News Topic: Too Big to Fail (TBTF)

Yesterday's decision from the District Court court in the Madoff-Mets litigation is yet another example of why Congress desperately needs to revisit the safe harbors which exempt a host of financial transactions from the workings of the Bankruptcy ... Read full article

I'm testifying before the Senate Banking Committee on Tuesday about the role of the government guarantee in housing finance (a/k/a wtf do we do with Fannie and Freddie). My testimony is  here . ... Read full article

The Nevada AG is looking to reopen the 2008 AG settlement with BoA:  the AG alleges rampant and immediate non-compliance with the settlement.  The NYT coverage missed what is arguably the bigger story:  the Nevada AG came out and alleged a securitization ... Read full article

Chris Mayer, one of the authors of the refinancing plan, a version of which is currently being considered by the administration, wrote in to the comments on an earlier post , protesting my characterization of his proposal. I have no argument with Chris ... Read full article

As this NYT story  notes, the administration has been putting pressure on the AGs, particularly NY AG Schneiderman, for several weeks now, urging them to fall in line with the administration's hear-no-evil, see-no-evil position on MBS and servicing ... Read full article

Jean Braucher has noted the FHFA's RFI on foreclosure prevention. A huge problem with any proposal is the time to implementation for anything. It took months to develop flops like FHASecure, Hope4Homeowners, and FHAShortRefi. ... Read full article

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 ... Read full article

There seems to be a cottage industry now in proposals to solve and/or mitigate systemic risk. I'm myself somewhat of a guilty party. The producers here are law profs and economists (and probably some other disciplines as well). These proposals fall ... Read full article

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 ... Read full article

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 ... Read full article

Over the past couple of years, the Massachusetts Attorney General's office has reached settlements with a number of major banks regarding mortgage securitization. These settlements has received very little notice in the press, but I think they ... Read full article

If anyone doubted who set the marching tune for the Federal Reserve Board, it was sure clear today. The Fed announced its final rule under the Durbin Interchange Amendment, and it was quite the handout to the big banks.   ... Read full article