CreditSlips

Lead into Gold? Sears' Possible Post-Petition Sale of Intracompany Debt

11/12/18

Sears is supposedly considering trying to raise liquidity through the post-petition sale of intracompany debt. The details of the debt and the proposed transaction aren't clear, but as a general matter, the post-petition sale of intracompany debt (or Treasury stock) seems problematic to me as with any lead into gold transaction.

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Matthew Whitaker as a Mini-Trump?

11/09/18

It seems no surprise that President Trump has named Matthew Whitaker as Acting Attorney General:  it turns out that he's a Mini-Trump.  There are two rather remarkable parallels to Trump in Whitaker's history.  First, his involvement with the  operation known as World Patent Marketing closely parallels Donald Trump's involvement with the fraud known as Trump University. And second, both have used charities as their own personal piggybanks. Classy.  

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Tempnology and Janger Too!

10/26/18

The Supreme Court granted cert today in the bankruptcy case of Mission Product Holdings v. Tempnology, LLC. It sounds like another one of those cases only bankruptcy nerds can love, but it has potentially broad implications. On its face, it is about trademark licenses, but the Supreme Court could fix some case law about all contracts in bankruptcy.

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For-profit college chain files (for receivership)

10/22/18

Education Corporation of America filed a legal action in federal district court last week claiming financial distress, seeing to enjoin its creditors and restructure its debt. Sounds like Chapter 11, right? But no.

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CLO Yawn

10/19/18

There's a big story in the NY Times about how the financial structures being used to finance many corporate loans—so-called Collateralized Loan Obligations or CLOs—look very similar to those used to finance mortgages during the housing bubble.  Yup.  That's true.

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CFPB "Abusive" Rulemaking?

10/17/18

Acting BCFP CFPB Director Mick John Michael Mulvaney announced this week that the CFPB would be undertaking a rulemaking to define "abusive," the third part of the UDAAP triad.

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Trump socialism and housing finance

10/15/18

Various tax law scholars have commented on the tax fraud allegations in the recent New York Times story. Equally important is the story's reminder that our housing finance system, and the real estate fortunes it has spawned, have depended for nearly a century on the largess of government.

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More on PSLF fail

10/10/18

The US Education Department is assigning the complex task of monitoring the employment and the on-time payments of Public Service Loan Forgiveness aspirants to its worst-performing servicer. USED has contracted with servicing company FedLoan, affiliate of the Pennsylvania Higher Education Assistance Agency (PHEAA), to administer the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program. PHEAA/FedLoan has performed its contract obligations poorly.

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World Bank Group's Proposals on Small Business Insolvency

10/09/18

At long last, the World Bank Group's insolvency and debt resolution team has finally released to the public its report on the treatment of the insolvency of micro-, small-, and medium-sized enterprises,

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