News Topic: Academic & Scholarly News

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Credit Slips  contributor Pamela Foohey has just posted her most recent work in her series of articles on churches in bankruptcy. I have been a big fan of this research project since Pamela was a fellow at the University of Illinois. She tells us not only ... Read full article

I woke up this morning to see an abstract of a paper entitled  Is Regulation to Blame for the Decline in American Entrepreneurship?   When I saw that one of the co-authors was on the George Mason University economics faculty, I said to myself, " ... Read full article

Community banks are ailing.  Over the past decade many of them have failed or been gobbled up by larger banks. What's going on?  ... Read full article

Empirical economic analysis is a powerful tool.  It can elucidate correlations and sometimes even get us to causual explanations. But it has a serious weak-spot:  its value is entirely dependent upon the integrity of the data analyzed. To put the problem ... Read full article

While I'm on the subject of dead markets, what about HOEPA loans?  HOEPA loans are super-high-cost loans that qualify for special consumer protections under the Home Owners Equity Protection Act of 1998. (Yes, that's the one that directed that ... Read full article

Susan Wachter and I have a new (short!) paper up on SSRN. It's called Second-Liens and the Leverage Option , and is about the curious absence of negative pledge clauses in US home mortgages, which enabled enormous amounts of second-lien leverage ... Read full article

Just in time for the new year, I've got a new article called Safe Banking up on SSRN. The article is a first principles reexamination of the industrial organization of financial services. It identifies the institutional combination of deposits and ... Read full article

Why does the world hate lawyers?  Because of stuff like this .  You can't make this up:  the on-line menu prices for a Chinese restaurant weren't up-to-date, and a customer was overcharged $4. I get being pissed about that.  But what would most ... Read full article

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Bob’s post made me cry. Jean was an incredible scholar and colleague. She also had a fun, light side that I will forever cherish, and that I share here.  ... Read full article

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It is with great sadness that I pass along the news that Jean Braucher passed away yesterday. Jean was my co-author, my co-blogger, and my friend. This news came suddenly this morning for all but her closest family and friends who were aware of her ... Read full article

"What is the optimal consumer bankruptcy law?" Now that's an abstract first line that grabs my attention! I've thought about this question for most of my academic career, and I've struggled to find solid bases for an answer. Now, ... Read full article

Professor Bill Whitford of the University of Wisconsin will be an intellectual hero to many of the  Credit Slips  readers and contributors. Bill has done pathbreaking work in consumer bankruptcy law, consumer law, and corporate reorganizations. ... Read full article

My Consumer Finance students used to think I was wasting their time by spending a whole class session on usury laws and taking them into the nitty-gritty of their application (or non-application). I think usury is important conceptually (but for the ... Read full article

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