Sky Blog
As Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen recently observed, the United States has not defaulted on its national debt since its founding in 1789, and we should not start now.[1] She also pointed out that Congress has raised the statutory ceiling …
In 2011, Peter Schweizer published a book, Throw Them All Out, exposing some questionable means by which politicians manage to increase their personal wealth 50 percent faster than the average American does.
Schweizer suggested that trading on material nonpublic …
Congressional critics of the agencies reviewing bank mergers have in recent months claimed that those agencies “rubber stamp” mergers and that merger review standards relating to antitrust are too lax. We believe those critics are misinformed.
Bank …
Senior congressional antitrust leaders on both sides of the Capitol are taking steps to transition a long-running investigation into competition practices in the technology sector into legislative action. Activity kicked off on Friday, June 11, when the House Judiciary Committee’s …
On his way out, President Trump sought to “protect Americans from overcriminalization” by trying to limit the criminal enforcement of regulatory offenses. Hostility to administrative crimes is growing at the Supreme Court too, in part as an outgrowth of concern …
Last week, the House of Representatives passed the “Insider Trading Prohibition Act” (“ITPA”).[1] Proponents are hailing it as a triumph of bipartisan cooperation. Conversely, critics are calling it the “Insider Trading Protection Act.” This is because the bill codifies …
On February 4, Senator Amy Klobuchar introduced the Competition and Antitrust Law Enforcement Reform Act (CALERA), which provides for wide-ranging changes to the U.S. antitrust laws.[1] CALERA follows the release of a report last year by the staff of …
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 …
A federal court recently held that there was no antitrust problem with AT&T purchasing Time Warner for $86 billion. In the judge’s view, this consolidation didn’t offend the merger law as it now is interpreted. Nor could many far-larger transactions …
For the past several years, Republican majorities in the House of Representatives and Senate have dictated the agenda of Congress. But Democrats will take control of the House in January 2019, thereby regaining the ability to control committee and subcommittee …
Professor John C. Coffee, Jr. of Columbia Law School speaks with John Metaxas (Columbia Law ’84) about insider trading law and his role on a new task force created to develop proposals for reform in this area. The task force …
In recent years, a new populist school of antitrust thinking has emerged, known as “Neo-Brandeisian” to its proponents and “hipster” to its detractors. There are varying formulations of this movement, but proponents generally point to the purported increase in economic …
A federal district court in California has become the latest court to hold that the 10-year statute of limitations under the Financial Institutions Reform, Recovery, and Enforcement Act of 1989 (“FIRREA”) for offenses “affecting a financial institution” extends to offenses …
On May 22, 2018, the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs held a hearing to mark up its draft proposed amendment to the Foreign Investment Risk Review Modernization Act (“FIRRMA”). Initially introduced on November 6, 2017, with strong …
It’s back. Congress is trying to kill class actions again. Last year, Representative Robert Goodlatte introduced a one-paragraph dagger, H.R. 1927, requiring that all class members’ damages be of “the same type and scope.” To many, this language meant that …
“What does Sarbanes-Oxley mean? That’s when two members of U.S. Congress fiddle and half a million accountants in Europe start dancing.”[1]
President Donald Trump pledged during his electoral campaign to repeal some of the reforms that came about …
With a Republican sweep of Congress and the executive branch, there will be a concerted effort this year to reform and restrain the current regulatory state. The incoming Trump Administration and Republican Congress have a number of options to repeal …
On September 8, the Federal Reserve, OCC and FDIC issued the long-expected report to Congress and the FSOC, as required under section 620 of the Dodd-Frank Act, regarding activities and investments of banks and their nonbank affiliates, which were defined …
After more than four years of congressional consideration of cyber issues, legislation to authorize companies to share cyber threat information has finally been enacted. On December 18, 2015, President Obama signed into law the omnibus federal government spending and tax …
The Securities and Exchange Commission has opened what the Washington Post calls a “new front” in its “escalating … crackdown on insider trading.” At the center of this new front are entities that trade securities based on government information. Unless …