The “rogue trader”—a famed figure of the 1990s—recently has returned to prominence due largely to two phenomena. First, recent U.S. mortgage market volatility spilled over into stock, commodity, and derivative markets worldwide, causing large financial institution losses and revealing...

Central to every legal system is the principle that certain items are off-limits to commercial exchange. In theory, babies are one such sacred object. This supposed ban on baby selling has been lamented by those who view commercial markets as the most efficient means of allocating resources, and...

In this article, I analyze the motivations underlying the actions of "rogue traders" - market professionals who engage in unauthorized purchases or sales of securities, commodities or derivatives, often for a financial institution's proprietary trading account - and the motivations of the...

The large losses suffered by investors in financial derivatives during recent years have prompted a wave of litigation, as well as proposals from Congress and regulatory agencies for increased monitoring of derivatives markets. Many, including some members of Congress and even "industry...

This Article considers the market structure of the human egg (or “oocyte”) donation business, particularly the presence of anti-competitive behavior by the fertility industry, including horizontal price-fixing of the type long considered per se illegal in other industries. The Article...

This essay discusses two recent episodes in the financial derivatives industry and the television coverage of those episodes. Our discussion focuses on (1) the 1994 bankruptcy of Orange County and the 60 Minutes television program describing that county's derivatives losses and (2) the 1998...

In this article, I analyze the motivations underlying the actions of quot;rogue tradersquot; - market professionals who engage in unauthorized purchases or sales of securities, commodities or derivatives, often for a financial institution's proprietary trading account - and the motivations of...

The large losses suffered by investors in financial derivatives during recent years have prompted a wave of litigation, as well as proposals from Congress and regulatory agencies for increased monitoring of derivatives markets. Many, including some members of Congress and even quot;industry...

This paper considers the role that contract doctrine should play in facilitating optimal investment in contractual relationships. All contracts are incomplete in the sense that they do not specify the optimal actions for the buyer and seller in every future contingency. This incompleteness can...

Corporate America considers risk management vitally important and considers derivative financial products an indispensable tool for managing many types of financial risk regularly faced by today's corporations. Not content with criticizing derivatives speculation as undesirable, however, some...