Over the last twenty years, stock exchanges have morphed into a new type of institution: the ‘demutualized exchange’. The position and power of stockbrokers — once the ‘masters of the investment universe’ — has been significantly lessened. “Demutualization” is the process by which a stock exchange is transformed from the traditional configuration of a broker-owned, […]

On January 22,2007, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Democratic Senator Charles Schumer released a report purchased by the New York City Economic Development Corp. from McKinsey & Co., for about $500,000, saying that Sarbanes-Oxley corporate governance, internal controls, and class action lawsuits by investors should be curbed — according to a Wall Street Journal […]

On January 11, 2007, Hugo Chavez Frias was sworn in for a third term as Venezuela’s president, promising to expropriate strategic sectors of the economy, specifically public utilities and oil properties and to generally run rough-shod over property rights and the rule of law. […]