Category Archives: Regulations and regulators

SEC Gives Blackstone $39 Million Wet Noodle Lashing Over Private Equity Abuses

The SEC is up to its usual kabuki, of pretending that a mere cost-of-doing business punishment for a firm that has engaged in widespread abuses amounts to a serious effort at enforcement. The gap between misconduct and SEC action is particularly striking in the case of private equity. In May 2014, former SEC examination chief […]

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Michael Hudson on Parasitic Financial Capitalism

An interview with Michael Hudson on his latest book, Killing the Host, which focuses on the destruction wrought by financial capitalism.

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Market Liquidity in Liquid Markets: Pitfalls and Trends

Market liquidity is all about smooth and rapid executions of large transactions. But why is it hard to keep big markets liquid? This column looks at liquidity in fixed-income markets, assesses new trends (as well as the EU’s new market instrument rules), and makes recommendations to policymakers to avoid illiquidity – a timely reminder that the social costs of illiquidity should not be underestimated.

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A Physician Substantially Tied to the Pharmaceutical Industry Nominated to Run the FDA

Yves here. As Roy Poses stresses, the media has underreported on the conflicts of interest at work in this FDA nomination. Be sure to read the very long list of Big Pharma names that have supported Dr. Richard Cardiff’s research and provided grants and speaking fees.

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Gaius Publius: Will Senator Whitehouse Renew His Call for RICO Prosecution of Climate-Denying Companies like Exxon?

Did climate change denialists like Exxon coordinate their activities, as Big Tobacco did to foster doubt about smoking’s role in lung cancer? If so, what would it take for RICO prosecutions to occur?

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IBM Lobbyist Planted Question From USTR Official at a 2013 Public Hearing

A couple weeks back, the Electronic Frontier Foundation released 124 pages of emails obtained in a FOIA request, asking for any communications between officials at the U.S. Trade Representative’s office and corporate lobbyists. The emails are mostly requests to set up meetings or share information between USTR leadership and representatives from either trade associations (The U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Telecommunications Industry Association, Coalition of Services Industries, etc) or corporations directly (Cigna, General Electric, Liberty Mutual Insurance, MasterCard, AT&T, etc).

But Steve Stewart, Director of Market Access and Trade for IBM Governmental Programs – in other words, IBM’s in-house lobbying shop – takes this relationship-building a step further. He enlisted USTR to help him get his company’s narrative out.

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