Decentralized finance (‘DeFi’) through smart contract technology has been touted as a major use case for blockchain technology ever since the launch of the Ethereum blockchain. One area within DeFi that received particular interest from an early stage is secured lending. Yet, in both Commonwealth and UCC jurisdictions, doubts exist over how such assets function… Read More »
The history of lending discrimination is well-documented in the United States, and the federal government employs a variety of legal mechanisms to fight its effects and promote lending equity. One such tool is the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) which Congress passed in 1977. The CRA was designed to encourage banks to lend in the geographic… Read More »
Corporate bankruptcy law is a tool to resolve the financial distress of corporations. Unviable corporations are liquidated and the proceeds distributed to the creditors. Viable corporations are restructured and put on a new financial footing. Following the model of Chapter 11 of the US Bankruptcy Code, many jurisdictions worldwide have strengthened or introduced such restructuring… Read More »
A corporation is a nexus of incomplete contracts that gives a demand for control right allocations. Whether firms should centralize or decentralize control rights depends on local information and coordination. This study uses the audit industry in China as a laboratory to shed light on to what extent control right allocation within an organization affects… Read More »
The following is Lee Reiners’ oral statement delivered in front of the United States Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, And Urban Affairs at the Committee’s February 14th hearing entitled, “Crypto Crash: Why Financial System Safeguards are Needed for Digital Assets.” Thank you for inviting me to testify at today’s hearing. My name is Lee… Read More »
With growing attention on corporate social responsibility (CSR) or the more recent expression of environmental, social, and governance (ESG), many countries and regions have imposed strict mandatory rules on CSR disclosures to better serve investors and other stakeholders. At the same time, government incentive programs such as the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) were also effective… Read More »
This post is a summary of a paper that was selected for inclusion at the inaugural Digital Assets at Duke Conference at Duke University on January 20 and 21. The past year was not a good one for crypto, with Sam Bankman-Fried’s massive fraud through FTX/Alameda, Do Kwon’s failed algorithmic stablecoin experiment (Terra Luna), and… Read More »
The antitrust world is changing. US agencies’ eyes are turning to finance, with the newest enforcement target being private equity (“PE”). Repeated public statements and speeches of US antitrust officials under the Biden administration clearly signal this policy shift. This is no surprise for Europe. The European Commission, confirmed by the Courts, has also recently… Read More »
Over decades, scholars across disciplines have proposed and discussed myriad “objectives” of the firm—shareholder value maximization, stakeholder theory, long-term firm value maximization, shareholder welfare maximization, and shareholder wealth maximization with stakeholder interests. One extreme is shareholder primacy, and the other is stakeholder capitalism (or conscious capitalism). The latter advocates corporate social responsibility (CSR) and has… Read More »
On March 9, 2022, U.S. President Joe Biden issued a pivotal Executive Order “outlining the first ever, whole-of-government approach to addressing the risks and harnessing the potential benefits of digital assets and their underlying technology.” Meanwhile, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) considers protecting “main street” investors to be at the heart of U.S. financial… Read More »