The Senate  passed the JOBS Act  on Friday 73 to 26, seeking to ease government red tape on small and start-up businesses. This raises many concerns.

 5th Circuit reversed the district court's ruling finding SLUSA preemption in Stanford state class action cases.  The case involved the purchase of Stanford securities (CDs).  The issue was whether the sale of unspecified securities, even though they were not identified as part of the claim, constituted a "misrepresentation or omission" in connection with the purchase or sale of a "covered security" for the purposes of SLUSA preemption.

FINRA filings are down 17% from 2010 leading many to question why there is a decrease in complaints four years after the market crash of 2008. Although 2009 filings mimicked the large increase in 2002 following the tech bubble the 2002 cases continued to be filed for several years. Are the low filings a result of a less than half percent chance of succeeding in arbitration according to FINRA statistics or because people really believe its not anyone else's fault but their own? It is interesting to note that these last four years of record low filings coincide with the current presidential term. We know most investors lost money in 2008. Could politics be a factor in investor reluctance to make claims in an uncertain time and economy?