Columbia Law School
Sky Blog
Events in the U.S. Treasury market (as well as the related repo market) over the past several years strongly suggest that the market for government securities suffers from inadequate levels of intermediation, liquidity, and transparency that in times of stress
U.S. Treasuries
SEC Chair Gensler on Proposed Rules for U.S. Treasuries Clearing
Today [September 14], the Commission will consider whether to propose standards for covered clearing agencies (also known as clearinghouses) regarding the clearance of certain trades involving U.S. Treasury securities. I am pleased to support these rules because, if adopted, they …
SEC Commissioner Peirce Dissents on Proposal to Amend Regulation ATS
SEC Chair Gensler Testifies Before U.S. House Committee on Financial Services
Good afternoon, Chairwoman Waters, Ranking Member McHenry, and members of the Committee. I’m honored to appear before you today for the second time as Chair of the Securities and Exchange Commission. As is customary, I will note that my views
Fragile Financial Regulation
As COVID-19 rocked financial markets in March 2020, the Treasury market failed to perform its role of maintaining financial stability. Unable to respond to the surge of investors liquidating their Treasury holdings to raise cash, the secondary market ground to …
Reforming the Macroprudential Regulatory Architecture in the United States
When the COVID-19 pandemic shuttered major economies in March 2020, it also wreaked havoc on financial markets. In the first few weeks of March, investment-grade corporate bonds lost roughly a fifth of their value, on par with the declines in …
The Myth of Risk Free Markets
Economies and markets operate on the assumption that U.S. debt securities (“Treasuries”) are risk-free. This means that the United States is expected to pay its debts. Also, Treasuries are supposed to trade easily and efficiently in secondary markets. Unsurprisingly, the …