The new rules state that the amount of common equity - the best capital for absorbing losses - that banks have to hold will rise from 2% of their loans and investments to 7%.

BBC: Bank shares rise after new rules agreed

For instance, when Northrop Grumman and Lockheed Martin sold off units engaged in providing highly classified services for spy satellites due to new conflict-of-interest rules, the buyers were private-equity firms.

FORBES: Faltering Defense Industry Faces New Danger: Activist Investors

The Plaza Group claims in bankruptcy filings that it was undone by recent accounting rules that force private equity partnerships to write down the value of their investments in accordance with market valuations, as opposed to holding them at cost.

FORBES: Private Equity

New accounting rules demand that they start valuing their equity portfolios at market value at the end of this month, which could constrain their ability to pay dividends out of retained earnings.

ECONOMIST: Stockmarkets

Older couples who thought they were building a secure nest egg are discovering that a chunk of the equity they thought they had will be eaten up IRS depreciation recapture rules that impose a tax on the accumulated depreciation deductions they took for all those years.

FORBES: Hidden Tax Time Bombs That Sabotage Retirement

The cushion could be plumper still in some places: Europe is split over how strictly to enforce these rules, and whether to allow countries such as Britain and Sweden to add yet another wedge of equity on top.

ECONOMIST: Bank regulations

The JOBS Act accomplishes private offering rules reforms, implements many of the recommendations of the IPO Task Force and endeavors to create a healthy equity market food chain.

FORBES: With the JOBS Act, Congress Throws Open the Door for Private Stock Offerings