Law Commons^™

Proving Equal Access To Capital In The Age Of The Startup: The Case For Federal Pre-Emption Of State Blue-Sky Laws, Gerry Griffith

The Journal of Business, Entrepreneurship & the Law

Section I of this comment examines the global opportunities available to startups in the digital economy and how startups’ capital demands evolved in the new era of business. Section II analyzes the differences between merit-based securities regulation existing at the state level and disclosure-based regulation, which is the federal regulatory scheme. This Section provides an overview of the three most common methods of restricted securities registration at the state level. Section III examines the development of blue sky laws and the role states originally played in protecting investors. This Section further explores the evolving relationship between state and federal securities …

For Coöperation And The Abolition Of Capital, Or, How To Get Beyond Our Extractive Punitive Society And Achieve A Just Society, Bernard E. Harcourt

Faculty Scholarship

In hindsight, the term "capitalism" was always a misnomer, coined paradoxically by its critics in the nineteenth century. The term misleadingly suggests that the existence of capital produces a unique economic system or that capital itself is governed by economic laws. But that's an illusion. In truth, we do not live today in a system in which capital dictates our economic circumstances. Instead, we live under the tyranny of what I would call "tournament dirigisme": a type of state-directed gladiator sport where our political leaders bestow spoils on the wealthy, privileged elite.

We need to displace this tournament dirigisme with …

Mutual Fund Capital Structure, A. Joseph Warburton

Marquette Law Review

The Investment Company Act of 1940 regulates the capital structure of mutual funds in order to restrain their leverage and speculative character. It is often (mistakenly) assumed that the law prohibits open-end mutual funds from borrowing money. This Article (I) analyzes the law governing mutual fund capital structure to reveal when (and to what extent) borrowing is allowed and (ii) examines a novel dataset on mutual fund capital structure that shows borrowing is an unexpectedly common practice.

Using data on all registered investment companies in the U.S. from 1998 to 2013, I find that nearly 8% of open-end mutual funds, …

Basel Iii And The Future Of Project Finance Funding, Tianze Ma

Michigan Business & Entrepreneurial Law Review

This paper seeks to analyze the new requirements in the Basel III banking regulatory framework and explore their impact on commercial banks’ project finance portfolio. The paper begins with a general introduction of the Basel Accords, followed by an analysis of the changes in the Basel III requirements and their potential impact on project finance, in particular the effects of the liquidity coverage ratio (LCR) and the net stable funding ratio (NSFR). The paper ends with a discussion of alternative sources of project finance funding that emerged as a result of the new regulatory regime.

Access To Capital Or Just More Blues? Issuer Decision-Making Post Sec Crowdfunding Regulation, Patricia Hureston Lee

All Faculty Scholarship

Crowdfunding is an alternative for Issuers seeking funds for their businesses. On October 2015, the Securities Exchange Commission (SEC) released final crowdfunding regulations that became effective May 20162 as a charge of the Jobs Act, Title III (the “Crowdfund Act”). Issuers can now secure crowdfunded investments without a securities registration.

This article evaluates investment-based crowdfunding from the perspective of one group that has been neglected from the crowdfunding scholarship — Issuers that seek financing under this new framework. In Section I, the author summarizes the new crowdfund regulations, which create a new financing opportunity vastly different from previous types of …

Democratizing Startups, Seth C. Oranburg

Seth C Oranburg

The Jumpstart Our Business Startups Act of 2012 intends to “help entrepreneurs raise the capital they need to put Americans back to work and create an economy that’s built to last.” The goal is to “democratize startups” by making capital available to diverse entrepreneurs in new geographies. Yet the net effect of securities regulations and market conditions is the opposite. Startup companies are encouraged to stay private so capital is consolidating in large, mature firms instead of recycling into new startups. Evidence of consolidation is that once-rare “Unicorns” (billion-dollar startups) now number over 111. More money is going into huge …

The Development Of Foreign Investment Law In Egypt And Its Effect On Private Foreign Investment, George E. Bushnell Iii

Georgia Journal of International & Comparative Law

No abstract provided.

Reconstructing Iraq: An Analysis Of, And Proposed Solutions To, The Financing Challenges Facing Iraqi Small And Mid-Sized Businesses, Timothy B. Mills

Georgia Journal of International & Comparative Law

No abstract provided.

Alternatives For Small Business Raising Capital Under The Securities Act Of 1933, David H. Barber

Pepperdine Law Review

The problems encountered by the business community in raising capital for new or small businesses has spurned implementation of responsive policy and regulations by the Securities and Exchange Commission. As a result of input from a series of nationwide small business hearings, the S.E.C. has recently demonstrated its commitment to aiding capital raising needs. This was accomplished by creating an Office of Small Business Policy to respond to the effects of major new changes to the Securities Act of 1933 which seek to facilitate the process of capitalization of small business. Professor David H. Barber, of Brigham Young University's J. …

Risks And Hedges Of Providing Liquidity In Complex Securities: The Impact Of Insider Trading On Options Market Makers, Stanislav Dolgopolov

Fordham Journal of Corporate & Financial Law

No abstract provided.

Regulation A: Small Businesses’ Search For “A Moderate Capital”, Rutheford B. Campbell Jr.

Law Faculty Scholarly Articles

Small businesses are an important part of our national economy, accounting for as much as 40% of our total economic activity and providing society with important services and products.

Small businesses face daunting economic, structural, and legal impediments when they attempt to acquire external capital. The absence of financial inter-mediation services means that they are almost always on their own to find investors. Their small capital needs mean that their relative offering costs are often sky high. Federal and state securities rules significantly exacerbate these economic and structural disadvantages by imposing onerous and unwarranted conditions on their search for external …

Leach Keynote Address, James A. Leach

Fordham Journal of Corporate & Financial Law

No abstract provided.

Synergy And Friction – Cra, Bhcs, Sba And Community Development Lending, Cassandra Jones Havard

All Faculty Scholarship

The era of federal funding retrenchment makes acute the need for community businesses to have access to capital. The Small Business Administration (SBA) provides small businesses with access to low-cost loans funds. The existing SBA regulatory scheme fosters an approach which allows a private mechanism, lenders, to make public policy decisions about the socio-economic character of communities. Implicit in the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) and its recent reforms are a recognition of the complex interdependence among policy objectives. The reform statute specifically recognizes that geographical disinvestment has an equally deleterious effect on small business lending as it does on residential …

Effect Of Regulation On Banking: California 1879-1929, Lynne Doti, Richard Runyon

Economics Faculty Articles and Research

California had a virtually unregulated banking environment until the first comprehensive banking regulations were passed in 1905. These regulations, and subsequent changes in 1909, required reserves and paid-up capital. Several tests of commonly accepted measures of safety, such as bank reserves, paid-up capital, bank failures, and real estate loans that resulted in foreclosure, are compared for selected years before and after the regulations. Results do not clearly demonstrate that regulation enhanced the safety of individual banks, but do support the conclusion that regulation enhanced the safety of the banking system as a whole.

Bank Entry During The Antebellum Period, Andrew J. Economopoulos, Heather M. O'Neill

Business and Economics Faculty Publications

A recent study by Kenneth Ng (1988) challenges the view that free banking laws lowered barriers to entry. The authors' study examines bank entry and capital formation in free and nonfree banking states during the free banking period. A competitive model is developed and used to test if barriers were lowered in free banking states. The evidence indicates that entry significantly increased after the enactment of the free banking laws and that entry policy in nonfree banking states appeared to have been 'liberalized' when the free banking laws were enacted in other states.

Legal Policy Conflicts In International Banking, William W. Park

Faculty Scholarship

The world debt crisis might never have occupied the front pages of our newspapers during much of the past decade if more attention had been paid to the advice old Polonius gave to young Laertes. More than one Secretary of the Treasury has tried to control a multibillion dollar problem of money addiction, whose resolution sometimes seems to lie in the realm of financial eschatology.