- Divided D.C. Circuit panel partially overturns SEC conflict minerals law [Bainbridge, more, more, Adler, earlier]
- Dodd-Frank vs. small banks, cont’d [Todd Zywicki]
- A failing grade for new Financial Stability Oversight Council? [Louise Bennetts, Cato; Peter Wallison, AEI, on Prudential SIFI designation]
- Regulators’ “choke hold” effort to throttle online payday lending draws protests [Kevin Funnell, more, yet more]
- Securities litigation after Amgen: time to reassess the fraud on the market presumption [Richard Epstein, Cato Regulation mag (PDF)]
- House hearing on allegations of employee retaliation at CFPB [Free Beacon, Funnell, more]
- “How To Destroy The Stock Market In 8 Steps,” series of Marc Andreessen tweets [Business Insider] “The Growing Executive Compensation Advantage of Private Versus Public Companies” [Marc Hodak]
Posts Tagged ‘securities litigation’
Banking and finance roundup
- Loan servicers prepare to throw large sums at making “forced placed insurance” class actions go away [Kevin Funnell]
- How Are Small Banks Faring Under Dodd-Frank?
[Hester Peirce, Ian Robinson, Thomas Stratmann, Mercatus] - “How the Feds Can Take Even Legally Earned Bitcoins” [Peter Coy, Business Week]
- “No Shame Dept.: Lawyers Sue Over Practically Every Merger, Again” [Daniel Fisher]
- Brewster Kahle on Know Your Customer: “‘Bank Secrecy Act’ I suggest is a misnomer– it is more accurately the ‘Bank Surveillance Act'” [Kahle.org, earlier here, here, etc.]
- SEC to [over-]regulate business brokers under Dodd-Frank? [David Burton, Heritage]
- “Lawyer: How I Committed Insider Trading” [Bloomberg Law video via Prof. Bainbridge]
- “The Federal Reserve at 100” [Cato Unbound; Gerald O’Driscoll, Lawrence White, Scott Sumner, Jerry Jordan]
Halliburton Co. v. Erica P. John Fund, Inc.: SCOTUS considers shareholder class actions
Andrew Grossman reports on yesterday’s oral argument in Halliburton v. Erica P. John Fund, which “may be the biggest business case of the term. …Basic [Basic v. Levinson, 1988, in which the Court dispensed with the reliance requirement in favor of the “fraud on the market” theory] came at the tail-end of the Court’s decades-long experiment in policymaking by creating and defining the contours of civil actions. … The chief barrier to overturning Basic may not be its logic, its wisdom, or even its correctness as a matter of law, but instead stare decisis.” Earlier here, here, here, and here.
More: Kaye Scholer (possible “midway position” with impact on stock price considered at stage of class certification).
Financial and banking roundup
- Following vindication, Mark Cuban begins transcribing transcripts of other SEC trials on his blog [Blog Maverick, background] “Why Settling With The SEC Can Be Worse Than Losing At Trial” [John J. Carney, David Choi and Francesca Harker]
- Congress needs to investigate whether administration browbeat Standard & Poor’s over sovereign debt rating [John McGinnis]
- As regs squeeze banks out of small business lending, will we like non-bank alternatives as well? [John Cochrane] More: Kevin Funnell;
- Cash business can’t bank its proceeds: “Robber gangs terrorize Colorado pot shops” [NBC News]
- “Will Plaintiff Lawyers Cut Down On The Choices In Your 401(k)?” [Daniel Fisher]
- Does Delaware have an incentive to keep securities lawyers happy with big fees? [Bainbridge]
- “It’s Time To Grill the Federal Reserve About Bitcoin” [Ira Stoll]
Supreme Court and constitutional law roundup
- SCOTUS to hear case of Susan B. Anthony List v. Driehaus, First Amendment challenge to state laws regulating truth of political speech [IJ/Cato amicus cert brief]
- Groups of law professors file amicus briefs in Halliburton Co. v. Erica P. John Fund, Inc. arguing that retreat from “fraud on the market” theory is consistent with modern scholarship on capital market efficiency [John Elwood] and sound statutory construction [Elwood, Bainbridge]
- Behind the Michigan affirmative action plan in Schuette, including colorful background of litigant BAMN (“By Any Means Necessary”) [Gail Heriot, Federalist Society “Engage”]
- Court dismisses Mulhall v. UNITE HERE (challenge to employer cooperation agreement with union as “thing of value”) as improvidently granted [Jack Goldsmith, On Labor, earlier]
- Affordable Care Act saga has taken toll on rule of law [Timothy and Christina Sandefur, Regulation]
- Lol-worthy new Twitter account, @clickbaitSCOTUS, with content like “The nine words no appellate advocate wants to read” [re: Madigan v. Levin]
- Drug War vs. Constitution at Supreme Court, 1928: Drug War won by only one vote and you might not predict who wrote the most impassioned dissent [my Cato post]
Banking and finance roundup
- J.P. Morgan and the Dodd-Frank system: “With Wall Street’s capable assistance, government has managed to institutionalize and monetize the perp walk.” [Michael Greve, related from Greve on the self-financing regulatory state]
- Harvard needs to worry about being seen as endorsing its affiliated Shareholder Rights Project [Richard Painter]
- Under regulatory pressure, J.P. Morgan “looking to pull back from lending to politically incorrect operations like pawn shops, payday lenders, check cashers” [Seeking Alpha]
- Rare securities class action goes to trial against Household lending firm, HSBC; $2.46 billion judgment [Reuters]
- Car dealers only thought they were winning a Dodd-Frank exemption from CFPB. Surprise! [Carter Dougherty/Bloomberg, Funnell]
- “Memo to the Swiss: Capping CEO Pay is not an Intelligent Way of dealing with Income Inequality” [Bainbridge]
- American Bankers Association vs. blogger who compiled online list of banks’ routing numbers [Popehat]
Supreme Court and constitutional law roundup
- Court agrees to hear case that could be vehicle for reconsidering “fraud on the market” theory embraced in Basic Inc. v. Levinson, 1988, which would spell huge news for securities class actions [Daniel Fisher, Class Defense Blog, Halliburton v. Erica P. John Fund at SCOTUSBlog; noteworthy amicus brief (PDF) from former SEC commissioners and officials and law professors]
- Elane Photography files certiorari petition [PDF] seeking review of ruling compelling owner to shoot same-sex partnership celebration [Adam Liptak, NYT, citing Cato brief in New Mexico case below, more on which here]
- Court hears oral argument on Hood v. AU Optronics: is state attorney general’s parens patriae antitrust suit removable to federal court under CAFA? [Ronald Mann/SCOTUSBlog, Class Defense Blog]
- “Party autonomy reigns supreme: arbitration and class actions in the Supreme Court’s 2012 term” [Mark Morril, WLF]
- More views on Bond v. U.S., the treaty case [Nick Dranias, Oona Hathaway, Spiro et al/Opinio Juris, Will Baude, earlier]
- Housing disparate impact: “St. Paul landlords’ suit may move forward, after New Jersey case settled” [St. Paul Pioneer-Press, Josh Blackman and more, earlier]
- Hee hee: SCOTUSBlog is for sale, and Kyle Graham is handicapping the possible purchasers [Non Curat Lex]
- There’s no constitutional authority for federal hate crime law [Ilya Shapiro, Cato]
“The little Louisiana pension fund litigation monster”
Fortune reporter Erika Fry profiles the lawyer-allied Louisiana Municipal Police Employees’ Retirement System, pronounced “Lampers,” which has been called a “serial plaintiff,” a “frequent filer,” and in one legal brief “the most prolific filer of shareholder litigation in U.S. history.”
Banking and finance roundup
- “Dodd-Frank and The Regulatory Burden on Smaller Banks” [Todd Zywicki]
- Side-stepping Morrison: way found for foreign-cubed claims to get into federal court? [D&O Diary]
- “Alice in Wonderland Has Nothing on Section 518 of the New York General Business Law” [Eugene Volokh, swipe fees]
- “Financial Reform in 12 Minutes” [John Cochrane]
- Why the state-owned Bank of North Dakota isn’t a model for much of anything [Mark Calabria, New York Times “Room for Debate”]
- Regulated lenders have many reasons to watch SCOTUS’s upcoming Mount Holly case on housing disparate impact [Kevin Funnell]
- Cert petition: “Time to undo fraud-on-the-market presumption in securities class actions?” [Alison Frankel]
JP Morgan’s $920 million fine
Matt Levine concludes that a large share of it was for making dumb trades, as opposed to intentional malfeasance. (Earlier on whether regulators had taken a bead on Morgan because of chief Jamie Dimon’s perceived bad attitude.) Will Morgan’s admissions materially help plaintiff’s lawyers in the inevitable shareholder class action? Don’t be so sure [Alison Frankel, Reuters] More: WSJ (sees politics), Hank Greenberg via FedSocBlog, Iain Murray.