Aug

14

Does Baseball’s Antitrust Immunity Extend to Baseball Card Contracts?

Posted by: J. Gordon Hylton | August 14, 2009 | 1 Comment

The baseball antitrust exemption has turned out to be one of the great anomalies of American law.  First recognized in the Supreme Court’s Federal Baseball decision in 1922 at a time when “commerce” was understood much more narrowly than it would be in the post-New Deal world, the exemption took on a life of its [...]

Aug

2

Regulation and the Second Law of Thermodynamics

Posted by: Edward A. Fallone | August 2, 2009 | 1 Comment

At first blush, one would not think that Barney Frank and Stephen Hawking would have anything in common.  The first is the Chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, and is currently conducting hearings on the regulatory reform of the financial markets.  The second is the noted University of Cambridge professor of theoretical physics and [...]

Jul

13

The Apprentice

Posted by: Edward A. Fallone | July 13, 2009 | 2 Comments

The National Law Journal recently reported that the law firm of Howrey & Simon has adopted an innovative training program for new associates.  Newly hired lawyers will serve a two year “apprenticeship” prior to being fully integrated into the law firm.  This program will reduce the number and the compensation of the law school graduates [...]

Jul

7

The New China Syndrome

Posted by: Michael P. Waxman | July 7, 2009 | 3 Comments

Since last month China has been on an economic rampage that could have serious long- term effects on the United States and Europe. While Americans have been inundated with a vast and steady diet of “news” focused on personalities (the ongoing deaths of Michael Jackson and Farrah Fawcett and the death-like experiences of Governor Mark [...]

Jun

19

75th Anniversary of the FCC

Posted by: Joseph D. Kearney | June 19, 2009 | Leave a Comment

Today marks the 75th anniversary of the Communications Act of 1934. For most of its existence, the Communications Act provided much of the essential regulatory structure for the telecommunications (in Title II of the Act) and broadcast (in Title III) industries. The former provided some of the basis for my own practice back in the [...]

May

17

Legislation of the Year . . . If the Year Is 1950

Posted by: Edward A. Fallone | May 17, 2009 | Leave a Comment

Senator Charles Schumer recently announced plans to introduce the “Shareholder Bill of Rights Act of 2009.”  This bill is a compendium of corporate governance reforms that shareholder activists have been advocating for many years.  Among other things, the bill would require companies to elect the entire board of directors each year, rather than putting only [...]

May

13

Federal Government Antitrust Policy Returns to Reality

Posted by: Michael P. Waxman | May 13, 2009 | Leave a Comment

Last fall, I commented on this blog about the potential effect of an Obama administration on the nature of antitrust enforcement in the United States. In particular, I noted that a new Obama administration might focus on repairing the lack of antitrust enforcement that had resulted over the past few years through a slavish adherence [...]

May

5

Little Reforms Have Big Implications at SEC

Posted by: Edward A. Fallone | May 5, 2009 | Leave a Comment

The Director of the Securities and Exchange Commission’s 21st Century Disclosure Initiative, Dr. Bill Lutz, was on the Marquette University campus May 4.  He was kind enough to give an update on the Initiative over lunch to a group of faculty from the Law School and the College of Business Administration.  Dr. Lutz is an [...]

Mar

19

AIG, Bailouts, and Suffering Stupidity

Posted by: Christopher M. King | March 19, 2009 | 2 Comments

 
“A beggar’s mistake harms no one but the beggar. A king’s mistake, however, harms everyone but the king. Too often, the measure of power lies not in the number who obey your will, but in the number who will suffer your stupidity,” writes R. Scott Bakker in his latest novel, The Judging Eye. 
Bakker’s proverb seems [...]

Feb

25

It Was a Tulip Craze

Posted by: Bruce E. Boyden | February 25, 2009 | 7 Comments

This article from Wired Magazine (somewhat similar to this article from the N.Y. Times a month ago) seems to me to confirm that the present financial meltdown was caused by a sort of modern tulip mania, this time for collateralized debt obligations. A taste:
What is the chance that any given home will decline in value? [...]

Dec

20

The Limitations of “Rot”

Posted by: Richard M. Esenberg | December 20, 2008 | 3 Comments

I was going to do this as a comment to Jessica’s post on Frank Pasquale’s post on the rot in America’s financial system, but it got a bit long, so I decided to make it a post.
Jessica cites to a post on Concurring Opinions which relies, to some extent, on a comment in response to [...]

Dec

19

Frank Pasquale Blogging About “A Deep Rot at the Core of American Finance and Politics”

Posted by: Jessica E. Slavin | December 19, 2008 | 1 Comment

Over at Concurring Opinions, Frank Pasquale has written a post entitled “The Economics Was Fake But the Bonuses Were Real.”  If you find yourself wondering lately about whether and how we will “rebuild the trust necessary for a thriving economy” (Pasquale’s words), it’s worth reading.  He discusses, for instance, the recent and somewhat surprising statements [...]

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