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In July 2008 the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) published three proposals relating to the use of credit ratings in its rules and forms. The proposals were designed to address concerns that the misuse of credit ratings may have contributed to the current crisis. The SEC sought market feedback regarding the effect the removal of credit rating references may produce on the markets.

This article examines the use of ratings by various market constituents, analyzes the details of the SEC proposals, and reviews the provided feedback. The main finding is that the majority of the market participants opposed the SEC proposals. Fiduciaries and regulated entities are looking to regulators to offer a common measure of risk, stable, accurate and free of conflict of interests.

The main purpose of the chapter is to explain the impact of labour market security on migration-related decisions, especially in terms of push-pull factors theory. There are different ways to understand work-related security; the chapter discusses the importance of job security, employment security and income security from labour migration perspective. The article presents the existing body of literature on theoretical concepts as well as on some methodological facets of the measurements of the level of particular aspects of work-related security. Special attention is paid to labour migrants in terms of their working conditions in both sending and receiving countries. An overview of previous migration studies proves that the issue of migrants’ labour market security was not the subject of any in-depth analyses. There are, however, many examples of research showing that, under certain conditions, migration decisions are influenced by, among others, the generosity of a welfare state, stability of job and the desire to achieve the so-called normal life. In the case of migrants from third countries (e.g. from Ukraine), income security is of particular importance alongside remuneration.

The economic doctrine of market efficiency plays an essential role in securities fraud litigation. In lawsuits alleging violations of SEC Rule 10b-5, the plaintiffs typically must argue that the market for the relevant security is efficient, and therefore that the “fraud on the market” doctrine applies. However, the term “market efficiency” is often applied imprecisely. In this chapter, we discuss properties of efficient markets that have been proposed in academic research, legal scholarship, and case law. We explore what must be assumed about capital markets for each of these properties to hold. We then ask how, in practice, each property could be rebutted.

Following the Supreme Court’s 1988 decision in Basic, securities class plaintiffs can invoke the “rebuttable presumption of reliance on public, material misrepresentations regarding securities traded in an efficient market” [the “fraud-on-the-market” doctrine] to prove classwide reliance. Although this requires plaintiffs to prove that the security traded in an informationally efficient market throughout the class period, Basic did not identify what constituted adequate proof of efficiency for reliance purposes.

Market efficiency cannot be presumed without proof because even large publicly traded stocks do not always trade in efficient markets, as documented in the economic literature that has grown significantly since Basic. For instance, during the recent global financial crisis, lack of liquidity limited arbitrage (the mechanism that renders markets efficient) and led to significant price distortions in many asset markets. Yet, lower courts following Basic have frequently granted class certification based on a mechanical review of some factors that are considered intuitive “proxies” of market efficiency (albeit incorrectly, according to recent studies and our own analysis). Such factors have little probative value and their review does not constitute the rigorous analysis demanded by the Supreme Court.

Instead, to invoke fraud-on-the-market, plaintiffs must first establish that the security traded in a weak-form efficient market (absent which a security cannot, as a logical matter, trade in a “semi-strong form” efficient market, the standard required for reliance purposes) using well-accepted tests. Only then do event study results, which are commonly used to demonstrate “cause and effect” (i.e., prove that the security’s price reacted quickly to news – a hallmark of a semi-strong form efficient market), have any merit. Even then, to claim classwide reliance, plaintiffs must prove such cause-and-effect relationship throughout the class period, not simply on selected disclosure dates identified in the complaint as plaintiffs often do.

These issues have policy implications because, once a class is certified, defendants frequently settle to avoid the magnified costs and risks associated with a trial, and the merits of the case (including the proper application of legal presumptions) are rarely examined at a trial.

This chapter explores Hong Kong's future as a major public securities market. It concludes that Hong Kong has the potential to become one of the world's major – if not the number one – public securities market in the coming decades. However, there are four major factors that will affect how much this potential is realized: (1) How Hong Kong's market is treated by the Central Government in Beijing vis-a-vis its competitors in Shanghai and Shenzhen. If Hong Kong is allowed full access to the Chinese saver/investor and Chinese firms are allowed the choice of listing in Hong Kong, then Hong Kong will outcompete its Shanghai and Shenzhen rivals regardless of whether Shanghai and Shenzhen are opened for listings by foreign companies and to foreign investors. Hong Kong will thrive in an environment of no capital constraints on the renminbi. Conversely, a retention of the renminbi capital controls combined with free access of foreign firms to list on Shanghai or Shenzhen and/or restrictions on Chinese firms listing in Hong Kong would be very harmful to Hong Kong. (2) How skillful and aggressive Hong Kong and the Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing Ltd. are in making Hong Kong into a global competitor as a securities market. Hong Kong's principal competitors on a global basis are New York and London and the new electronic exchanges that have sprung up in Western countries. (3) The full force of new technologies is not inhibited in Hong Kong to protect a monopoly position of the Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing Ltd. (4) Hong Kong maintains its stable relationship with the US dollar, no capital controls are introduced in Hong Kong, and that Beijing continues to respect Hong Kong's information freedom as specified in the Basic Law.

The main aim of this chapter is to analyse the impact of labour market security on contemporary Polish labour migrants’ choices and perceptions of their destination countries. Qualitative and quantitative empirical data were used to explain the differences between two main states enjoying popularity as destination countries for the migrants from Poland: the United Kingdom and Germany. The concepts of Varieties of Capitalism and of social models were used to explain differences between the analysed countries. Presented data confirm that some of the migrants choose countries where they can accomplish labour market security through job security (i.e. Germany), while others find their way better in countries where the model based on employment security is favoured (i.e. the United Kingdom). Special attention was also paid to Ukrainian workers in Poland, who prefer some elements of employment security alongside income security.

The aim of the chapter is a comparative analysis of the level of labour market security in four countries representing different social models: the United Kingdom, Germany, Poland and Ukraine. For this purpose, Eurostat, Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), European Social Survey (ESS) and European Working Conditions Survey (EWCS) data were used. They allowed to show significant differences which occurred in 2004–2017 in the situation of the employees in the analysed countries. The analysis showed that employees in both the United Kingdom and Germany are characterised by a relatively high level of labour market security, but such security is provided in two different ways – in the former country employment security is more important, while job security prevails in the latter. Despite a significant improvement in employment conditions in Poland and Ukraine, the objective and subjective situation of employees there remains much worse than is the case in Germany and the United Kingdom. All the differences between the studied countries confirm the thesis regarding the flows of migrant workers seeking a satisfactory level of labour market security.