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Corporate & Securities Law

Truth on the Market

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Last Entry: April 01, 2011 at 00:51:38

Morons of the world, unite!

Posted on February 24, 2010
My wife makes me subscribe to the New York Times, and occasionally it is worth it. Take this recent essay by Roger Cohen. It is difficult to get past the faux-intellectual babble — “As it is, everyone?s shrieking their lonesome anger, burrowing deeper into stress, gazing at their own images” ? but if you can resist laughing or immolating yourself to escape Cohen’s drivel, you’ll get to a tremendous claim...

Here Come the Price Controls

Posted on February 23, 2010
As Todd mentioned, the Obama Administration has released its latest plan for regulating (and mandating) health insurance. The new plan includes a novel element: the creation of a seven-member Health Insurance Rate Authority that would issue an annual schedule of “reasonable” rate increases...

The Party of No

Posted on February 23, 2010
In the comments to my last post on Mr. Obama’s health proposals (which have gotten worse — price controls!?), “Chris” and I have been having a back-and-forth about what he characterizes as a uniquely Republican disease — obstructionism...

Rakoff, part deux

Posted on February 23, 2010
Judge Jed Rakoff just approved a settlement between the SEC and Bank of America in a dispute about the disclosures made to shareholders during Bank of America’s acquisition of Merrill Lynch. This is significant becasue Rakoff causes a minor kerfuffle last year when he rejected a similar deal (although for only $33 million in fines compared with the $150 million agreed to today)...

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Mr. Obama, go to “China”

Posted on February 22, 2010
The president revealed his last-ditch plan to reform our healthcare system today. (Funny the plan is revealed before the “bipartisan” meeting about health care being trumpeted for political reasons.) One thing I was hoping to see in the proposal is missing — an increase in the eligibility age for Medicare (and, while we are at it, Social Security)...

Interchange Fees Symposium E-Book

Posted on February 21, 2010
Over at the International Center for Law and Economics website we’ve posted a link to a pdf e-book version of the collected content (including both posts and comments) from our recent “Interchange Fees and the Law and Economics of Credit Cards” symposium...

Government ownership of land

Posted on February 18, 2010
I love our national parks as much as the next guy (probably more, having visited every major one and dozens of smaller ones, and loving every minute of nearly every visit), but can someone tell me why the federal government owns so much of our country? Some maps tell the story...

Some thoughts on the Olympics

Posted on February 18, 2010
I just love the Olympics. Exhibit A for me was the face of American skier Lindsey Vonn in the starting gate last night before her gold-medal-winning race. Vonn was the overwhelming favorite, having proved herself the greatest skier in the world for the past few years...

Thoughts on “The Small Bill”

Posted on February 17, 2010
Writing in the Weekly Standard, Jeffrey Anderson offers an alternative to Obamacare (or should we call it Pelosireidcare?). The seven provisions in the “Small Bill” seem sensible to this nonexpert. Allowing insurance to be sold interstate is likely to bring down costs and improve service — wouldn’t some competition from Geico Health Insurance be a [...

Should Antitrust Education Be Mandatory (for Law Firm Recruiters and Law School Placement Directors)?

Posted on February 15, 2010
A few years back, my colleague Royce Barondes and I wrote an essay entitled Should Antitrust Education Be Mandatory (for Law School Administrators)? The essay, whose title was intended to be tongue-in-cheek, argued that the members of the Association of American Law Schools were engaged in an illegal conspiracy to limit competition for professor [...

What caused the crisis?

Posted on February 13, 2010
Writing in the Wall Street Journal, Alan Greenspan, who was at the helm of the Fed during the relevant time period, tells us (surprise!) it wasn’t the Fed’s fault. Greenspan notes that short-term interest rates, which the Fed controls, are only loosely correlated with long-term interest rates, which are most relevant to real estate investing [...

The Environmental Responsibility of Business? Make Profit!

Posted on February 12, 2010
That’s the punchline of a recent paper by Pierre Desrochers (U Toronto). Pierre has written some interesting papers on a range of topics related to economic development, technological innovation, and the intersection of business and the environment...

Do motives matter?

Posted on February 11, 2010
I have the pleasure of co-leading a seminar this quarter with distinguished philosopher Brian Leiter. The seminar, entitled “Capitalism: For and Against,” (take a guess which side I’m on), meets periodically at either my home or Brian’s...

Competition in agriculture redux (cross-posted)

Posted on February 11, 2010
Antitrust & Competition Policy Blog is hosting a symposium on Competition in Agriculture.� Mike’s post from yesterday is available here. � So far in the symposium there are also posts by Ron Cass (BU Law), Jeff Harrison (Florida Law), Peter Carstensen (Wisconsin Law), and Kyle Stiegert (Wisconsin Applied Econ)...

An Interesting Patent Holdup Decision out of the Central District of CA: Vizio v. Funai

Posted on February 11, 2010
Readers may recall we highlighted the Vizio v. Funai complaint about a year ago, in large part because it involved antitrust and standard setting issues.� The case involves allegations that Funai breached a FRAND commitment, and thus, is an important decision in the debate over the appropriate scope of Section 2 in cases involving alleged [...

A Defense of the Insurance Industry Antitrust Exemption?

Posted on February 10, 2010
The subject of antitrust exemptions has been an oft-discussed topic here at TOTM (see, e.g. here and here).� In the latter of those two links I was somewhat critical of the DOJ for taking a neutral stance on the insurance industry exemption, which has now become rather wrapped up in the health care reform debate...

Competition in Agriculture, redux (cross-posted)

Posted on February 10, 2010
Antitrust & Competition Policy Blog is hosting a symposium on Competition in Agriculture. So far today, there are posts by Ron Cass (BU Law), Jeff Harrison (U of Florida Law), and me.� Additional posts should be forthcoming from Christina Bohannan (U...

Amazon vs. Macmillan: It’s all about control

Posted on February 07, 2010
The Amazon vs. Macmillan controversy has been beaten to a pulp in the blogosphere.� See Megan McArdle, John Scalzi, Joshua Gans, Virginia Postrel, Lynne Kiesling, Lynne Kielsing and Lynne Kiesling, among others.� Pulp or no (get it? It’s a book/e-book pun), I haven’t seen anyone hit squarely on what I think is the crux of [...

More Destructive Nannyism in Chicago

Posted on February 05, 2010
I’ve tiraded several times about the city of Chicago’s unbridled paternalism. From smoking bans, to proposed restrictions on trans-fats, to censorship of theatrical depictions of smoking, to the confiscation of locally produced meat products, the powers-that-be seem determined to treat residents of the City of Broad Shoulders as though they’re a bunch of helpless [...

Posner cites Wright

Posted on February 05, 2010
I’m sure it’s an honor just to be nominated. A recent opinion from Judge Posner cites our very own Josh Wright (Joshua D. Wright & Todd J. Zywicki, ?Three Problematic Truths About the Consumer Financial Protection Agency Act of 2009,? Lombard Street, Sept...

Brad DeLong is an ethics-free partisan ass

Posted on February 05, 2010
Steve Horwitz writes a short, lay piece on crowding out and job creation. Brad “smacks down” Steve Horowitz. Russ Roberts amplifies Horwitz with a nice point about the dangers of aggregation. David Henderson notes that Brad misses what Horwitz is really saying...

Wright’s Right on Posner

Posted on February 05, 2010
A couple of days ago, Josh wrote to correct the record on Judge Posner’s antitrust views. AAG Varney had implied that Posner has changed his views on antitrust and now favors a more interventionist antitrust policy. Josh helpfully pointed us to Posner’s own remarks, which do not support Ms...

Delaware and the American Association of Law Schools

Posted on February 05, 2010
I had the opportunity to present Treasury Inc.: How the Bailout Reshapes Corporate Theory and Practice at the American Association of Law Schools conference session on Business Associations in January. �It was an engaging experience that I found particularly fun as I am from Louisiana and used to live in New Orleans...

Debunking the “pro-business” rationale for Section 5 enforcement

Posted on February 04, 2010
Repeating claims he made in his statement in Intel, Chairman Leibowitz in a recent interview in the Wall Street Journal has this to say about stepped-up Section 5 enforcement at the FTC: The courts have pared back plaintiffs’ rights in antitrust cases...

Correcting the Record: AAG Varney and the Chicago School’s Premature “Retirement”

Posted on February 03, 2010
Geoff recently highlighted AAG Christine Varney’s closing remarks at the Horizontal Merger Guidelines workshop and was fairly critical.�� Thom intervened to suggest that we at TOTM, while fairly critical of the agencies from time to time, also give credit where it is due — highlighting AAG Varney’s RPM article...

More on the Russian Retail Trade Law

Posted on February 02, 2010
I’ve published (in Russian) an op-ed in Vedomosti, a Russian newspaper that is a joint project of the Financial Times and the Wall Street Journal.�� It is based, at least in part, on this blog post.� The op-ed focuses on the US experience over the last decade in evaluating shelf space contracts and the likely [...

Meese & Richman on Ticketmaster/ Live Nation

Posted on February 02, 2010
Alan Meese (William and Mary) and Barak Richman (Duke), have an op-ed over at the Huffington Post on the Ticketmaster Live nation merger and settlement.� They frame the DOJ decision to approve the merger as a victory of principle over politics and economic populism...

Intepreting Empirical Evidence

Posted on February 01, 2010
So, there is some new evidence that state laws banning cell phone usage does not reduce accidents (HT: Orin Kerr).� The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety study has gotten some attention in the media.� See, for example, this NYT piece discussing the researchers “surprise” that they did not find the result they were looking for...

Some sense on stimulus and jobs

Posted on January 29, 2010
Via Ted Frank, I have been perusing e21: Economic Policies for the 21st Century.� It seems to be a site run by some Republican policy wonks, and includes contributions from some excellent academics including Charlie Calomiris, Ed Lazear and Phil Swagel...

You Don’t See This Everyday

Posted on January 28, 2010
From a library bookshelf in Kiev, Ukraine:

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