Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

Securities Law Commons

Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

Articles 1 - 2 of 2

Full-Text Articles in Securities Law

Synthetic Cdos, Conflicts Of Interest, And Securities Fraud, Jennifer O'Hare Dec 2013

Synthetic Cdos, Conflicts Of Interest, And Securities Fraud, Jennifer O'Hare

Jennifer O'Hare

Synthetic collateralized debt obligations (synthetic CDOs) nearly brought down the global economy by spreading the contagion of toxic assets throughout the financial system. Following the crash, government hearings exposed the ugly conflicts of interest inherent in the structuring of synthetic CDOs, as investment banks such as Goldman Sachs created, sold, and invested in synthetic CDOs, often at the expense of their clients. Some of the world’s largest financial institutions bitterly complained that these synthetic CDOs had been “designed to fail” by the investment banks, so that the investment banks could profit at their expense. In this article, I argue that …


Gambling On Our Financial Future: How The Federal Government Fiddles While State Common Law Is A Safer Bet To Prevent Another Financial Collapse, Brian M. Mccall Dec 2013

Gambling On Our Financial Future: How The Federal Government Fiddles While State Common Law Is A Safer Bet To Prevent Another Financial Collapse, Brian M. Mccall

Brian M McCall

Many politicians and commentators agree that credit default swaps (CDS) played a significant role in the financial crisis of 2008. Yet, few who observe this role are aware that CDS were set loose on the economy by the federal pre-emption of thousands of years of public policy. Since the time of Aristotle law, philosophy and public policy have been hostile to gambling. Viewed as a socially unproductive zero sum wealth transfer, the law has generally refused to permit parties to use the courts to enforce wagers. Courts and legislatures worked in harmony to control and in some cases punish financial …