The Disclosure Regime in the Obama Era

Abstract:     
The Frank-Dodd Bill is the culmination of a year-long discussion under President Obama’s administration regarding the need to overhaul the current securities regulatory model. In this paper, Prof. Amerson will examine the regulatory model’s emphasis on disclosure and share her thoughts on why this model is inherently flawed. Prof. Amerson’s position is that, while the bill is a step forward (with its advanced warning council on systemic risks), its primary shortcomings are in its inability to completely re-tool the old “disclosure” model. This disclosure model is outdated and does not seem to reflect the current trading patterns that dominate the United States’ securities market. Instead, Prof. Amerson argues that a regulatory framework that examines the trading market as a whole instead of focusing on the disclosures of public companies, would offer better protection against the problems that led to the financial crisis.

working papers series