- “California’s Unconstitutional Gender Quotas for Corporate Boards” [Ilya Somin, Stephen Bainbridge, Jerome Woehrle, Ann Althouse]
- Useful tool, or abuse of power? “Leveraging allows regulators to use their gatekeeping authority to secure concessions that they might not be able to achieve otherwise—and to do so quickly and cheaply.” [William Kovacic and David Hyman, Cato Regulation magazine]
- The conflict minerals law fiasco: “between 2010 and 2012, the monthly incidence of battles, looting and violence against civilians strongly increased in the mining areas targeted by Dodd-Frank” [Nik Stoop, Marijke Verpoorten and Peter van der Windt, Washington Post “Monkey Cage”, Dominic Parker, PERC (summarizing two recent studies), my earlier]
- “Return of Bill Lerach: Disbarred attorney consults on case alleging hedge funds mismanaged Kentucky pensions” [ABA Journal]
- “The Politics of Pay: The Unintended Consequences of Regulating Executive Compensation” [Kevin J. Murphy and Michael C. Jensen, Cato Institute Research Briefs in Economic Policy series]
- “Increasingly, our [financial] regulatory structure has been adopting processes that are inconsistent with adherence to the rule of law.” What to do? [Charles Calomiris, Cato Journal]
Filed under: Africa, banks, Bill Lerach, California, corporate governance, regulatory retaliation, rule of law, Wall Street
4 Comments
Regulators abuse their power constantly. But individual actors are in business to make money, so you pay the fee, genuflect to the “wisdom” of people who are often complete idiots and willing to say the sky is yellow to justify a position.
One huge problem is that there is no remedy that has any bite. An individual regulator/bureaucrat who is abusive or vindictive or is playing to “win” rather than get to a result that is according to the law should be punished.
One tool in the toolbox should be that the regulator, when it acts in bad faith and that bad faith permeates its relationship with a regulated entity should get the “death penalty”–i.e., the regulator simply doesn’t get to regulate that entity any more. Lawyers who take bogus regulatory positions should be investigated (and hammered by) the state bar. Personal liability should be on the table.
There’s also a cultural shift that needs to happen. I worked for a federal agency, and at times I dealt with the public. I took some abuse–so whatt? My feelings were irrelevant to the issue. Citizens have the First Amendment right to criticize the government and government actors, and there should be no adverse consequences. But of course there are.
This state of affairs incentivizes businesses to seek relationships with politicians who can exert pressure on the regulators–thereby creating an unequal playing field. Think Broadway Bank in Chicago . . .
Re disbarred attorney. Seems to me that the First Amendment doesn’t allow “the law” to be the exclusive province of lawyers. If he is not holding himself out as a lawyer and is not representing someone, his conduct is unobjectionable.
I have not seen this mentioned by the lawyers but the calif bill on women on boards seems to violate the rights of shareholders and the process of appointing boards of directors. In theory at least, slates of directors are put forward and shareholders vote. This law requires that this be short-circuited. This violates both the charter of the corp and the shareholder rights.
Gender Quotas for Corporate Boards:
You would think strong, intelligent women would be insulted by this crap.