Focusing on a “safe withdrawal rate” and then deriving a “wealth accumulation target” to achieve by the retirement date may not be the best way to approach retirement planning. Such a formulation isolates the working (accumulation) and retirement (decumulation) phases. When considered...

This paper examines the origins and early performance of the Federal Reserve as lender of last resort. The Fed was established to overcome the problems of the National Banking era, in particular an inelastic currency and the absence of an effective lender of last resort. As conceived by Paul...

“Offensive shareholder activism” involves buying up sizeable stakes in underperforming companies and agitating for changes predicted to increase shareholder returns. Though hedge funds are currently highly publicized practitioners of this corporate governance tactic, there has been no...

Inflation risk is greatest in times of national or global stress; inflation risk is a form of a “tail risk.” A traditional portfolio of stocks and bonds is exposed to inflation risk. The specific nature of an investor's liabilities and spending determines inflation sensitivity beyond that of...

The history of American banking provides five distinct regulatory/supervisory regimes that cast light on the difficulties of constructing a regime that will guarantee the efficiency as well as the safety and soundness of the system. A basic taxonomy of regulation and supervision is provided to...

Due to the proximity of Canada to the United States, the cultural and business similarities, and the long and generally favorable business relations between the countries, many American companies seriously consider acquiring financially attractive Canadian companies. However, recently these...

This paper, prepared for a University of Illinois College of Law symposium honoring Prof. Larry Ribstein, deals with the historical development of corporate law in the United States, focusing on the promise and perils of quantification. The paper is part of a larger project where we have already...

This paper describes New Deal farm mortgage debt relief programs, implemented through the Federal Land Banks and the Land Bank Commissioner. Along with the Home Owners' Loan Corporation, the analogous program for nonfarm residential mortgage borrowers, these were the first large-scale mortgage...

This article explains the roots of financial crises in one of the oldest and most fundamental problems of commercial law: hidden leverage. Common law courts wrestled with this problem for centuries and developed a time – tested solution: the doctrine of secret liens. If the debtor becomes...

Accounting norms preceded generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP), but little is known about how and why these norms emerged. We hypothesize that private-sector institutions aimed at building a knowledge base among practicing accountants fostered accounting norms before formal...