Darius Miller (Southern Methodist University) presenting research on a continuing controversy in whether U.S. securities laws: are they really enforced against foreign firms, considering that public enforcement actions by the SEC are infrequent and often result in insignificant penalties? The auhors examine private enforcement actions of U.S. securities laws and find that 269 securities class-action lawsuits were filed against foreign firms from 1996 to 2008. They document the severity of the penalties imposed on foreign firms and show that while firms paid a total of $9 billion to settle lawsuits brought against them, the monetary penalties levied by the market are even larger. During the three-day period surrounding the lawsuit filing date, there is a significant negative stock price reaction of -6.16%, which translates to an average loss of $392 million dollars. Aggregating over all firms, the total dollar loss is $73 billion. The authors further find that even foreign firms without significant U.S. assets experience significant valuation losses. Their results provide evidence that enforcement actions of U.S. securities laws against foreign firms are neither uncommon nor economically insignificant events.