CreditSlips

Bankruptcy Politics and State Bankruptcy

08/16/11

I have a new paper out, Bankrupt Politics and the Politics of Bankruptcy, that examines state bankruptcy proposals and then uses them as a jumping-off point for sketching out a political theory of bankruptcy as a "creditor's armistice," an unstable political bargain, rather than an economic bargain ala Jackson & Baird's "creditor's bargain."  

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Credit Card Securitization and Skin-in-the-Game

08/16/11

I have a new paper on credit card securitization and what it teaches us about the likely effectiveness of the Dodd-Frank Act's skin-in-the-game risk retention requirements. Credit card securitization has long required 4%-7% credit risk retention (cf. 5% under Dodd-Frank).  

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A Plea to Financial Reporters

08/15/11
Why do financial reporters insist on reporting interest rates on complex consumer financial products as if they were meaningful in isolation? To wit, anotherwise good New York Times story http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/15/business/low-interest-rates-do-little-... reports an increase in credit card interest rates over last year. That figures doubly meaningless. First, interest rates are but one component among many of the cost ofusng a credit card.
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Fannie Mae Pushing Foreclosures

08/14/11

Story in the Detroit Free Press today here, and my commentary at Consumer Law & Policy here.

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The US Government and the Foreclosure Crisis: Out of Ideas or Out of Will?

08/13/11

It’s old news that federal housing agencies need better ideas about what to do about the foreclosure crisis.  The new development is that they realize it and have issued a blunderbuss “RFI” (request for information) seeking ideas from anyone willing to write in by September 15 describing business structures for the government to off-load foreclosed properties it is holding, particularly in “large scale transactions” to deal with the scale of the problem of lingering “inventory.”  See he

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Culture, Attitudes, and Debt

08/11/11

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.

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How to Find Me

08/10/11

I've had a series of funny phone calls this week, in which the speaker expresses total shock that I answer the phone. While I am notorious for never answering my phone, the real cause of the callers' surprise is that the number where I answer is sometimes the third one they have called looking for me. Why?

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Consumers, Cast Your Vote

08/10/11

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has launched the first project in its "Know Before You Owe" initiative with the release of proposed mortgage disclosures. While the CFPB did its homework in designing these forms, including getting feedback from a wide variety of sources, it is taking field-testing to a new level by asking American consumers to review two proposed forms.

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NY AG Unsheathes Excalibur

08/04/11

NY AG Eric Schneiderman came out with guns blazing in the proposed Countrywide investor settlement litigation.  It his filing intervening in the action and suing Bank of New York Mellon for breach of fiduciary duty, persistent fraud, and violations of the Martin Act (the "Excalibur" of the NY AG), General Schneiderman didn't mince words. [more]

Standing to Invoke PSAs as a Foreclosure Defense

08/04/11

A major issue arising in foreclosure defense cases is the homeowner's ability to challenge the foreclosing party's standing based on noncompliance with securitization documentation. Several courts have held that there is no standing to challenge standing on this basis, most recently the 1st Circuit BAP in Correia v. Deutsche Bank Nat'l Trust Company.

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