Asking the Right Federal Questions: Merrill Lynch v. Manning and the Exclusive Jurisdiction Provisions of the Securities Exchange Act

Suppose you run a small corporation in the business of auctioneering stamps, coins, and other collectibles. Sensing that your corporation’s financial prospects are on the decline, large financial institutions drive the price of the company’s stock down. Your shareholders sue in state court alleging a breach of state law in manipulating stock prices while also referencing breaches of federal securities law. Can the defendant financial institutions remove the case to federal court? This question is set to be answered by the Supreme Court in Manning v. Merrill Lynch, which deals specifically with whether section 27 of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 allows defendants to remove a case to federal court when the plaintiff brings state-law claims in state court, but references violations of a related federal regulation. In Manning, the Supreme Court has an opportunity to resolve several circuit splits at once by deciding how the removal provisions of section 27 should be construed relative to the general federal question jurisdiction statute. This Commentary urges the Court to hold that the requirement of section 1331 is a necessary prerequisite to the triggering of any exclusive jurisdiction provision. This holding would prevent wholly state-law claims brought in state court from being removed to federal court, thereby preserving the federal-state balance that Congress intended to create through the Exchange Act

Deciphering the Signature of Magma Mixing: Examples from the Castle Creek Eruptive Period, Mount St. Helens, Washington

Mount St. Helens (MSH) volcano in southwestern Washington has intermittently erupted dacitic products for the last 40,000 years. On limited occasions, the volcano has produced andesite lava flows, and during one short-lived period, basaltic lava flows. This time interval has been termed the Castle Creek eruptive period and occurred between approximately 2500 and 1700 years B.P. The Castle Creek period erupted dacite, andesite and basalt within this short span of time. Andesite and dacite eruptions dominate the first approximately 700 years of the period, and all basaltic units were erupted in approximately the last 100 years of the period. This is the only known occurrence of basaltic eruptive products at MSH, and yet these lava flows were a major contributor to the buildup of the modern stratocone associated with MSH. Three litho- stratigraphic units exist within the basalts of Castle Creek; from youngest to oldest they are Cave basalt, Precave basalt and North Flank basalt. Petrogenetic relations among these units provide insight into the nature of the subjacent magma chamber during Castle Creek time. Presented here are whole-rock major and trace element data compiled from both published and unpublished works, along with 17 new whole rock trace element analyses and 87Sr/86Sr isotopic ratios, plus textural and compositional imaging integrated with feldspar crystal chemistry data collected by electron microprobe. Petrographic and quantitative petrographic analyses were performed on 5 samples of Castle Creek basalt. MELTS closed-system fractional crystallization simulations were also executed to model major element evolution during the Castle Creek eruptive period. MELTS simulations reveal primitive Cave basalt can be related to most Precave basalts, andesite and dacite compositions of Castle Creek age through isobaric fractional crystallization. Simulations of North Flank basalt evolution reveal fractional crystallization is potentially a contributing process within the basalts but does not likely control North Flank composition. High initial abundances of K2O and TiO2 within the North Flank and data trends of those oxides prohibit a strict fractional crystallization relationship. Strontium isotopic compositions reveal fractional crystallization alone is not responsible for variation within the three basalt units, as evidenced by the relatively large range of 87Sr/86Sr ratios (approximately 0.7030-0.7034) and increasing 87Sr/86Sr with decreasing whole rock MgO contents. Feldspar analyses by electron microprobe reveal maximum plagioclase feldspar core compositions remain at near constant levels (approximately An80) throughout an approximately 2 wt% change in whole rock MgO content. Best-fit MELTS simulations predict equilibrium plagioclase crystallization that occurs over this same interval should produce crystals with lower anorthite content (down to An52). Crystal size distributions (CSD) suggest plagioclase feldspar from basalt samples had maximum average residence times between 30 and 60 years, well within the approximately 100-year timescale of basaltic magmatism at MSH. Low numbers of large phenocrysts among all samples, similar shapes of CSD plots and similar feldspar compositions all suggest the basalts of Castle Creek time were exposed to a similar thermal regime while plagioclase was a stable phase. Magmas of the Castle Creek eruptive period of Mount St. Helens were affected by a complex interplay of open-system magmatic processes. Preservation of distinct compositional characteristics between more primitive North Flank and Cave samples (e.g., K2O) suggests that the magma reservoir system at MSH during Castle Creek time was sufficiently geometrically complex to effectively isolate discreet magma batches. Petrologic evidence, however, suggests interaction among more differentiated samples of all units (e.g., magma mixing) may have contributed to magmatic evolution throughout Castle Creek time, and may be responsible for creating some of the compositional diversity during that episode

Effects of white-tailed deer herbivory on the growth and survival of seedlings in a coastal wetland forest

Studies in upland forests of the northeastern and upper mid-western U.S. indicate that high densities of white-tailed deer can reduce vegetation abundance, survival, and richness through over-browsing. In the southern U.S., few studies have examined the effects of deer herbivory on vegetation, and even fewer have done so in forested wetlands. At Jean Lafitte National Park\u27s Barataria Preserve in south Louisiana, managers were concerned that white-tailed deer were concentrating and limiting forest regeneration near a walking trail, where hunting is not allowed. An exclosure study was started there in December 2002 and was conducted through July 2004 to quantify the effects of white-tailed deer on forest regeneration. Differences in densities and heights of naturally occurring tree and woody shrub species \u3e 15 cm but \u3c 200 cm in height were compared between six pairs of fenced and unfenced plots under the forest canopy. Fraxinus pennsylvanica and Quercus nigra juveniles also were planted in these plots, and survival and growth were compared between treatments. Naturally occurring shrub and juvenile tree abundance was compared among plots in treefall gaps and the paired plots under the forest canopy. White-tailed deer decreased the survival of planted Fraxinus pennsylvanica juveniles, but did not affect planted Quercus nigra juveniles or naturally occurring shrubs and juvenile trees. Juvenile trees were ten times more dense in treefall gaps than under the canopy because of the dominance of the exotic Triadica sebifera in gaps. Gap disturbances may be reducing diversity in these coastal wetland forests, rather than promoting diversity as they do in other forests. A more complete understanding of how deer modify the landscape may require future exclosure studies in treefall gaps

For Many Injured Veterans, A Lifetime of Consequences

One out of every ten veterans alive today was seriously injured at some point while serving in the military, and three-quarters of those injuries occurred in combat. For many of these 2.2 million wounded warriors, the physical and emotional consequences of their wounds have endured long after they left the military, according to a Pew research Center survey of a nationally representative sample of 1,853 veterans conducted from July 18 to Sept. 4, 2011.Veterans who suffered major service-related injuries are more than twice as likely as their more fortunate comrades to say they had difficulties readjusting to civilian life. They are almost three times as likely as other veterans to report they have suffered from post-traumatic stress (PTS). And they are less likely in later life to be in overall good health or to hold full-time jobs

LIBOR Manipulation and the Transition to SOFR

With the London Interbank Offer Rate (LIBOR) likely to disappear at the end of 2021 due to its manipulation during the 2008 financial crisis, the financial industry must decide what to do about legacy contracts tied to LIBOR and must select a new interest rank benchmark regime going forwards. This paper provides insight into those questions by first contributing to the existing literature aimed at measuring the extent of LIBOR manipulation and then by developing a model to explain the LIBOR-SOFR spread. This paper analyzes banks’ LIBOR submissions from 2006 to 2008 to identify bank collusion to strategically increase or decrease LIBOR to benefit their traders with LIBOR exposure. It then uses macro-economic data to show that LIBOR and SOFR diverge during periods of financial turmoil, and on the basis of these results makes a recommendation for how the financial industry should transition from LIBOR

Monitoring, Motivation and Management: The Determinants of Opportunistic Behavior in a Field Experiment

Economic models of incentives in employment relationships are based on a specific theory of motivation. Employees are 'rational cheaters,' who anticipate the consequences of their actions and shirk when the perceived marginal benefit exceeds the marginal cost. Managers respond to this decision calculus by implementing monitoring and incentive pay practices that lessen the attraction of shirking. This 'rational cheater model' is not the only model of opportunistic behavior, and indeed is viewed skeptically by human resource practitioners and by many non-economists who study employment relationships. We investigate the 'rational cheater model' using data from a double-blind field experiment that allows us to observe the effect of experimentally-induced variations in monitoring on employee opportunism. The experiment is unique in that it occurs in the context of an ongoing employment relationship, i.e., with the firm's employees producing output as usual under the supervision of their front-line managers. The results indicate that a significant fraction of employees behave roughly in ccordance with the 'rational cheater model.' We also find, however, that a substantial proportion of employees do not respond to manipulations in the monitoring rate. This heterogeneity is related to employee assessments about their general treatment by the emp loyer.

Asteroid Systems: Binaries, Triples, and Pairs

In the past decade, the number of known binary near-Earth asteroids has more than quadrupled and the number of known large main belt asteroids with satellites has doubled. Half a dozen triple asteroids have been discovered, and the previously unrecognized populations of asteroid pairs and small main belt binaries have been identified. The current observational evidence confirms that small (<20 km) binaries form by rotational fission and establishes that the YORP effect powers the spin-up process. A unifying paradigm based on rotational fission and post-fission dynamics can explain the formation of small binaries, triples, and pairs. Large (>20 km) binaries with small satellites are most likely created during large collisions.Comment: 31 pages, 12 figures. Chapter in the book ASTEROIDS IV (in press

Are children 'normal'?

In his classic work on the economics of fertility, Becker (1960) suggests that children are likely “normal.” We examine this contention. Our first step is documenting an empirical regularity about the cross section of white married couples in the U.S.: when we restrict comparisons to households living in broadly similar locations (e.g., in expensive urban areas, or in rural areas), completed fertility is positively correlated with the husband’s income. Two alternative models rationalize the data—one in which children are “normal” and a second in which the observed pattern emerges solely as a consequence of rational sorting by households. In an effort to sort out causal effects, we undertake a rather specialized empirical exercise to analyze the localized impact on fertility of the mid-1970s increase in world energy prices—an exogenous shock that substantially increased men’s incomes in the Appalachian coal-mining region. We find that children are indeed “normal.”Demography