News Topic: Comparative & Int'l Perspectives

The International Monetary Fund has focused its critical gaze on us. Just in time for the holiday marking the end of our colonial period, the IMF has completed its "Mission to the United States of America."  See here.   The IMF has held up its ... Read full article

Check out this story in the New York Times about free-wheeling consumer credit in India . Much of the article focuses on how Indians are using consumer credit to pay for cosmetic surgery. At one point, I had a collection of online advertisements offering ... Read full article

Fascinating story in the Guardian about Irish debtors temporarily moving to the UK in order to gain access to more favorable bankruptcy law.  I guess the Brit's have a more lenient version of 522(b)(3) or a looser good faith filing doctrine/plan ... Read full article

While we’ve been blogging, Stevie has begun his dissertation fieldwork in Korea. He emailed Bill the other day: “Yesterday I opened a bank account here in Seoul, and conducted the entire interaction in Korean. For some reason, I don't get an ATM ... Read full article

Sticker in San Francisco: "Of course it's cash-only, it's the Mission." Overheard: "Oooh, yeah, no, we don't take cards. Because the coffee is, like, local?" (both items courtesy Lana Swartz ) ... Read full article

Much has been written about the inherent riskiness of cash. It is dangerous because it can be lost, stolen, eaten, destroyed, etc. It is dangerous because it is difficult to track, thereby helping to facilitate crime. Many a potboiler plot hinges on a ... Read full article

One of my students came across a humorous blog post from February, 2012. Titled, “ What your payment method reveals about you ,” the author listed a series of unlikely payment actions and a line on the presumed personal characteristics of the payer. The ... Read full article

“Greeks are protesting new austerity measures” is a common headline these days. It definitely captures some of what protesting Greeks are doing, but certainly leaves a whole lot out of the picture. Many Greeks are protesting not only the deterioration of ... Read full article

I have argued previously ( here ) that the EU/IMF/ECB insistence on “flexibilizing” labor law in Greece overlooked the basic structure of the Greek private market, which consists overwhelmingly of small, family owned and operated businesses, with ultra ... Read full article

As Alan White reported recently , the Uniform Law Commission in the U.S. has named a committee to consider the need for and feasibility of proposing a uniform foreclosure act and to report back to the ULC by early 2012. ... Read full article

The Financial Stability Board, an international organization operating under the auspices of the G20 countries, this week issued its Report on Consumer Finance Protection. http://www.financialstabilityboard.org/publications/r_111026a.pdf FSB emphasizes ... Read full article

The Financial Stability Board ... Read full article

Congress just passed a bill overhauling the US patent system.  The most significant change appears to be shift from a first-to-invent to a first-to-file system. ... Read full article

So the Swedish court's decision to deny Saab's reorganization petition gets me wondering if the company might not decide to file a US chapter 11 case. The only problem is that, best I can tell, Sweden has no provision for recognizing a foreign ... Read full article

While European markets have seen increases in mortgage foreclosures, more robust regulatory intervention seems to have kept defaults and foreclosures to much lower levels than we are experiencing in the United States.  At the peak of the crisis a year ... Read full article

Rather than a post with a lot of (supposed) answers, today I have a post with a lot of questions. My goal is to start a discussion that I hope our insightful readership will take up in the comments. ... Read full article