Law

Anti-OPEC bill may squeeze U.S. oil industry

10 Oct 2018

The disappearance of a Saudi journalist is helping to breathe life into a bipartisan effort to subject the cartel to U.S. antitrust law. But it may prove more useful as a threat than reality. America’s energy producers benefit from OPEC’s price-fixing, too.

U.S. deal review could be new stick to beat China

10 Oct 2018

Minority stakes in U.S. tech firms will be under tougher scrutiny starting next month. That’s reasonable, and the Treasury, which will oversee reviews, has a rational approach. The risk is that hardliners co-opt the process to hurt Beijing once tariffs reach their limit.

Google inadvertently makes case for data crackdown

9 Oct 2018

The search giant kept secret a security hole to avoid regulators’ scrutiny, the Wall Street Journal says. The lack of transparency underlines that such disclosures should be out of managers’ hands. U.S. lawmakers eyeing a law similar to Europe’s GDPR have an extra argument.

Electric-car crash gives Evergrande a tech lesson

8 Oct 2018

Jia Yueting’s Tesla wannabe wants to scrap a $2 bln rescue agreed with a unit of the Chinese property giant. In June, the deal sent Evergrande Health stock soaring. Much of that gain is now lost. Investors are left with few reasons to trust future efforts to swerve into new lanes.

Danske’s best-case scenario may be a painful fine

4 Oct 2018

The Danish bank said it faces a U.S. criminal probe over suspicious payments in Estonia. That raises the risk that it could be blacklisted in America, which sank Latvian peer ABLV, or be fined. Even a plausible $5 bln hit would send Danske’s capital ratio below its minimum level.

California boardroom gender quota is useful nudge

1 Oct 2018

A quarter of public firms based in the state have no women directors. Now they’ll have to change that, as some big investors already demand. Similar rules in Norway, say, have not obviously trickled down. But that may take decades – and board balance is a valid goal in itself.

Broken Akorn deal is exception to MAC rule

1 Oct 2018

Merger escape clauses are notoriously hard to trigger, but a judge has let Fresenius nix its $4.75 bln Akorn deal. Don’t expect many copycats. The case includes misconduct claims, and may yet be overturned. Corporate-friendly Delaware courts are loath to second-guess contracts.

Review: Shale oil exposé misses bigger picture

28 Sep 2018

In “Saudi America” Bethany McLean tackles the U.S. fracking industry. The author who spotted fraud at Enron accurately depicts aggressive wildcatters digging themselves to their demise. But factors that are pushing up global oil prices may yet save the industry from itself.

Holding: Dell deal’s high hurdles include the law

26 Sep 2018

The PC maker risks getting sued by owners of VMware tracking stock if it pushes through a $22 bln share swap. Yet recent Delaware decisions about the rights of similar shares offer a novel defense. The planned transaction could test legal limits as well as investor patience.

Danske can deflect pitchforks with bonus clawbacks

21 Sep 2018

CEO Thomas Borgen may have resigned after the Danish bank’s money-laundering scandal. But if he’s allowed to keep bonuses awarded during the time in question, Danske’s reputation will fall further. Its board has powers to claw back unjustified variable pay – it should use them.

Danske mea culpa will only partly calm U.S. wrath

19 Sep 2018

The Danish bank’s CEO has quit after an internal report said it ignored 200 bln euros in potentially suspect Estonian payments. With the threat of a hefty U.S. fine, pre-emptive head-rolling makes sense. Danske’s problem is it still doesn’t know how bad the problem really is.

Review: A land of milk and (plenty of) money

7 Sep 2018

"Moneyland" takes a trip to the world of super-rich super-crooks, where borders are for wimps, taxes for little people and laws don't matter. Oliver Bullough's urgent polemic is deeply reported and engaging, even if it spends more time on the problem than on potential solutions.

Holding: Top U.S. judges are fairer than they seem

6 Sep 2018

Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh says he’ll act like a baseball umpire, making calls based on rules. That’s a bit facile. Recent research suggests, though, that jurists are mostly objective, while differing in interpreting laws. Congress and the public may never believe it.

Time breathes life into America’s mortgage zombies

5 Sep 2018

It’s 10 years since Washington took over Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, injecting $187 bln to render them undead. Reforms have not touched the supposedly temporary fix. A functioning home-loan market, revenue for the Treasury and inertia suggest taxpayers may be stuck with them.

U.S. creeps into EU’s money-laundering blind spot

30 Aug 2018

A new anti-money laundering directive seeks to plug holes in Europe’s leaky banks. But the rules don’t address the core problem of relying on local supervision. Until the EU can establish an independent AML authority, the U.S. will continue to act as the bloc’s de facto top cop.

Holding: Lawyers have a case for a free education

28 Aug 2018

NYU Medical School's new free-tuition policy allows graduates to avoid loans that keep many from entering low-paying yet vital fields. The logic could also work for the law. Relieved of debt, more legal eagles might choose public-interest work – to the benefit of U.S. justice.

Hadas: Shareholder value is a hard habit to kick

22 Aug 2018

Elizabeth Warren remembers when companies served the common good as well as investors. But the U.S. senator is wrong to hope that the old days can be restored with a few tweaks to governance. Renewed corporate responsibility requires big changes in five entrenched practices.

Warren tries out for swamp drainer-in-chief

21 Aug 2018

The liberal U.S. senator wants to prohibit lawmakers and cabinet members from owning individual stocks and permanently ban them from lobbying. Some of the ideas are over the top but her targets are entirely valid. Laying them out also strengthens Warren’s 2020 presidential pitch.

Viewsroom: Turkey’s financial crisis may spread

16 Aug 2018

The feud between President Tayyip Erdogan and U.S. President Donald Trump over steel tariffs threatens to turn other emerging markets cold. Breakingviews columnists discuss the global impact of Turkey’s currency meltdown. Plus: A bad bank in China gets whacked by political risk.

Bayer’s cancer scare makes a bad deal worse

13 Aug 2018

The German group's market value fell nearly $10 bln after a court awarded $289 mln to a user of weed killer made by U.S. division Monsanto. That may overstate the likely losses, but the verdict undermines a deal that already destroyed value, and left shareholders without a say.