Contributing Member of the Legal, Economic & Regulatory Affairs Councils

GLG News by this Author

The Resources are There, but the Security is Not

November 12, 2009

Analysis of:Iraq oil deal puts pressure on Opec | www.ft.com

The award does not change that much. It allows for exploration and development - on paper. But the political insecurity that has kept Iraqi oil production down remains, and the West Qurna field is still vulnerable, and may become more so.

Trouble for TEVA with COPAXONE

April 1, 2009

Analysis of:Teva (NasdaqGS:TEVA) Announces FDA Response to Citizen Petition (Re COPAXONE ANDA) | www.tevapharm.com

Teva should try to comply with the FDA requirements for the full new drug application of the generic version of COPAXONE and not rely on citizen petitions.

The Federal Reserve Had an Extremely Minor Effect on the Housing Crisis

March 30, 2009

Analysis of:Did the Fed Cause the Housing Bubble? | online.wsj.com

The argument that the Federal Reserve caused the housing crisis is similar to the notion of a "natural rate" of interest.  The Federal Reserve is seen as somehow undermining this natural rate through its interest rate policies.  But if the argument for a natural rate is wrong, the Federal Reserve had very limited responsibility for the housing crisis, except in that members of the Federal Reserve argued against regulation that might have avoided it.

EPA's regulation will probably be less about costs, and more about feasibility

February 20, 2009

Analysis of:E.P.A. Expected to Regulate Carbon Dioxide | www.nytimes.com

The remarks here are a summary of remarks made by Kenneth Snell, of Sargent and Lundy, during the recent Power-Gen Conference, in Orlando, Florida.  In addition, I am allowing myself editorial comment and interpretation of the remarks. The basic point Mr. Snell made is that regulation of CO2 by EPA would be very difficult under existing legislation.  Legal challenges could be brought to every step of the process.  My own guess is that new legislation will probably be authored to resolve some of the difficulties; the legislation will be more about feasibility and less about costs.

The Conservative Argument against Tax Cuts as an Anti-Recession Tool

February 19, 2009

Analysis of:Failure to Rise | www.nytimes.com

Krugman's article is valuable for getting the magnitudes right.  But he doesn't point out why tax cuts will be saved. The argument that temporary tax cuts would be saved is a conservative argument, not a liberal one.  It comes straight from the permanent income hypothesis championed by Milton Friedman in his "A Theory of the Consumption Function", (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1957.)  The same people who insist on tax cuts are also insisting that President Obama will raise your taxes, so the cuts have to be temporary!  If this argument isn't true, then the people who are advocating it have to explain why the 1968 tax surcharge lowered the saving rate, which they never do. You can't have it both ways; this is the point that really needs to be brought out. A serious Republican argument would explain how tax cuts would increase house purchases and spending on consumer durables.  We haven't gotten that argument yet.

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