News

Postpetition Asset Sales in Chapter 13s--Modification, Not Estate Property

01/26/2023 Debtors selling houses during a chapter 13 continues to cause conceptual problems for the courts. A recent decision, In re Marsh , from Judge Fenimore in Kansas City is an example. (Hat tip to Bill Rochelle for flagging this decision in his DailyWire ...[more]

Getting Ahead of Consumer Loan Defaults Post-Pandemic

07/01/2021 On this Tuesday, the Supreme Court refused to lift a ban on evictions for tenants that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recently extended through the end of July. The eviction moratoria is one of a handful of debt pauses put in place by the ...[more]

Collins v. Yellen: the Most Important (and Overlooked) Implication

06/29/2021 The Supreme Court's decision in Collins v. Yellen has garnered a fair amount of attention because it resulted in a change in the leadership at the Federal Housing Finance Agency and largely dashed the hopes of Fannie and Freddie preferred ...[more]

Collins v. Yellen

06/23/2021 The Supreme Court ruled today in Collins v. Yellen , a case brought by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac preferred shareholders that challenged both the constitutionality of the FHFA Director's appointment and the 2012 amendment to Treasury's stock ...[more]

Are Mortgage Servicers Ready for the Loan Mod Rush?

05/10/2021 On May 4, the CFPB issued a report sharing information the agency had gathered about mortgage forbearances and delinquencies. One notable takeaway is that Black and Brown homeowners, as well as low-income homeowners, are very prevalent among those in ...[more]

CBRA Op-Ed

01/11/2021 I have an op-ed about the Consumer Bankruptcy Reform Act running on CNBC's site. Given that both collection moratoria and benefit extensions keep getting dribbled out in one to three month bites, we will definitely see an expiration of both as the ...[more]

Commercial and Contract Law: Questions, Ideas, Jargon

12/01/2020 In the Spring I am teaching a research and writing seminar called Advanced Commercial Law and Contracts. Credit Slips readers have been important resources for project ideas in the past, and I'd appreciate hearing what you have seen out in the world ...[more]

How to Start Closing the Racial Wealth Gap

06/17/2020 I have an article out in The American Prospect about How to Start Closing the Racial Wealth Gap . Unlike a lot of writing bemoaning the racial wealth gap, this piece has a concrete reform that could be undertaken on day 1 of a Biden administration without ...[more]

The Great American Housing Bubble

06/08/2020 My new book,  The Great American Housing Bubble:  What Went Wrong and How We Can Protect Ourselves in the Future  is being released on Tuesday by Harvard University Press. The book is co-authored with my long-time collaborator, Wharton real estate ...[more]

American Predatory Lending and the North Carolina model

05/22/2020 My coauthor Ed Balleisen has co-founded a program on consumer lending of interest to Credit Slips readers. Its initial data collection is particularly useful in documenting the North Carolina experience and its implications for other states. ...[more]

CARES Act mortgage foreclosure and tenant eviction relief

04/01/2020 The final text of the act is now available here.  The foreclosure relief is in Section 4022 and the eviction moratorium is in Section 4024. Mortgage borrowers with federally related loans (FHA, VA, Farmer's Home, Fannie or Freddie) may request 6 ...[more]

COVID-19 Response: The Need for Speed

03/18/2020 While Congress struggles to figure out the best way to respond to the coronavirus pandemic, it is very apparent that immediate relief measures are necessary, if only to buy time for a more comprehensive approach. Layoffs are already happening and with ...[more]

The Big Lie Lives On

02/16/2020 The Big Lie just won’t die. The Big Lie, of course, is The Government Made Me Do It theory of the financial crisis, that the housing bubble whose collapse set off the crisis was the product of government policies encouraging affordable home mortgage ...[more]

Mick Mulvaney's South Carolina Land Shenanigans All Under Seal

01/23/2020 Last year the Washington Post covered Mick Mulvaney's South Carolina land deal gone sour . It was a pretty amazing case that is fantastic for teaching purposes. Mick's moves would have made some of the most sophisticated distressed debt funds ...[more]

Consumer Bankruptcy, Done Correctly, To Help Struggling Americans

01/07/2020 Today, Senator Elizabeth Warren unveiled her new plan to reform the consumer bankruptcy system . The plan is simple, yet elegant. It is based on actual data and research (including some of my own with Consumer Bankruptcy Project co-investigators Slipster ...[more]

Small Biz Reorg Act Sleeper Innovations

09/25/2019 Two aspects of the Small Business Reorganization Act of 2019 intrigued me as I looked more closely at this important new twist on Chapter 11 for the other 99%. ...[more]

Playing with Fire: The CFPB's Proposed Repeal of the "GSE Patch"

07/26/2019 CFPB today put out an advance notice of proposed rulemaking to amend the Qualified Mortgage (QM) Rule by letting the "GSE Patch" expire .  What the Bureau is proposing is truly dangerous.  While I haven’t liked some of the Bureau's other ...[more]

Reverse Mortgage Meltdown ... and Gov't Complicity?

06/13/2019 USA Today just came out with an interesting expose about reverse mortgages and their negative impact , especially in low-income, African American, urban neighborhoods (highlighting a few in my backyard here in Chicago). ...[more]