Houyhnhnms: The Tipline for 22 July 2020

If municipal bond investor Preston Hollow’s antitrust claims against rival Nuveen reach a bench trial, the New York federal judge writing the opinion will have a hard time finding more colourful language than a Delaware court recently used in a similar dispute between the two companies. Court of Chancery vice chancellor Sam Glasscock compared Nuveen’s trial witnesses to the Houyhnhnms in Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels who cannot comprehend what it means to lie, as the witnesses used terms like “hedge”, “blustering” and “short-cutting” to describe their false statements. Also in today’s Tipline, United Talent Agency settles its differences with the Writers’ Guild of America and a top US Department of Agriculture official says the agency will soon release a much-anticipated report on competition in cattle markets.