Derivatives Regulation, Featured, Home, U.S. Business Law, Volume 3

Toward an Economic Model for the Taxation of Derivatives and Other Financial Instruments

David S. Miller: On January 24, the Chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, released the discussion draft of a bill that would tax derivatives under a mark-to-market system of taxation. This proposal would replace our entire federal system of taxing derivatives with a radically different but infinitely simpler model that would finally correspond to economic reality.

Derivatives Regulation, Dodd-Frank Anniversary, Featured, Financial Regulation, Home, U.S. Business Law, Volume 6

The Swaps Pushout Rule: Much Ado About the Wrong Thing?

John Crawford and Tim Karpoff: A notably bitter battle over financial reform in the wake of the crisis of 2008 has centered on the Swap Pushout Rule: a Dodd-Frank mandate that federally insured depository institutions—i.e., banks—refrain from entering into certain derivatives contracts. After several of the largest U.S. financial institutions successfully lobbied to roll back the Rule, the rollback inspired intense criticism, but the critiques have not accurately reflected what is really at stake for the banks or the public. While the Rule was sold as an anti-bailout measure, this Article argues that the Rule would have been ineffective as a means of preventing further bailouts of systematically important bank holding companies. The Article further argues that the primary reason systematically important bank holding companies care about the Rule is that it costs more to fund these swaps if they are booked at a different legal entity, such as a broker-dealer, rather than at a bank.

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