GLG News in Legal, Economic & Regulatory Affairs

It should be no surprise that the subprime/ARS collapse has generated waves of class action lawsuits by shareholders.  And that they appear to have merit.  But that doesn't mean courts will give the plaintiffs the WMD of a class action status.  Ten years ago that would have been a certaintly; today it is increasingly a rarity.

The GSE takeover will not significantly reduce mortgage interest rates.  The GSEs will now be focused on propping up the U.S. economy--not on prudent lending and risk-based pricing.

EU Internal Market Commissioner Charlie McCreevy announced that he wants to take Germany to the European Court of Justice (ECJ) since in his view, Germany has failed to amend the so-called “VW Law” properly and in line with European legislation. The ECJ held last year that the VW law was in breach of European rules on the free flow of capital across borders within the EU. The German car maker Porsche,...

hanges to the NATO strategy in Afghanistan and a new Strategic Concept for the Alliance are both urgently needed if NATO is retain its credibility and legitimacy, within the eyes of the wider world and citizens in member states. US troops in Afghanistan should be fully integrated under NATO command and European 'caveats' on troop deployments removed. Three modest goals should be fundamental to a...

The DoJ amicus brief to the Supreme Court in a telecommunications case hints at a more relaxed view about the applicability of antitrust law to pricing decisions by regulated companies.  A key accusation in the bankcard interchange cases is that competing regulated banks on Visa & MasterCard's boards fixed the interchange fee and thereby harmed competion in violation of the...

The new DoJ antitrust guidelines significantly water down monopoly, per se liability, competition and tie-in standards that have propelled government enforcement and private lawsuits by retailers in recent years against Visa, MasterCard and their issuers.  Undoubtedly, the defendants will point to new guidelines to strengthen the arguments that they have not behaved as a monopoly and that their...

The September 4th hearing has now come and gone, and still TiVo commentators seem to think that TiVo is moments away from a final, decisive win.  The reality is considerably more bleak.  TiVo's contempt request is likely to be denied, and TiVo will not gain significant leverage unless and until the court hears the full work-around issue.

Is the subprime mortgage debacle the driving force behind so many recent bankruptcies? Will the federal government step in with regulations to in essence help itself: no money for bills, no money for taxes?

How far will the SEC go to recoup subprime mortgage losses & is anyone really immune?Are SEC deep investigations into broker transactions simply the result of Corporate Governance?

This excellant article captures virtually all of the problems currently faced in Afghanistan: 1. Karzai's problem in holding together a government that was carved up among the victorious participants (even if Karzai were a strong leader); 2. The failure of enough countries to contribute significant military resources to this effort; 3. The literal wasting of 5 years by the donor community that sent...