This article argues that bank supervision sits at the center of two foundational tensions in the governance of American finance. The first is the extent to which the financial system is controlled by public actors (i.e., the government) or private actors (i.e., the banks). The second is the...

The most vital and deeply practical argument for more broadly understanding corporate purpose comes from the management literature and the data on how to motivate people in organizations. When employees care – when they are engaged – they use discretionary effort. Management research shows...

A festering ambiguity buried within the thirteenth chapter of the Bankruptcy Code threatens to shadow future rehabilitations of any mixed-use development owned by one or more individuals or proprietorships eligible to file for relief under that chapter. The reason for this pendant danger...

Amongst the group of related sections touching upon the creation and administration of a plan of debt adjustment pursuant to Chapter 13 of the Bankruptcy Code (“Code”), just one—§ 1329—concerns post-confirmation modification. This section’s first lettered paragraph enumerates the...

Fifty years ago, Friedman compellingly presented his argument for shareholder primacy. But as currently implemented, shareholder primacy threatens the unifying purposes that drove people to form corporations to begin with. It’s time for a re-examination of what binds us together to do great things

The history of regulation in America is as old as the republic itself. Since colonial times, Americans have struggled with the conflict between the desire for individual freedom and economic growth, and the need for rules and structure in a civil society. The evolution of the United States from...

There is disagreement about whether large and complex financial institutions should be allowed to use US bankruptcy law to reorganise when they get into financial difficulty. We look at the events surrounding the Lehman Brothers bankruptcy filing for lessons as to whether bankruptcy law could be...

The United States is recognized as the largest economic entity in the world and its financial system has developed steadily through the guidance of the Federal Reserve System for over one hundred years. However, in recent years, the global economic downturn, coupled with the global COVID-19...

Using new quarterly U.S. data for the past 120 years, I show that sudden reversals in equity and credit market sentiment approximated by several measures of corporate securities issuance are highly predictive of banking crises and recessions. Deviations in equity issuance from historical...

We study the impact of the 1933 abrogation of gold clauses on the slow recovery of corporate investment following the Great Depression. Legal challenges to the constitutionality of abrogating gold clauses exposed many firms to the possibility of a 69% increase in required payments to...