CreditSlips

Is the Jig up for MERS?

10/30/11

The Mortgage Electronic Registration System (MERS) has been the target in a lot of lawsuits during the mortgage crisis for its shoddy, opaque practices. But because these suits tend to be brought by borrowers in default, the courts have been willing to stretch the law to dismiss plaintiffs' claims. Something new is going on now. The Delaware Attorney General on October 27 sued MERS, a Delaware corporation, for deceptive trade practices for sowing confusion among investors and consumers and running an extra-legal registration system riddled with errors.

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Make the Banks Pay

10/29/11

I have a post up on Salon.com.  Credit Slips readers will recognize it as based on a prior post here.

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Financial Stability Board Calls for Effective Consumer Finance Protection

10/28/11
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 the link between international financial stability and consumer protection, particularly in the mortgage markets.
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Two worlds and in between

10/27/11

A discussion about why nation-by-nation bankruptcy fails when dealing with global enterprises, here.

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Predicting the Next Chapter 11 Wave

10/26/11

A great chart over at the Economist breaks down moves in consumer spending by industry, perhaps giving us some insight over where the next chapter 11 cases will come from, at least in the broadly defined retail sector.

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Do You Remember How Overdraft Protection, Overdraft Fees, and Free Checking Used To Work?

10/25/11

Calling everyone in the over-40 set to help me remember something. When dealing with those old-fashioned things called “checks,” how did your own overdraft protection used to work?  My recollection is that, back in the day, as long as a person had a certain level of creditworthiness, the bank used to cover your check in a discretionary manner.

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Warren and Empiriciscm

10/24/11

It is not often that intellectual debates about the nature of law and legal scholarship find their way into the popular media. Elizabeth Warren's campaign for U.S. Senate, however, has provided the occasion. This past weekend in the Boston Globe, Leon Neyfakh profiled Warren's academic career and her intellectual legacy. Neyfakh did a great job with a nuanced debate from the academy and explaining it for a popular audience.

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A lighthouse keeper in the desert sun

10/20/11

Thinking about the return of the Delaware/SDNY venue debate and the bankruptcy court's decision to deny appointment of a trustee in the case of bankrupt solar panel maker Solyndra, up now at Dealbook.

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Nemo Dat Trumps Bona Fide Purchaser

10/18/11

The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court just handed down a second major mortgage foreclosure ruling, Bevilacqua v. Rodriguez.  The case was an Ibanez follow-up dealing with the rights of a purchaser at an invalid foreclosure sale. I thought this was a no brainer case and said so in an amicus brief co-authored with some of the Credit Slips crew.

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