May 2020

The Federal Reserve System conducts the United States monetary policy, inter alia.  It is governed by its Board of Governors which has 5 members.  For a nation of over 329,387,000 people [https://www.census.gov/popclock/], it is rather incredible that 5 people control monetary policy, particularly since those 5 people have nearly uniform experience either as economists, or white shoe lawyers.  A better practice would be to restructure the Board of Governors to mandate inclusion of a member from each state appointed in staggered terms of 5 years.  This would eliminate the myopic inbred nature of the Board of Governors, and ideally the Federal Reserve’s role as the savior of the capital markets.

In Moofly Productions, LLC v. Favila (2020, Second Appellate District case # BC516308), the Court of Appeal held that there is no right to a jury trial in an action for fraudulent transfer, and that a state court can rely on discovery misconduct in a related federal action when imposing terminating sanctions.

On 5/14/20, the Financial Times berates Sanofi because it stated that the U.S. would get the vaccine first after paying $1  billion dollars for it.  Meanwhile, France announces a rescue package of $18 billion to save its tourism industry. France, the land of well-placed priorities.