Digital Commons Network^™

A Complete Property Right Amendment, John H. Ryskamp

ExpressO

The trend of the eminent domain reform and "Kelo plus" initiatives is toward a comprehensive Constitutional property right incorporating the elements of level of review, nature of government action, and extent of compensation. This article contains a draft amendment which reflects these concerns.

Predatory Structured Finance, Christopher L. Peterson

ExpressO

Predatory lending is a real, pervasive, and destructive problem as demonstrated by record settlements, jury awards, media exposes, and a large body of empirical scholarship. Currently the national debate over predatory mortgage lending is shifting to the controversial question of who should bear liability for predatory lending practices. In today’s subprime mortgage market, originators and brokers quickly assign home loans through a complex and opaque series of transactions involving as many as a dozen different strategically organized companies. Loans are typically transferred into large pools, and then income from those loans is “structured” to appeal to different types of investors. …

The Equivalence Approach To Securities Regulation, Tzung-Bor Wei

ExpressO

Abstract

In the past, academics and regulators debated two competing approaches to international securities regulation, namely “harmonization” and “regulatory competition.” More recently, a third approach to securities regulation has emerged – the “equivalence” approach. Under this model, a host country exempts foreign firms from certain host country rules when the firms’ home country rules are sufficiently similar, or “equivalent.” Many regulators have come to embrace equivalence, which is rapidly becoming a key principle in international finance.

This paper studies the concept of equivalence. It begins by defining “equivalence,” highlighting that different regulators manipulate the term to give it contrasting meanings. …

Bond Repudiation, Tax Codes, The Appropriations Process And Restitution Post-Eminent Domain Reform, John H. Ryskamp

ExpressO

This brief comment suggests where the anti-eminent domain movement might be heading next.

Enron And The Special Purpose Entity. Use Or Abuse? The Real Problem - The Real Focus, Neal F. Newman

ExpressO

In December of 2001, Enron Corporation filed for bankruptcy under Chapter 11 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code; one of the largest corporate bankruptcy filings at that time. When the investigations commenced and the tangled Enron web was unraveled, it was discovered that Enron had perpetrated a very sophisticated form of accounting fraud through its repeated use of what are referred to as Special Purpose Entities (“SPEs”). In their most basic forms, SPEs are business entities formed for the purpose of conducting a well specified activity such as construction of a gas pipeline, or collection of a specific group of accounts …

Measuring And Representing The Knowledge Economy: Accounting For Economic Reality Under The Intangibles Paradigm, Olufunmilayo B. Arewa

ExpressO

Enron has become a symbol: a symbol of excess, an illustration of how a company can base its business on fraudulent, deceptive or even largely non-existent business transactions. The collapse of Enron had a significant impact on the adoption of legislation such as the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, which was intended to prevent the types of fraudulent behavior that occurred at Enron. However, Sarbanes-Oxley and other responses to the business practices of many companies during the late 1990s do not fully address some of the underlying factors that permitted and in fact encouraged the Enrons of the world to represent their companies …