Exploratorium physicist Larry Shaw began celebrating March 14 as pi day for the mathematical constant π, the ratio of a circle’s circumference to its diameter.
Behind the Myth of Insider Trading by SEC Employees by Bruce Carton in Compliance Week
The authors also point to six specific cases in which “SEC employees appear to front-run the announcement that a firm is subject to costly SEC penalties (associated with the enforcement action).” The authors conclude that “at least some of these SEC employee trading profits are information based, as they tend to divest in the run-up to SEC enforcement actions …” From that bold conclusion came the breathless media headlines mentioned before.
Do the assertions, assumptions, and conclusions in this study even make sense? I say no—let me count the ways: …
The SEC Will Take “Your” Money, Thanks by David Smyth in Cady Bar the Door
So let’s say you work for a hedge fund or some other financial institution that engages in proprietary trading , and you’re inclined to do some insider trading on your employer’s behalf. You make your trades, but you’re a company man and the profits go to the fund, not your own pocket. And let’s also say you get caught and the SEC sues you for the illicit trading. Not a very fun thought so far, right? It gets worse. Because if the SEC wins its case, it can force you to disgorge your fund’s profits.
The Ides of March and Evaluation of Compliance Risk by Tom Fox in the FCPA Compliance and Ethics Blog
One of the more interesting questions in any anti-corruption compliance regime is to what extent your policies and procedures might apply in your dealings with customers. Clearly customers are third parties and in the sales chain but most compliance programs do not focus their efforts on customers. However, some businesses only want to engage with reputable and ethical counter-parties so some companies do put such an analysis into their compliance decision calculus.
However, companies in the US, UK and other countries who do not consider the corruption risk with a customer may need to rethink their position after the recent announcements made by Citigroup Inc. regarding its Mexico operations.
The Disturbing Economics Of Automobile Dealerships in Weakonomics
Tesla, the maker of the car you see above, is in a bit of a pickle with the state of New Jersey. The automaker is an industry innovator; not just for the fact that it makes beautiful electric cars, but because they also want to sell those cars directly to their customers. In the United States this idea is not only rare, it’s largely illegal. For the past few years Tesla has been battling with lawmakers and trade-groups state by state for the right to sell cars directly to their customers. The opponents in this case are the car dealers, who want to force Tesla use dealer networks to distribute and sell their cars.
Non-Technologists Agree: It’s the Technology by Andrew McAfee
Two papers came out last year that examined important issues around jobs and wages. Both are in top journals. Both were written by first-rate researchers, none of whom specialize in studying the impact of technology. And both came to the same conclusion: that digital technologies were largely responsible for the phenomena they examined.
Another Modest Proposal – Risk Factors by Keith Paul Bishop in California Corporate & Securities Law blog
Here’s my solution. The Securities and Exchange Commission should create a list of standard risk factors and issuers should be required to incorporate by reference all applicable risk factors into their filings. They would only be permitted to disclose risks that aren’t on the list. Thus, the SEC would create a standard risk factors such as “competition”, “dependence on key personnel”, and “natural disaster”.
Planning: are you running a baseball game or a soccer match? by Jack Vinson in Knowledge Jolt with Jack
When planning a project, are you more interested in the dates every activity happens, or are you more interested in how all the activities are connected together? Which focus will guarantee success?
The answer depends a little on what kind of work you are planning. Event-based planning focuses on the sequence of activities needed to complete the project. Time-based planning focuses on the time available and attempts to get as much done as possible, according to the clock.
