News Topic: Historical Perspectives

BAPCPA's been in effect for 10 years now. I still remember the day before it went into effect, seeing round the block lines at the Wilmington courthouse as consumers rushed to file.  There's lots to say about BAPCPA, for both consumers and ... Read full article

It was like eight nights of Chanukkah in one for me watching the Democratic debate last night. There was a Glass-Steagal lovefest going on. But here's the thing:   no one seems to get why Glass-Steagal was important or the connection between ... Read full article

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I agree with Adam about all that post- Starr hyperventilation . No, it does not mean that bailouts are over, that the Fed has been slapped down, or any of that lurid stuff. ... Read full article

Lately I have been teaching courses with names such as "Global and Economic Justice" and "History, Impacts and Regulation of Consumer Credit" instead of "Bankruptcy," "Secured Transactions" and "Chapter 11 ... Read full article

The New York Times carried an important story about the risky investment moves of life insurance companies. ... Read full article

Courtesy of Jack Ayer , professor emeritus of law and polymathy, comes the following from the Wikipedia entry on Modigliani  -- Amedeo, not Franco: ... Read full article

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Former Virginia Congressman M. Caldwell Butler died last week. ... Read full article

Larry Summers has a v ery interesting book review of Atif Mian and Amir Sufi's book House of Debt  in the Financial Times. What's particularly interesting about the book review is not so much what Summers has to say about Mian and Sufi, as his ... Read full article

I just read Jennifer Taub's outstanding book  Other People's Houses , which is a history of mortgage deregulation and the financial crisis.  The book makes a nice compliment to Kathleen Engel and Patricia McCoy's fantastic  The Subprime ... Read full article

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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 -- ... Read full article

If you want to understand credit and its abuses, you have to delve into the human heart, in all its weakness and strength, and literature and film are powerful ways to do so.  In this observation, I join the growing backlash (see, for example, here  and ... Read full article

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Consumer financial education , disclosure , and defaults all dispensed with in my prior posts, shall we move on to “substantive” regulation, dare I even say “usury”? ... Read full article