CreditSlips

AALS & The Slips

01/07/16

Quite a few Credit Slips bloggers and former guests are panelists at the session the Debtor-Creditor Section of the Association of American Law Schools (AALS) meeting.The session is entitled, "Bankruptcy for the Ninety-Five Percent: Making the System Work for Small and Medium-Sized Businesses and Sole Proprietors" and will take place on Saturday from 1:30 - 3:15 PM. If you are at the AALS meeting, check it out. Panelists and discussants are Matthew Bruckner, Andrew Dawson, Pamela Foohey, Margaret Howard, Melissa Jacoby, Ed Morrison, Foteini Teloni, and Jay Westbrook.

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Two Cheers for Fannie and Freddie Synthetic CDOs

12/31/15

My ears perk up whenever I hear the musical words "synthetic collateralized debt offering". (Bill Bratton and I did write the paper on history of these crazy things, after all....) So, it was with interest that I read a Wall Street Journal editorial decrying Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac's use of synthetic CDOs to transfer credit risk on mortgages to the private market through the STACR and Connecticut Avenue programs.

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Foohey on Black Churches in Bankruptcy

12/18/15

Credit Slips blogger Pamela Foohey has a new article on SSRN, "Lender Discrimination, Black Churches, and Bankruptcy." This paper builds on her previous work about churches in bankruptcy to dig into the demographics of which churches end up in bankruptcy court.

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DIRECTV v. Imburgia Decided, Surprises No One

12/14/15

Earlier I posted about DIRECTV v. Imburgia. To recap the issue: DIRECTV's contract with subscribers (i) required arbitration, (ii) forbade class actions, and (iii) provided for litigation in court if "the law of [the subscriber's] state" refused to enforce the class action waiver. California law refuses to enforce class action waivers in some circumstances, but this law is preempted by the Federal Arbitration Act.

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IMF Reverses Policy on Lending into Official Arrears

12/08/15

So the shoe has finally dropped. IMF policy has been not to lend to countries that have arrears to official creditors.

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No Way to Run a Railroad: Scholars' Letter on the Trust Indenture Act Amendment

12/08/15

A large number of bankruptcy and corporate finance scholars, including several Slipsters, signed on to a letter to Congressional leadership regarding the proposed omnibus appropriations bill rider to amend the Trust Indenture Act.

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Private Equity's Private Bill to Amend the Trust Indenture Act

12/07/15

One of the many creatures attempting to crawl its way onto the back of the omnibus appropriations bill is an amendment to the Trust Indenture Act.  The Trust Indenture Act is the 1939 securities law that is the major protection for bondholders. Among other things, the Trust Indenture Act prohibits any action to "impair or affect" the right of bondholders to payment or to institute suit for nonpayment absent the individual bondholder's consent.

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