This article analyzes investor beliefs as to stocks, the inadvertent role government plays in shaping those beliefs and thereby contributes to a rise in stock prices, and the need for government quot;neutralityquot; among investor belief systems. It suggests that, contrary to conventional...

This article addresses the suitability doctrine under the federal securities laws--the duty on the part of the broker to recommend to a customer only those securities which are suitable to the investment objectives and peculiar needs of that particular customer. The suitability doctrine entails...

U.S. stocks trade on an increasing number of structurally diverse and competitive stock markets. However, there is concern about the type of competition that has emerged and its implications for investor protection and market efficiency. For instance, the increasing challenge posed to the...

Federal regulation of securities offerings has become less mandatory. Over the last twenty years, Congress, the courts and the SEC have been rethinking the Securities Act of 1933 and its regulatory tenets of manager informational shirking and investor helplessness. No longer is the prototypical...

The 2008 financial crisis has led to the breakdown of the new synthesis consensus in the mainstream economic theories. Rational expectations (RE) and non-rational expectations (NRE) have respectively explained the policy irrelevance of and the behavior departure from standard economic theories....

Financial regulation is a much debated topic for some time. The history of financial instruments started at a time when people started giving value to physical objects over and above its inherent utility. Right from the very beginning of their existence, it has been acknowledged that financial...

This paper examines the institutional design of the EU European and Monetary Union. Specifically, it analyses five different institutions that have been set up in the post-financial crisis period, namely the three European Supervisory Authorities (ESMA, EBA and EIOPA), the European Financial...

In the wake of the financial crisis, mortgage lending to lower-income and minority borrowers overcorrected and has not recovered. While homeownership is a riskier investment than previously realized, still it remains a proven path to increased wealth on balance for lower-income households. There...

The Capital Markets Union (CMU) is one of the flagship policy initiatives of the Juncker Commission. The Commission's strategy for realizing a CMU is set out in its White Paper on building a CMU. Besides describing the Commission's vision of a CMU, the white paper includes an action plan which...

Despite continued attempts by regulators to curtail abusive short sales and increase transparency, the pattern and practice of fraudulent manipulation continues to proliferate and threaten the capitalization of a wide variety of issuers within the securities market. Identifying a meaningful...