U.S. companies continue to demonstrate resilience following another year in which the pandemic imposed itself on world events. Although 2021 did not deliver a full reopening, corporate activity thrived in spite of ongoing uncertainty around “return to work,” building on momentum and lessons learned from 2020. As the impact of the pandemic subsides, company culture, talent retention and business objectives will shape the long-term workplace landscape. We identify below some of the key factors that…

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) appoints drug experts to drug advisory committees (ACs) that make approval or rejection recommendations for about half of all new drugs (usually the unique ones, such as Covid vaccines). The experts receive nonpublic technical reports from drug firms and FDA staff a month or so before ACs meet. Our recent study is the first to examine potentially informed options trading around the report creation dates (not publicly known), as…

Climate change is one of today’s most salient policy challenges. Under the Paris Agreement, 195 governments agreed to limit temperature increases to well below 2, preferably 1.5, degrees centigrade relative to pre-industrial levels. Since the magnitude of global warming is roughly proportional to the amount of carbon in the atmosphere, the agreement in effect specified a “carbon budget.” To stay within that budget, emission reductions equivalent to what was forced upon us by the worst…

Back to normal doesn’t mean what it used to. Following a year like no other, demand came roaring out the gate in 2021. While the pace of new demand has slowed somewhat in recent months amidst concern of new COVID variants, net new flows into long-term mutual funds and ETFs reached unprecedented territory. The $1.1 trillion gathered over the first 11 months of the year has surpassed all other years on record for the fund …

In a recent piece, I argue  that corporate leaders should not shy away from making a public statement if they believe it is the right thing to do and consistent with the corporation’s values.[1] The opportunities to speak are legion – and controversial. In response to increasing COVID cases, for example, Apple is requiring customers – in addition to employees – to wear masks when visiting stores.  J.P. Morgan is barring unvaccinated employees from…

As the world will soon reflect on two full years of living through the COVID pandemic, the pace of shareholder-related class action settlements continue to bring significant recoveries back to harmed investors. In fact, according to ISS Securities Class Action Services, 2021 U.S. class action settlements will outpace both 2019 and 2020 in terms of dollar amounts and quantity of settlements. (Note: 2021 numbers are preliminary – final calculations will be published in January 2022.)…

According to the Financial Stability Board (FSB), there is a consensus among major economies, such as the G20, to enhance cross-border payments.[1] Providing faster, cheaper, and more transparent and inclusive cross-border payment services would be beneficial for citizens, businesses, and national economies. As the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) noted, the Covid-19 pandemic made global policymakers rethink the significance of optimizing global payment and settlement systems, leading some countries to further explore the possibility…