April 5, 2010 at 11:39 am
With efforts to regulate the trading of derivatives stalling in the Senate Banking Committee, members of the Senate Agriculture Comittee are taking a stab at it, hoping to add it to an 0verall financial reform bill the banking panel is crafting. Law Professor Elizabeth Nowicki, both a former SEC attorney and Wall Street lawyer, says […]
April 2, 2010 at 12:20 pm
Apple is looking for a chunk of the growing e-books market as it rolls out the iPod, and some publishers like Penguin are cutting deals to dump sales via Amazon. But the iPad doesn’t have Apple’s iBook software preinstalled, so readers can just as easily choose Amazon’s Kindle app. School of Management Prof. N. Venkat Venkatraman, chair […]
Germany is moving to adopt a new bank tax to cover the cost of possible future bailouts, and France is considering the same thing. Former Deputy Comptroller of the Currency Robert Bench, now a senior fellow at the BU Law School’s Morin Center for Banking and Financial Law, says perhaps the best way to protect […]
April 1, 2010 at 11:44 am
A federal judge has ruled as illegal the Bush-era progam of surveillance without warrants conducted by the National Security Agency, which bypassed the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA). The Obama Justice Department hasn’t decided whether to appeal. Attorney Philip O’Neill, who teaches national security law at BU Law, says a lawful domestic-surveillance process isn’t a barrier […]
Most credit for the origin of April Fools’ Day to King Charles IX in 16th Century France when he move New Years from the end of March to January — with those still marking the new year in April mocked as fools. But history emeritus Professor Joseph Boskin still gets media calls each year asking about how he told […]
March 31, 2010 at 4:53 pm
Amphastar Pharmaceuticals reportedly paid more than $100,000 to a private investigative firm to snoop on FDA officials they suspected of having a too-chummy relationship with a competitor drug maker. Amphastar insists it did nothing wrong, but Senate Finance Committee investigators are looking into the case. Law Professor Kevin Outterson, an authority on drug law and marketing, […]
March 30, 2010 at 4:48 pm
On the heels of victorys on healthcare reform, a nuclear-arms agreement with the Russians, and student loans, President Obama seems to be getting more willing to be confrontational with Congressional foes. Political science Professor Graham Wilson, author of “Only in America? American Politics in Comparative Perspective,” says it appears the 2008 campaigning Obama is back. “Is […]
March 30, 2010 at 1:40 pm
In what could break the AT&T monopoly on iPhone sales in the U.S., Apple Inc. reportedly is planning to produce an iPhone that can be sold by other carriers like Verizon using the CDMA wireless network. School of Management Professor N. Venkat Venkatraman, chairman of the Information Systems Department, says it’s a strategic move by Apple to […]
March 30, 2010 at 12:34 pm
On his visit to the U.S., French President Sarkozy has made it clear that France is “an invaluable partner and ally of the United States.” Does that mean he’ll send more French combat troops to Afghanistan, as President Obama is requesting at their White House meeting? International Relations Professor William Keylor says opinion polls in France, England, […]
March 29, 2010 at 3:46 pm
In the biggest bipartisan display since Obama took office, 90 Democrats and 40 Republicans wrote a the Treasury and Commerce secretaries demanding that China appreciate its currency or face a financial duty. But, as international relations Professor Kevin Gallagher explains in a Politico commentary, appreciating the Chinese currency still won’t regain lost U.S. jobs. “Rather […]
