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Avoid Chapter 11 at All Cost!!!

by admin | Thu, 03/11/2010 - 08:28

One thing that I think we all agreed on in yesterday's panel on "too big to fail" was that many of the plans for a separate resolution authority are being driven toward a FDIC model by Treasury and the Fed,...

In Case You Didn't Feel Like Showing Up

by admin | Tue, 03/09/2010 - 16:30

I'm on a panel tomorrow at the Dow Jones Restructuring and Turnaround Summit about how the government should address "too big to fail" and the collapse of systemically important firms. For those of you who won't find yourself in lower...

Early Thoughts on Milavetz

by admin | Mon, 03/08/2010 - 12:58

This morning, the Supreme Court issued its decision in Milavetz on prebankruptcy attorney-client counseling and bankruptcy attorney disclosures. I've got to get to a meeting so I don't have time for an extended post. The early reporting has been technically...

Half-Empty or Half-Full: The February Bankruptcy Figures

by admin | Mon, 03/08/2010 - 11:57

Pick which blog post you want to read: The year-over-year increase in bankruptcy filings for February hit its lowest mark since the trough in filings after the 2005 changes to the bankruptcy. February saw only 6,170 filings per business day...

Foreclosures: What About the States?

by admin | Fri, 03/05/2010 - 21:31

Here's something that's puzzled me: no state has yet to enact any serious foreclosure moratorium. In the 1930s, these moratoria sprouted up all around the country, and foreclosure rates (but not default rates), were much lower than today. California imposed...

While everyone (including me) is talking about too big to fail . . .

by admin | Fri, 03/05/2010 - 21:20

The small banks are dropping like flies. At this rate the only banks left are all is going to be too big to fail.

The Ban on "Universal Default"

by admin | Thu, 03/04/2010 - 02:20

Did Congress' effort to protect you from your card company with the Credit CARD Act inspire you to pore over the new Cardmember "Agreement" that probably arrived in your mailbox this week? I actually read at least part of mine,...

Do Not Miss

by admin | Wed, 03/03/2010 - 09:50

William White has a rocking op-ed in the FT arguing that debt overhang, notably in the U.S. household sector, makes fiscal and monetary policy ineffective. White is one of the early pre-pre-pre-crisis proponents of macroprudential regulation, and always worth tuning...

Half a (Rotten) Loaf is Worse Than None at All: The Fate of the CFPA

by admin | Tue, 03/02/2010 - 22:44

As political wrangling over financial services reform continues, the creation of an independent CFPA remains a major bone of contention. A number of compromise proposals have been bruited: creating an independent bureau in Treasury, vesting the power in the Fed,...

It's All Greek to Me FAQ, Part II: Euroliar Loans

by admin | Tue, 03/02/2010 - 19:34

While they hold some allure for the pointy-headed company I normally keep, the old fixing-floating-IMF-bailout handwringing detailed in my last post is nothing to the titillation of the Goldman-CDS angle on the Greek drama. FAQ series continues with a focus...