On October 27th[1], the Fordham Journal of Corporate and Financial Law held its Annual Symposium entitled “What Would We Do Without Them: Whistleblowers in the Era of Sarbanes-Oxley and Dodd-Frank.” The Symposium featured a keynote speech from Ms. Jane Norberg, who heads the Office of the Whistleblower at the SEC, and included an in-depth panel discussion that addressed both the successes and the shortcomings of corporate whistleblowing in the complex legislative and regulatory framework created by the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 (“SOX”) and the Dodd-Frank[2] Act of 2010 (“Dodd-Frank”). The panelists were drawn from a broad range of careers within…
Author: Michael Greubel
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ABSTRACT Regulatory arbitrage is an indispensable element of regulatory competition as it provides regulatory substitutes for firms, and allows those firms to optimally benefit from such competition. This also increases the elasticity of demand for regulators and engenders accountability among them. Hedge funds, as paragons of exploiting regulatory discrepancies, are heavily criticized for thwarting efforts to address systemic risk. This Article investigates the arbitrage-seeking behavior of hedge funds in a globally-fragmented financial regulatory framework. Despite its benefits, regulatory arbitrage involves certain costs. Although market discipline can constrain these negative externalities, due to certain idiosyncratic features of the hedge fund industry,…
ABSTRACT In order to facilitate greater reform in energy markets, Dodd-Frank granted the CFTC wide-ranging powers as part of the greater mandate given to the CFTC in relation to OTC-swaps and the daily derivatives trading activity in commodities futures and options markets. As a result, Dodd-Frank subjected electricity market transactions—which traditionally occur under the oversight of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission in markets organized around independent system operators and regional transmission organizations—to the anti-manipulation prohibitions of the Commodity Exchange Act. Thus, differently from FERC’s regime, the post-Dodd-Frank statutory framework opened the way for enforcement of market discipline in electricity markets…
On November 2, 2017, President Donald Trump announced that he would nominate Federal Reserve governor Jerome Powell to replace Janet Yellen as Federal Reserve chair.[1] Trump is breaking with tradition, as it is the first time in nearly four decades that a new president has not asked the sitting Federal Reserve chair to stay on for another term.[2] With Yellen’s tenure at the Federal Reserve entering its twilight, one cannot help but review her stewardship of the central bank. During Yellen’s time in office, the Federal Reserve made many moves to shore up the American financial system. This past autumn,…
Patent protection has become increasingly desirable for corporations operating both nationally and abroad, because they grant a limited monopoly for patent holders to exclusively use, make, and sell their patented product or process to consumers.[1] Holding patents internationally also incentivizes foreign direct investment, because patents increase a corporation’s value.[2] A large part of this value stems from large royalties that corporations receive when granting third parties licenses to use, make or sell their patented product.[3] While anti-trust issues limit unequal bargaining power in contracts, corporate patent holders generally have large rights to limit and define the scope of its licenses…
Regulating financial markets has never been an easy task.[1] Regulating a market that consists of more than 20 independent countries certainly adds to the difficulty. The European Union (“EU”) exemplifies this problem well. As the world’s largest single market,[2] the EU strives to improve market efficiency and transaction safety just as any other single-country markets do. However, with its 28 member countries,[3] the complexity of the market makes this process particularly challenging for the EU.[4] Despite the difficulties it faces, the EU has recently made many efforts to build efficient and sound financial markets.[5] Markets in Financial Instruments Directive (“MiFID”),…
The Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act (the “Dodd-Frank Act” or the “Act”) is “a massive piece of financial reform legislation passed by the Obama administration in 2010 as a response to the financial crisis of 2008.”[1] It increased the required amounts banks must hold in reserve or have easy access to, heightened regulatory requirements on large banks, and introduced the Volcker Rule, which restricts the kinds of trades banks can perform.[2] The Act also founded the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau which “is vested with the authority to protect consumers from unfair, deceptive, or abusive financial products and…
Unbeknownst to many consumers, nearly all contracts for financial products and services contain a mandatory or voluntary pre-dispute arbitration clause.[1] This contract provision shifts disputes between consumers and financial companies from the courts into binding arbitration[2], ostensibly eliminating costly and frivolous lawsuits while providing a faster way to settle disputes. However, consumer advocates contend that mandatory arbitration clauses deprive customers of their legal rights,[3] because the damages from arbitration are generally significantly lower than those from litigation,[4] and consumers cannot appeal barring egregious misconduct.[5] Furthermore, customers with small claims can no longer join a class action suit, potentially causing them…
We’ve all heard about it, and we may have even used it, but many of us aren’t able to conceptualize the uses for virtual reality (“VR”) outside the entertainment and leisure industries (for example, video games). Only recently, VR has begun infiltrating the business and corporate world and shows no signs of slowing down. In fact, research concludes that by 2021, the business industry will surpass the leisure market as VR’s main use.[1] Although Augmented Reality (“AR”), a similar technology, has become popular recently, it is important to distinguish it from VR. AR inserts digital images and objects on to…