, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) issued guidance that requires companies to tell shareholders how they may be harmed by proposed energy regulations, unless the company determines that the regulation will be unlikely to affect the company.[1]…
A watershed moment is coming for shareholder activism and corporate governance generally, as the proxy contest brought by Trian Management Fund, seeking effectively to break up DuPont, enters its final stages (with the vote being less than a month away). …
On 18 February 2015, the European Commission published a green paper on building a Capital Markets Union, alongside two complementary consultation papers on a revised EU framework for securitisation and a review of the Prospectus Directive. The proposals are part …
On April 1st, President Obama issued an Executive Order authorizing sanctions against persons found to have engaged in or supported significant malicious cyber activities. Under the order, the Secretary of the Treasury is authorized to designate and impose sanctions on …
Thank you, Hal [Scott], for that kind introduction. I apologize for not being able to address you in person. Back in 2013, I opened a speech to the American Academy in Berlin with a bit of German.[1] While I …
Two recent developments could have significant consequences for the exchange-traded fund (ETF) industry and the regulatory landscape for such products. The first development is a proposed rule change to create “generic listing standards” for actively managed ETFs. The second is …
Our study examines whether gender disparity exists disproportionately along the conservative and liberal geographical division. We investigate whether female board representation depends on the location of company headquarters in “red” states (which tend to vote for Republican candidates) or in …
On April 1, 2015, the US Securities and Exchange Commission filed its first whistleblower protection case involving confidentiality obligations imposed on employees.[1] The SEC charged Houston-based technology and engineering firm KBR Inc. with violating Rule 21F-17, which prohibits all …
The last twenty-five years have brought about widespread changes in the organizational forms through which individuals organize economic activity. Once momentum built, the creation of hybrid entities such as limited liability partnerships, limited liability companies and even limited liability limited …
Questions of corporate governance and responsibility have been heightened by a number of corporate scandals and other events leading up to the financial crisis of 2008. In the meantime, philosophers and lawyers have been questioning the very meaning of corporate …
Following a familiar historical pattern, policy responses to the latest global financial crisis and subsequent economic and political dysfunction can be divided into three sequenced but overlapping phases. The first phase was a period of “wartime”-style emergency measures hastily fashioned …
Europe is now engaged in an experiment unprecedented in world history: can independent nations – even if linked by significant legal, economic, and social ties – merge their financial systems into a true banking union? Policymakers are working diligently to …
“Poverty should be eradicated, not seen as a money-making opportunity.”[1]
–Mohamed Yunus, founder of the Grameen Bank,
and winner of the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize.
Social finance makes a compelling promise, to make the world a better place by …
The popularity of stock options as a compensatory tool has been waning at public companies for years. While there have been a number of factors that have contributed to their decline over the past decade or so, three chief concerns …
On March 25, 2015, the Securities and Exchange Commission voted unanimously to adopt final rules to implement the rulemaking mandate of Title IV of the JOBS Act by adopting amendments to Regulation A. In December 2013, the SEC had released …
In the Great Recession’s morality play, unscrupulous financiers on the inside of the mortgage industry exploited ordinary folk on the outside. Predatory lenders pushed unsuspecting homebuyers into teaser rate mortgages that seemed affordable but were in fact ticking time bombs. …
Earlier this week, the SEC filed an administrative action against Lynn Tilton and her Patriarch Partners funds. See In re Lynn Tilton et al. CNBC has reported that the SEC is “accusing Patriarch of hiding the poor performance of …
The question of corporate rights has garnered much attention in academic as well as lay circles since the Supreme Court’s decisions in Citizens United v. FEC and Burwell v. Hobby Lobby Stores, Inc.[1] Yet the status of incorporated …
It is an honor to speak at the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta’s 20th Financial Markets Conference, and I am grateful to President Lockhart and the organizers for inviting me to do so.[1] This evening I would like to …
Asymmetric information is an important characteristic of the securitization market, where products exhibit complex architecture and information about the underlying credit portfolio is highly opaque. In order to overcome these information asymmetries, issuers use rating agencies who act as agents …