Practice Management

Democratic Candidates - Bankruptcy Reform Was A Mistake

By chucknewton

What was interesting about the Democratic Candidate's Debate in Las Vegas was what did not much make the news.  Despite all of the back and forth about race and The War, when the issues turned to economic news all three candidates agreed that BAPCPA -- the bankruptcy reform bill from 2005 which passed and went into law -- was a bad mistake.  In fact, there was more than just a little discussion of it, which was good. The candidates have either no or mixed records on bankruptcy reform, but they agree that there is no reason that a down on their luck family should not be able to get out of debt, especially given predatory lending practices as we have seen in the collapse of the sub-prime market.  All candidates agreed that we now need bankruptcy reform again.  Interesting in this discussions is something that did not exist before bankruptcy reform took place -- modification of residential mortgages in which the property is the person's or family's principal residence in a consumer bankruptcy context.  I, myself, have never understood why it would some harm the market to allow for the reasonable modification of a real estate note in bankruptcy.  Mortgage lenders say that these notes are different, but all financing is different.  Let us hope the discussion continues.

Full post as published by Chuck Newton on January 16, 2008 (boomark / email).