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  • Creative Destruction in Small Business Bankruptcy

    08/29/2023 Two distantly related items caught my eye this morning, as both reinforce the need for "creative destruction" as a response to all-too-common small business failure. ...[more]

  • Nondebtor Releases and the Future of Mass Torts

    08/18/2023 Certain members of the bankruptcy academy and bar seem to have their knickers in a twist over the Supreme Court’s grant of certiorari to review the nonconsensual nondebtor releases in Purdue. Conventional wisdom is that SCOTUS is going to find that ...[more]

  • Unhappy Campers and Their Credit Cards

    08/11/2023 This story about the failure of a company that ships duffel bags to/from sleep-away camps has an interesting payment systems meets bankruptcy angle that got me particularly excited given that I'm teaching payment systems this fall: ...[more]

  • Treasury in the Red... with Yellow

    08/02/2023 Freight company Yellow is on the verge of bankruptcy. It's not a company whose financial distress would normally stand out but for the fact that it received $700M in national security loans from the US Treasury in 2020, and, oh man, are taxpayers ...[more]

  • Axos Bank--More Sketchiness?

    07/27/2023 The Washington Post has a big piece up about Axos Bank being the lender-of-last-resort for Donald Trump . But those us who work in the consumer finance space, know of Axos as a notorious bank partner in rent-a-bank arrangements . ...[more]

  • Consumer Law Scholars Conference--Call for Abstracts

    07/14/2023 The Center for Consumer Law & Economic Justice at Berkeley Law has announced the call for abstracts for the 2024 Consumer Law Scholars Conference . Abstracts are due by September 8, 2023, for the conference scheduled for February 29-March 1, 2024. The ...[more]

  • The Puzzle of Diaspora Bonds: A Case Study of Israel's Program

    06/15/2023 Many countries have attempted to tap their diasporas by issuing bonds.  This has particularly been the case in times of dire need (wars, pandemics, international sanctions, financial crises, and more).  Ukraine is the most recent to have attempted to do ...[more]

  • SEC Coinbase Suit

    06/08/2023 The SEC has finally brought its long-anticipated lawsuit against Coinbase. The suit alleges that Coinbase has operated as an unregistered securities broker, an unregistered securities exchange, and an unregistered securities clearing agency, and that it ...[more]

  • June 7 virtual event on Second Circuit's Purdue Pharma decision

    06/02/2023 The Commercial Law League of America is holding a virtual event next week, free of charge and open to all, on broader implications of the Second Circuit's Purdue Pharma decision. ...[more]

  • Third-Party Releases Clearly Endorsed in the 2nd Circuit, At Long Last

    05/31/2023 Yesterday's 2nd Circuit opinion reconfirming Purdue Pharma's settlement/restructuring plan is an enlightening read for those interested in third-party releases. ...[more]

  • Debunking Debt Ceiling Myths

    05/22/2023 The commentary on the debt ceiling standoff has featured a bunch of mistaken conceptions from across the political spectrum. Let's address them.  Myth #1:  The 14th Amendment Prohibits a Default A variety of commentators claim that the 14th Amendment ...[more]

  • The Debt Limit Is Unconstitutional—But It's Not What You Think!

    05/22/2023 Anna Gelpern, Stephen Lubben and I have an article in The American Prospect entitled The Debt Limit Is Unconstitutional—but Not for the Reason You Think . ...[more]

  • Community Financial Services of America v. CFPB Amicus Brief

    05/15/2023 This fall the Supreme Court will be hear a case captioned Community Financial Services of America v. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, dealing with the constitutionality of the CFPB's funding mechanism. I'm pleased to announce that Patricia ...[more]

  • 14-4: Any Questions?

    05/10/2023 Anna, Adam, and myself have a piece up on Alphaville about section four of the 14th Amendment, which is all the rage these days. ...[more]

  • Calculation of Secured Claims

    04/25/2023 When I was a law student the rule I learned about secured claims was that they accrue post-petition interest and attorneys' fees (if provided for by contract or statute) up to the amount of the value of the collateral that exceeds their claims, but ...[more]

  • LTL 2.0: The Largest Fraudulent Transfer in History

    04/12/2023 Today was the first day hearing for LTL 2.0. ...[more]

  • LTL, Part Deux (now with even more fraudulent transfers!)

    04/05/2023 This post is a joint post by Hon. Judith K. Fitzgerald (ret.) [*] and Adam Levitin Here we go again. Precisely one hour and thirty-nine minutes after the dismissal of the bankruptcy filing of LTL, Johnson & Johnson’s artificially created ...[more]

  • CFPB Details "Abusive" in Policy Statement and Speech

    04/03/2023 In a few hours, I'll have the pleasure of hosting CFPB Director Rohit Chopra for a virtual talk at UCI Law (today at 12pm PDT, 3pm PDT). You can still join us by registering for the Zoom link here . ...[more]

  • It's Not Just an SVB Problem: the Systemic Nature of the Bank Regulation Failure

    03/28/2023 A mid-sized regional bank specializing in lending to tech start-ups, crypto companies, or law firms hardly seems of systemic importance, even if its failure would have caused disruption in some industries regionally and might have triggered a cascade of ...[more]

  • FDIC's Poor Track Record in Holdco Bankruptcies

    03/25/2023 Last week I did a post about how the FDIC as receiver for Silicon Valley Bank probably doesn't have a claim against SVB Financial Group, the holdco of the bank. I got some pushback on that (including from a former student!), but I'm sticking to ...[more]