The Nation is now in the midst of one of the greatest financial crises in its history. Much of the blame for this condition is being placed on the bursting of the residential real estate bubble, which was fueled in large part by the reckless expansion of subprime mortgage lending. Those...

This article traces the history of the growth and regulation of banking services in the United States. That history will show how the existing regulatory structure was developed in response to demands of the Civil War and a populist crusade against the “money trust.” That effort reached its...

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) Act of 1974 amended the Commodity Exchange Act to create the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, an independent federal regulatory agency with exclusive jurisdiction over all commodity futures transactions on exchanges such as the Chicago Board...

To prevent the abuse of fiduciary relationships, the strictures of English common law prohibit fiduciaries from receiving any personal advantage from their fiduciary position – not even compensation for services unless provided for by the terms of the fiduciary agreement. Similarly,...

Should the property tax be retained and, if so, what changes are necessary to make it more effective and equitable? This Article attempts to explore and formulate an answer to these questions. Part I covers the evolution of taxation of property in the state of Kentucky. Part II, examines the...

The securities industry periodically seems to encounter plagues of misconduct. These abuses, while varying in their form and intensity, ultimately result in large losses and lurid headlines in the financial press. Each scandal also eventually manages to arouse the ire of the regulatory...

The massive subprime losses at Citigroup, UBS, Bank of America, Wachovia, Washington Mutual, and other banks astounded the financial world. Equally shocking were the failures of Lehman Brothers, Merrill Lynch, and Bear Stearns. The conversion of Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley into bank holding...

In the 1930s, corporate governance reformers attacked excessive executive compensation through lawsuits, claiming that corporate directors were breaching their fiduciary duties by making excessive bonus payments to executives. That effort was unsuccessful because the courts found themselves...