CreditSlips

In my first post I advanced some basic ideas on the situation of Spanish mortgage debtors. The Spanish situation following the housing crisis may be familiar to readers because it shares many of the same characteristics of problems in European countries. The U.S. media has covered these stories, for example here.

Conventional wisdom views bankruptcy as a place that protects homeowners and homeownership.  One of the primary reasons Chapter 13 allows debtors to retain all property of the estate, whether exempt or not, is to allow debtors to hang on to their personal residences even though applicable exemption law would not otherwise allow this.  OK Chapter 13 doesn’t permit modification of residential mortgages, but it does allow debtors to decelerate and cure mortgages in default, providing some consumer debtors some protection from foreclosure.  Chapter 7 is

History can sometimes provide a fresh perspective on current events. My years of observations at UNCITRAL led me to wonder about how working methods in this international organization compare to those of similar (some would say sister) organizations -- UNIDROIT and the Hague Conference on Private International Law.

Again.  This morning's Daily Bankruptcy Review reports that Fisker's creditors want to sue the debtor's secured lender.

 To question number one, it looks that way. According to Kim Chapman and Carter Dougherty at Bloomberg, as well as other news outlets, Director Richard Cordray has announced his intention to move forward with regulations aimed at lenders that make small loans like payday loans, title loans, and installment loans with triple digit interest rates.  The question of course is what this “oversight” and “regulation” will look like. Will the rules look something like those in Colorado, which still permits loans of up to 200% in some cases?