Credit Slips: Bankruptcy

Home -> Law Blog Directory -> Bankruptcy Blogs

OR PHONE (866) 635-1838 for Bankruptcy Help, (866) 635-6190 for Divorce,
(866) 635-2689 for Personal Injury or (866) 635-9402 for Criminal Defense

Find a Local Lawyer

Bankruptcy (866) 635-1838
Divorce (866) 635-6190
Personal Injury (866) 635-2689
Criminal Defense (866) 635-9402

Bankruptcy

Credit Slips

A discussion on credit and bankruptcy.
By Bob Lawless, Adam Levitin, Angie Littwin, Katie Porter, John Pottow, Debb Thorne, Elizabeth Warren

Post Frequency: 12.8/day

Last Entry: April 01, 2011 at 09:01:41

The Bankruptcy Courts Fight Back?

Posted on October 19, 2010
My latest thoughts on chapter 11 are now up on Dealbook.

Not Again!

Posted on October 14, 2010
So I was sitting in my office listening to Siouxsie and the Banshees preparing for class, when the mail arrived. My new ABI Journal was hidden among the enticing offers to buy various pieces of foreclosed New Jersey real estate,...

Basel III and Cushy Capital

Posted on October 12, 2010
The Annual Meetings of the IMF and the World Bank this past weekend were mostly notable for the depth and breadth of political discord underlying the veneer of recent technocratic accomplishment in financial regulation. So many things can go truly...

Some Thoughts on the MGM Prepack

Posted on October 12, 2010
Here. Today's competing offer from Lions Gate only emphasizes my last point -- the seemingly simple task of getting the secured lenders on board with the plan is complicated by the fact that the loan has been literally sliced 101...

To access this complete feed in the blog feed reader login or register for free.

Moratorium for What?

Posted on October 11, 2010
There is little to be accomplished by halting foreclosures and sales in process without some plan resolve the 5 million seriously delinquent mortgages other than by foreclosure sale. While something can be said for delays that stretch out the process...

The Finality of Foreclosure Sales

Posted on October 09, 2010
Over at the New York Times, Ron Lieber has an article today with a new angle on the document problems that have caused mortgage lenders like GMAC Mortgage, JP Morgan Chase, and Bank of America to call a halt to...

Lehman in Jakarta -- Venue, Choice of Law, and International Bankruptcy

Posted on October 07, 2010
Tuesday I noted an interesting dispute in the Lehman case regarding a "range accural trade," and wondered about Lehman's willingness to do the trade without collateral. Going without upfront (or "independent amounts") collateral seems inconsistent with the way Lehman normally...

The Notary Fraud Condonation Act of 2010

Posted on October 07, 2010
It looks as if the President will veto the Notary Fraud Condonation Act of 2010, formally known as Interstate Recognition of Notarizations Act of 2010. Notary fraud is nothing new, and it's hardly foreclosure-specific. Requiring state courts to recognize out-of-state...

Bankruptcy Filings Follow Their Usual Summer Sideways Move

Posted on October 06, 2010
The bankruptcy filing statistics for September have displayed their usual sideways move during the summer. Since May, each month's filing rates have moved up or down. Overall, however, bankruptcy filing rates, while somewhat lower, are approximately where they were at...

Lehman in Jakarta

Posted on October 05, 2010
On Friday, Lehman filed a fascinating motion to enforce the automatic stay and adversary proceeding that seeks essentially the same relief. The pleadings involve Lehman's attempt to settle a dispute regarding a swap transaction in the bankruptcy court in New...

Ransom Argument--Not Very Edifying

Posted on October 05, 2010
The very first case argued today, the opening day of the 2010 Supreme Court term, was Ransom v. MBNA. Ransom presents an issue at the heart of the bankruptcy means test. The question for the Court is whether an above-median-income...

NCBJ Endowment Is Solicting Research Grant Proposals

Posted on October 04, 2010
Through its Endowment for Education, the National Conference of Bankruptcy Judges has supported many research projects through the years, including studies on topics as diverse as credit counseling, payday lending, and examiners in chapter 11. Judge Eileen Hollowell wrote me...

Measures of TARP

Posted on October 04, 2010
The curtain drew on TARP to a flood of assessments, from Treasury's up to TARP COP's down, with the commentariat all along the spectrum in between, converging around about the "necessary-evil-begets-moral-hazard" meme. But this New York Times graphic and the...

Wondering How Lenders Are Making Up for Missing Credit Card Fees? Check Your Home Escrow.

Posted on October 04, 2010
Following credit card reform, interest rates on credit cards have gone up, but this is not the only way lenders are making up for lost fees. My own home loan escrow was recently reset, and increased by $200 a month...

Foreclosure Relief Could Help Economy and End Chaos Faced By Borrowers

Posted on October 04, 2010
A bevy of recent New York Times articles claim that several lenders will now freeze certain foreclosure actions. Look,here, here and here. Why the sudden desire for reconciliation? Problems in the paperwork supporting lenders? right to foreclose. News of these...

The 79.9% APR Credit Card

Posted on October 03, 2010
A while back I blogged about a 79.9% APR credit card offer from First Premier, a subprime card issuer. The point I made in that post was that although the APR was off-the-charts high, it was basically an equivalent pricing...

What is the government interest in bankruptcy cases?

Posted on October 01, 2010
On Monday, the Supreme Court will hear arguments in Ransom v. MBNA, an appeal of a decision in a consumer bankruptcy case. The Bankruptcy Code requires chapter 13 debtors to commit all their "projected disposable income" to repaying their creditors.....

Time Flies

Posted on October 01, 2010
To keep this debt thing in perspective ... Germany is about to pay the last of the debt it took on to finance World War I reparations. This debt is mostly interest payments to private bondholders. The reparations came out...

Safe Harbors and Utility Contracts

Posted on October 01, 2010
An important post here. Of course, loyal readers know where I stand on this.

Initial Thoughts on AIG

Posted on September 30, 2010
This part of today's AIG deal confuses me: To offset the dilution of A.I.G.?s current common shareholders, the company said it would issue up to 75 million warrants, which would allow those non-government shareholders to buy more common stock in...

Wrongful Foreclosures and Clouded Title

Posted on September 30, 2010
I think there's a much bigger problem lurking in the shadows behind the GMAC/JPMChase foreclosures freezes due to concerns about faulty foreclosures: clouded title. There's a lot of wonderful technical stuff involved with wrongful foreclosure claims, but the basic problem...

What's Eating Todd Zywicki?

Posted on September 30, 2010
It's no secret that there's no love lost between Todd Zywicki and Elizabeth Warren. But Todd's latest salvo in this feud is simply filled with inaccuracies. Todd goes after Elizabeth for (1) her medical bankruptcy research, (2) the Two-Income Trap,...

The Shadow Consumer Bankruptcy System

Posted on September 29, 2010
Bankruptcy filings have not risen at anything like the rate at which consumer debt defaults have risen since 2007. Part of the explanation may lie in the shadow bankruptcy system, a network of alternative service providers who purport to save...

An Aside

Posted on September 25, 2010
Payment systems are not usually my beat, but returning from a conference this morning, I was again subjected to the continued stubbornness of the U.S. credit card companies regarding "chip and pin" technology, so it seems like a good time...

The Thorne-Porter Financial Education Study

Posted on September 23, 2010
Last week, a short item was posted on a bankruptcy listserv about the excellent new paper by Deborah Porter and Katherine Porter, Debtors? Assessments of Bankruptcy Financial Education, available on ssrn.com. Despite the insights of the paper about the wisdom...

Give Me Glass-Steagal or Give Me Death?

Posted on September 23, 2010
I've recently seen some really surprising graffiti in DC: on the outer loop of the Beltway, just after the I-95 merger someone has neatly printed on the overpass "End the Fed". And this evening as I was driving toward DuPont...

A First Take on Blockbuster

Posted on September 23, 2010
Here. In addition to my thoughts posted on Dealbook, I note that New York continues to consolidate its position as the home for big chapter 11 cases, taking back a role it once almost conceded to Delaware.

A Lot of Wisdom over at the NYT

Posted on September 23, 2010
Tara Siegel Bernard has a post up over at the New York Times Bucks blog about economic indicators, outstanding credit, and bankruptcy filings. She quoted some guy named "Lawless" who really sounds like he knows what he is talking about--probably...

Rates are Low--Where Are All the Refis?

Posted on September 22, 2010
Jean Braucher's post on the Hubbard-Mayer housing market reform proposal points to a really interesting question: why is it that despite historically low interest rates, there has been relatively little in the way of refinancings? This is a critical question...

Where Did HAMP Go Wrong?

Posted on September 22, 2010
Jean Braucher's posts about servicers as gatekeepers raises the question of just where did HAMP go wrong? HAMP has always been fatally flawed conceptually and operationally it has also been fraught with problems. Conceptually, HAMP was always an attempt to...

Previous | Next

Related Law Bulletins

More owners facing foreclosure - Many paying a price for easy credit
Timothy Duggan, Shareholder in Stark & Stark's Real Estate Gro...

Ex-Spouses Can Ruin Each Other's Credit
Ex-Spouses Can Ruin Each Other's Credit By Kimberly Palmer, US New...

How Will My Divorce Affect My Credit?
A very good overview of some of the credit issues in divorce. ----...