SEC

Will “Portfolio Primacy” Throw a Monkey Wrench in Elon Musk’s Plans to Acquire Twitter?

The SEC's definition of fiduciary duty allows institutional shareholders to vote against Elon Musk's Twitter takeover bid thanks to portfolio primacy.

The Non-Revolving Door Between the SEC and the Plaintiffs’ Bar

Nowhere does the “revolving door” spin more quickly than at the Securities and Exchange Commission. But, even at the SEC, not all...

It is Not Just Small Investors Who Will Be Silenced Thanks to SEC’s New Rules

Shareholder proposals are one of the most effective forms of shareholder voice in corporate America. It is one of the main channels...

Should Whistleblower Reward Laws be Capped?

The SEC is expected to approve a proposed rule change that could limit the amount of awards paid to whistleblowers, despite evidence...

How to Restart the Economy and Save Lives: Simulations on Northern Italy

Italian officials have to choose the optimal strategy to end the lockdown. A policy that sends all the active population back to...

Constitutional Limits to Independent Agencies and Central Banks: A Mini-Course With Paul Tucker (Part 2)

The Federal Reserve and the ECB have been taking unprecedented steps to react to the financial impact of Covid-19. To frame the debate around the...

“Monetary Awards Are Not the Only Reason Why Whistleblowers Report Corporate Malpractice”

At the SEC, Jordan Thomas had a leadership role in developing the program to protect and reward employees who report corporate wrongdoing. Now, he is...

How Regulators and PwC Fooled Reporters—Again

Is the PCAOB really investigating PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) for its role in the Mattel auditing mess? I may be wrong, but I seriously doubt it....

The SEC’s Shareholder Voting Reform Runs Counter to Attempts at Democratizing Corporate America

The SEC should drop its proposed changes or modify them so that they are less onerous and less damaging to the rights of shareholders...

Over 60 Leading Finance Economists Ask SEC to Revise the Shareholder Voting Draft Reform

The new regulation that Security and Exchange Commissioners voted in November doesn't fix proxy advisory industry duopoly problems, but it actually makes them worse:...

LATEST NEWS

Uninhibited Campaign Donations Risks Creating Oligarchy

In new research, Valentino Larcinese and Alberto Parmigiani find that the 1986 Reagan tax cuts led to greater campaign spending from wealthy individuals, who benefited the most from this policy. The authors argue that a very permissive system of political finance, combined with the erosion of tax progressivity, created the conditions for the mutual reinforcement of economic and political disparities. The result was an inequality spiral hardly compatible with democratic ideals.

Did the Meme Stock Revolution Actually Change Anything?

Many financial commentators thought that the surge of retail investors participating in the stock market, the most notable of whom boosted “meme stocks” like GameStop, would democratize corporate governance and improve prosocial firm behavior, including the promotion of environmental, social, and governance (ESG) goals. In new research, Dhruv Aggarwal, Albert H. Choi, and Yoon-Ho Alex Lee find evidence that the exact opposite took place.

The Kroger-Albertsons Merger Will Not Help Grocery Competition

Kroger and Albertsons say they need to merge to compete with Walmart. Claire Kelloway argues that what they really want is Walmart’s monopsony power, and permitting mergers on these grounds will only harm suppliers, workers, and consumers.

Innovators Respond to Their Presidential Candidate Winning With More Innovation

Does an inventor’s political identity influence their productivity? In a new paper, Joseph Engelberg, Runjing Lu, William Mullins, and Richard Townsend examine the impacts of the 2008 and 2016 United States presidential elections on Democrat and Republican inventors, with a particular focus on the quantity and quality of patents after the country elects a new president.

Letter to the Editor: Former FTC and DOJ Chief Economists Urge Separation of Economic and Legal Analysis in Merger Guidelines

Seventeen former chief economists of the Federal Trade Commission and the Department of Justice Antitrust Division urge current Agency heads to separate the legal and economic analysis in the draft Merger Guidelines to strengthen the role of the latter in merger review.