Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®
Articles 1 - 3 of 3
Full-Text Articles in Law
Beyond Finance: Permissible Commercial Activities Of U.S. Financial Holding Companies, Saule T. Omarova
Beyond Finance: Permissible Commercial Activities Of U.S. Financial Holding Companies, Saule T. Omarova
Cornell Law Faculty Publications
!is essay explains the legal basis for, and examines public policy implications of, recent expansion of large U.S. financial holding companies’ non-financial business activities. Despite its potentially significant impact on economic growth and systemic stability, this phenomenon of financial conglomeration beyond finance remains poorly understood. Yet, any truly comprehensive and effective reform of financial services regulation must address public policy issues that arise when “too-big-to-fail” banks grow even bigger and more systemically significant by combining finance with commerce.
The Merchants Of Wall Street: Banking, Commerce, And Commodities, Saule T. Omarova
The Merchants Of Wall Street: Banking, Commerce, And Commodities, Saule T. Omarova
Cornell Law Faculty Publications
This Article explores the legal, regulatory, policy, and theoretical aspects of an ongoing transformation of large U.S. banking organizations into global merchants of physical commodities and energy. In the absence of detailed and reliable information, it is difficult to draw definitive conclusions as to the social efficiency and desirability of allowing this transformation to continue. What we can already ascertain about U.S. financial institutions' physical commodity assets and activities, however, raises potentially serious public policy concerns that must be addressed through a fully-informed public deliberation. Even if big U.S. FHCs were, in fact, to scale down their physical commodity operations …
Bretton Woods 1.0: A Constructive Retrieval For Sustainable Finance, Robert C. Hockett
Bretton Woods 1.0: A Constructive Retrieval For Sustainable Finance, Robert C. Hockett
Cornell Law Faculty Publications
Global trade imbalance and domestic financial fragility are intimately related. When a nation runs persistently massive current account deficits to maintain global liquidity as has the United States now for decades, its central bank effectively relinquishes exchange rate flexibility to become a de facto central bank to the world. That in turn prevents the bank from playing its essential credit-modulatory role at home, at least absent strict capital controls that are difficult to administer and have long been taboo. And this can in turn render credit-fueled asset price bubbles and busts all but impossible to prevent, irrespective of the nation's …