With the announcement of the Oscar nominees, try watching Margin Call to combine movie watching and compliance. Margin Call received an Oscar nomination for best original screenplay. The movie sets Kevin Spacey, Demi Moore, Jeremy Irons, Stanley Tucci, and Simon Baker as the key players at an investment firm during the earliest hours of the [...]
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Defending Jacob
Being a lawyer, I like a good legal thriller. If you’re looking for a legal thriller to keep you up at night, try William Landay’s latest novel: Defending Jacob. Jacob is a fourteen year old boy whose classmate is found murdered. Jacob’s father is an assistant district attorney. You can guess from the title that [...]
Stop SOPA
Based on the White House statement about Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA), the PROTECT IP Act and the Online Protection and Digital ENforcement Act (OPEN), those bills may be in serious trouble. The Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA), H.R. 3261, as originally proposed bill would allow the U.S. Department of Justice to take action against [...]
Manufacturing Jobs, Robots, and the Economy
We still make lots of stuff in the United States. China is our closest competitor. The two countries are very close at the number 1 and number 2 positions of manufacturing output. In the past decade, manufacturing output in the US has risen by a third. What hasn’t risen is the number of jobs in [...]
The Rise and Fall of Jon Corzine
Bryan Burrough, William D. Cohan and Bethany McLean have a piece in this month’s Vanity Fair on Jon Corzine, the man behind the spectacular crash of MF Global. It doesn’t provide much insight into what happened at MF Global or where the missing money went. But is does paint an interesting picture of the captain [...]
Charges Brought in Social Media Scam
The Securities and Exchange Commission charged an Illinois-based investment adviser with offering to sell fictitious securities on LinkedIn. The SEC also issued two alerts to highlight the risks investors and advisory firms face when using social media. The SEC’s Division of Enforcement alleges that Anthony Fields of Lyons, Illinois offered more than $500 billion in [...]
Happy New Year
New Year’s Eve is a time to reflect on the past and look forward to the future. You may also add an excessive amount of alcohol, an expensive dinner in a crowded restaurant, or a long wait for Chinese food delivery. I’m sure there is a compliance story in there somewhere, but I’m just going [...]
Happy Holidays
W.A. Rogers Editorial cartoon from 1902 published in Harper’s Weekly Uncle Sam standing smiling at Christmas tree laden with warships, telephones, an automobile, a fat man labeled “The Trusts,” and skyscrapers; with bags of money at its base. (The things that make Uncle Sam happy have not changed much over the last 100 years.)
FTC, Bloggers, and Disclosure
The Federal Trade Commission is continuing to pursue bloggers who fail to disclose that they received incentives to discuss a company’s products. Back in December, the Federal Trade Commission released new guidelines that specifically required bloggers to disclose any material connections to a product or company they are writing about. The FTC is focusing its [...]
