Bigger — and more entrenched — hedge funds

That could be the result of the new institution of elaborate compliance system mandates that could prove to be beyond the capacity of fledgling start-ups, per Marc Hodak:

So, the government decided it had to increase regulations [on] the one part of the financial services sector -– hedge funds –- that had nothing to do with the financial crisis. And because the government felt compelled to spend gobs of taxpayer cash to bail out financial institution[s] that were too big to fail, Congress created a raft of regulations whose main effect will be to crush entrepreneurship and compel waves of consolidation. And the people who pushed for this regulation, who inadvertently insisted that the fixed costs of doing business in America are not yet high enough, will be shocked to find that only the big survive.

Filed under: Securities and Exchange Commission, small business, Wall Street

Sorry, craft brewers

In Oregon “all homemade alcoholic beverages must be consumed where they’re made,” so unless the law changes, beer and wine competitions and taste-offs aren’t going to be legal. [KATU]

Filed under: alcohol, beer and brewers, Oregon, small business

Artisan cheese, Mark Bittman and Michelle Obama

I’ve got a food policy roundup at Cato that tries to answer such questions as:

* Has FDA’s regulatory zeal finally met its match in the foodie zeal of cheese-makers and -fanciers who are beginning to insist on their right to make and enjoy cheeses similar to those in France, even if they pose a nonzero though tiny bacterial risk?

* How annoying is it that Mark Bittman would stop writing a great food column in the NYT in order to start writing an inevitably wrongheaded politics-of-food column?

* Is Wal-Mart secretly smiling after First Lady Michelle Obama publicly twisted its arm to do various things it was probably considering anyway, along with some things it definitely wanted to do, such as opening more stores in poor urban neighborhoods?

Related: Led by past Overlawyered guest-blogger Baylen Linnekin, Keep Food Legal bills itself as “The first and only nationwide membership organization devoted to culinary freedom.” 11 Points has compiled a list of “11 Foods and Drinks Banned in the United States.” And GetReligion.org has more on the “shadowy community of outlaw Amish and Mennonite dairy farmers” portrayed in several recent press reports.

Filed under: FDA, food safety, France, Mark Bittman, New York Times, obesity, small business, Wal-Mart

February 2 roundup

Many of the best New Jersey sledding slopes are off limits now: “Litigators ruin pretty much everything” [Bainbridge]
Granola bar trans-fat lawsuit leaves Russell Jackson unimpressed;
“Criminal barbering”: license lapse gets 82-year-old Oregon hair-cutter in legal trouble [Perry]
Tomorrow’s economy won’t thrive if municipal authorities strangle innovative businesses where they incubate [Conor Friedersdorf, City Journal]
Need to bring property taxes under control? Try litigation reform [NJLRA]
Convicted at height of 90s child-abuse prosecution fever, Ohio pair seek to reopen case [Briefcase] More: Balko.
Here’s an idea: “Let the shareholders decide if SOX is worth the costs.” [Ribstein]
Retired Massachusetts attorney found in possession of stolen art trove [five years ago on Overlawyered] Updates courtesy reader Ronald Stimbert: Legal Blog Watch 2008 (attorney convicted); Cape Cod Times 2010 (paintings returned to owner).

Filed under: child abuse, New Jersey, Ohio, recreation, Sarbanes-Oxley, small business, taxpayers, trans-fats

Big business and the extension of regulation

There’s a curiously contemporary ring in these reports from the early days of federal food safety regulation (Roy Childs via Arnold Kling):

…Regulation in general, far from coming against the wishes of the regulated interests, was openly welcomed by them in nearly every case. As Upton Sinclair said of the meat industry, which he is given credit for having tamed, “the federal inspection of meat was historically established at the packers’ request. … It is maintained and paid for by the people of the United States for the benefit of the packers.”

…In any case, congressional hearings during the administration of Theodore Roosevelt revealed that “the big Chicago packers wanted more meat inspection both to bring the small packers under control and to aid them in their position in the export trade.” Formally representing the large Chicago packers, Thomas E. Wilson publicly announced: “We are now and have always been in favor of the extension of the inspection.”

Filed under: food safety, small business

“The Chocolate Library” vs. library bureaucrats

A New York law provides that new businesses cannot register names that employ words like “library”, “school” or “academy” without the prior approval of the state education department. The department declined to approve the application of a startup East Village confiserie that calls itself The Chocolate Library, so the owner has incorporated as Chocolate 101 while hoping for a change of heart on the registration issue. He called the dispute “ridiculous”: “No one is coming in here confusing us as a library.” [NYT “Diner’s Journal”]

Filed under: New York, small business

November 18 roundup

Adios to Rum and Coke? “FDA, FTC crack down on caffeinated alcoholic drinks” [WaPo]
Flap over Justice Alito’s attendance at conservative magazine’s dinner may be much ado about nothing [Steele, Legal Ethics Forum]
“Cops Threaten Mom for Letting [8 Year Old] Son Play Outside” [Free-Range Kids]
Contrary to some assertions, American courts from early on did recognize that tort liability could run into First Amendment constitutional limits [Eugene Volokh, Iowa Law Review, PDF]
Woman pleads guilty to insurance fraud after obtaining $300,000 over low-speed auto collision [Seattle P-I]
Well-known examples to the contrary, regulation doesn’t always favor big business against small [Bryan Caplan]
Should “professional plaintiffs” have standing? [Brandon Murrill, William & Mary Law Review, PDF]
Blonds not protected class under federal employment discrimination law, judge declares [six years ago on Overlawyered]

Filed under: alcohol, claims fraud, First Amendment, small business, Supreme Court

Why Can’t Chuck Start a Business?

A new video from the Institute for Justice fingers municipal licensing and regulation.

Filed under: small business

“Drowning in law”

Author Philip K. Howard’s latest op-ed tells of the “legal quicksand” faced by small business owners, who

face legal challenges at every step. Municipalities requires multiple and often nonsensical forms to do business. Labor laws expose them to legal threats by any disgruntled employee. Mandates to provide costly employment benefits impose high hurdles to hiring new employees. Well-meaning but impossibly complex laws impose requirements to prevent consumer fraud, provide disability access, prevent hiring illegal immigrants, display warnings and notices and prevent scores of other potential evils. The tax code is incomprehensible.

All of this requires legal and other overhead – costing 50% more per employee for small businesses than big businesses.

Posts Tagged ‘small business’