Our theme in our annual back-to-work Deal Economy Preview issue is, ta-dah, regulation. By now the credit crisis is over a year old, and while a lot of bad stuff is still happening -- see Vipal Monga's nice dissection of Lehman Brothers' plight in the issue -- the most substantive activity for the future is still to come: namely, how we will reform a regulatory establishment that nearly everyone believes is broken. In fact, we offer up a smorgasboard of perspectives on this question. My Transactions column tackles the issues that an institutional reshuffling will not remedy. David Marcus in his Safe Harbor column lays out some broader arguments about regulation and the role of the corporation from Delaware Chancery Judge Leo Strine. And Monga interviews former Federal Reserver Gilbert Schwartz on bank regulation.
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The main story, however, comes from Washington Bureau Chief Bill McConnell on where the process of reform stands. He's pessimistic. Even institutional reshufflings that seem easy and rational appear fated to get chewed up in the fiefdoms and power plays of Congress. No one seems to be thinking much past the Treasury plan to empower the Fed. And Treasury's Henry Paulson, the one figure who has offered up schemes -- some reactive, others flawed, but at least they're legitimate attempts at change -- is leaving town in a few months when a new administration arrives. Given the politiocal flavoring of the season, McConnell also offers a dandy guide to who might replace Paulson at Treasury, giving the odds on candidates from both parties.
While regulation dominates the conversation this week, it's not our only passtime -- there's wine, for instance. We love wine and we like writing about it. This week Chris Nolter tracks the maturation of winemaking as a financial business, almost an asset class. His poster child: Samuel Bronfman's foray into mezzanine lending on wine deals. But there's a lot more to this story than just Bronfman. Check it out.
What else have we got? Lots. In the front of the book, besides Monga's Lehman story, we have a very interesting look at universities selling royalty streams on biopharma innovations by Cheryl Meyer, a fascinating Q&A from Luisa Beltran on middle market tech PE with Silver Lake Sumeru's Arjay Shah, a discussion of how foreign buyers are changing U.K. soccer from Jonathan Braude and how retail bankruptcies in the U.K. have been fewer than expected by Neil Sen. A full issue. Welcome back. - Robert Teitelman
