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Articles 1 - 6 of 6

Full-Text Articles in Law

Our Not-So-Great Depression, Craig Green Apr 2010

Our Not-So-Great Depression, Craig Green

Michigan Law Review

A Failure of Capitalism by Richard Posner is not a great book, and it does not pretend to be one. Posner summarizes the economic crisis of 2008-09 and considers proposals to reduce current suffering and avoid future recurrence (p. xvi). But when the book's final edits were made in February 2009, it was still too soon for authoritative solutions or full accounts of what had happened. Instead, Posner wrote a conspicuously contemporary-and thus incomplete-description of the crisis as it looked to him at the time (p. xvii). Now one year later, readers may need a reminder about the value of …


A Comparison Of The Handling Of The Financial Crisis In The United States, The United Kingdom, And Australia, Elizabeth F. Brown Jan 2010

A Comparison Of The Handling Of The Financial Crisis In The United States, The United Kingdom, And Australia, Elizabeth F. Brown

Villanova Law Review

The article discusses how the U.S., Great Britain and Australia handled the financial crisis, as of July 2010. It analyzes the reasons why Australia was less affected by the crisis than the U.S. and Great Britain. The author suggests that the U.S. would perform well to adopt a Twin Peaks Model which creates two agencies that regulate a broad range of financial entities but focus on narrow goals.


Four Challenges To Financial Regulatory Reform, Eric J. Pan Jan 2010

Four Challenges To Financial Regulatory Reform, Eric J. Pan

Villanova Law Review

The article discusses the challenges that should be addressed in a successful financial regulatory reform. These challenges include the structuring of regulatory systems, separation of prudential supervision and consumer protection regulation, the entity responsible for monitoring and managing systemic risk, and the supervision of cross-border financial services and transactions. The reform proposals considered by Great Britain, the U.S., and European Union are analyzed.


Insurance Perspectives On Federal Financial Regulatory Reform: Addressing Misunderstandings And Providing A View From A Different Paradigm, Jeffrey E. Thomas Jan 2010

Insurance Perspectives On Federal Financial Regulatory Reform: Addressing Misunderstandings And Providing A View From A Different Paradigm, Jeffrey E. Thomas

Villanova Law Review

The article discusses the insurance regulation in the U.S. and its role in the financial crisis. It states that the collapse of American International Group (AIG) was not an insurance regulatory failure. It describes the scope and approach to state insurance regulation and the development and functioning of the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC). The role played by the courts in insurance regulation is also addressed.


Too Big To Fail?: Recasting The Financial Safety Net, Steven L. Schwarcz Jan 2010

Too Big To Fail?: Recasting The Financial Safety Net, Steven L. Schwarcz

Faculty Scholarship

Government safety nets in the United States and abroad focus, anachronistically, on problems of banks and other financial institutions, largely ignoring financial markets which have become major credit sources for consumers and companies. Besides failing to protect these markets, this narrow focus encourages morally hazardous behavior by large institutions, like AIG and Citigroup, that are "too big to fail." This paper examines how a safety net should be recast to protect financial markets and also explains why that safety net would mitigate moral hazard and help resolve the too-big-to-fail dilemma.


Distorting Legal Principles, Steven L. Schwarcz Jan 2010

Distorting Legal Principles, Steven L. Schwarcz

Faculty Scholarship

Legal principles enable society to order itself by preserving broadly based expectations. Sometimes, however, parties transact in ways that are so inconsistent with generally accepted principles as to create uncertainty or confusion that undermines the basis for reasoning afforded by the principles. Such a distortion might occur, for example, if a normally mandatory legal rule were unexpectedly treated as a default rule. This article explores the problem of distorting legal principles, initially focusing on rehypothecation, a distortion whose uncertainty and confusion contributed to the downfall of Lehman Brothers and the resulting global financial crisis. But not all distortions are, on …