This post also appears on Duke Law’s Lawfire blog In the wake of the U.S. and its allies imposing unprecedented economic and financial sanctions on Russia, there has been a number of articles about the role cryptocurrency may play in undermining these sanctions (see here, here, and here). While the situation is fluid and defies easy predictions, western… Read More »
“It May Be the Biggest Tax Heist Ever.”, wrote the New York Times on January, 20th 2020. “It” being so-called cum-ex trades in which traders file for dividend tax refunds for taxes that they never paid. Surprisingly, several European Treasuries did (and do) indeed refund these never-paid-taxes. Investigations by a consortium of journalists estimated these refunds at… Read More »
“Commercial bank money – that is, people’s bank deposits – is created through the intermediation of credit.” — Bank of England (2021) In the history of life on Earth, each mass extinction brings with it evolutionary opportunities to fill the niches that those extinctions have emptied (they are called “evolutionary radiations”). For example, the rise… Read More »
Industrial pollution has staggering consequences in terms of premature deaths, productivity losses, and health care costs. In 2015, conservative estimates put the number of pollution-related deaths at nine million, which represents roughly 16% of all deaths worldwide, and the financial cost of pollution-related deaths and sickness at 4.6 trillion US dollars, which represents about 6.2%… Read More »
Last April, I wrote about Wyoming’s ongoing effort to roll out the red carpet for cryptocurrency firms by passing a number of bills favorable to the sector. Most notably, the state created an entirely new type of bank charter – the Special Purpose Depository Institution (SPDI) charter – to assist “blockchain innovators” in accessing “secure and reliable… Read More »
Corporate political action committees (PACs) donate about $300 million to federal political candidates each two-year election cycle. Despite the common perception that corporate donations influence politicians’ behavior, research offers mixed evidence regarding the value of these donations. Some scholars argue that donations are part of a quid pro quo in which politicians reward generous firms… Read More »
With the rapid expansion of corporate net-zero commitments and the recent pledge by financial institutions (FIs) – with over $130 trillion in assets – at COP26 in Glasgow to hit net-zero emissions by 2050, a credible mechanism to measure these commitments and hold companies accountable for meeting them is of critical importance. To that end,… Read More »
The emergence of both BigTech digital platforms and BigFinTechs (BFTs) over the past 20 years reflects fundamental changes in economies and societies around the world. Driving this change is the impact of digitization and datafication, two processes that sit at the heart of the Fourth Industrial Revolution. Digitization and datafication offer tremendous potential for network… Read More »
The United States stands out as one of the few developed countries without a national paid sick leave (PSL) policy. Typically, PSL mandates require firms to provide all workers with PSL benefits, which offer job and wage protection against short-term illnesses. While some people may think of it as a similar federal law, the Family… Read More »
In recent months, cyber insurance has found itself in the headlines for arguably the wrong reasons. Lloyd’s of London reportedly discouraged certain syndicates from offering cyber insurance because of mounting losses, and then later published contractual language that can be used to exclude coverage for cyber war and even “cyber operations.” Many information security (InfoSec) practitioners interpret these news… Read More »
