If bubbles reflect social outbreaks of poor judgment, then even those who adhere to individualistic notions of contract should recognize that there is a basis for denying enforcement of bubble contracts. This article outlines the argument that bubbles -- defined as outbreaks of poor judgment --...

The law governing the United States' $13 trillion mortgage market is broken. Courts and legislatures around the country continue to struggle with the fallout from the effort to build a 21st century global market in mortgages on a fragmented, arguably archaic legal foundation. These authorities'...

Mortgage Electronic Registration Systems, Inc. (“MERS, Inc.”) owns legal title to some 30 million mortgages in the United States. The company, which was a key part of the mortgage securitization apparatus in the late 1990s and 2000s, is now under intense pressure from public and private...

This Article offers a new rationale for making student loans more readily dischargeable in bankruptcy: Doing so advances Congress's purpose in creating federal student loan programs in the first place. Empirical research indicates that if it is too hard to discharge loans in bankruptcy, students...

As the Department of Education reconsiders its rules governing consent to discharge of federal student loans in bankruptcy, this Article argues for the first time that the Department should approach the problem specifically as an operator of programs to promote education and benefit students,...

On June 16, the SEC made public new rules intended to increase transparency and reduce conflicts of interest in the credit rating process for fixed-income instruments. The proposal may be most important for what it does not do: The SEC does not plan to forbid the quot;issuer-paysquot; system, in...

This paper summarizes and comments on the major provisions of the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008, grouping the subjects covered as follows: (1) General Nature and Scope of the Bailout Program; (2) Procedures for Purchase and Sale of Assets; (3) Insurance Program; (4) Executive...

Two private-sector committees empaneled by the President's Working Group on Financial Markets have released their reports on quot;best practicesquot; in hedge fund regulation. The more notable of the two is the Asset Managers Committee report, which reflects the views of hedge-fund managers...

Scholars and commentators have argued that municipalities can and should use bankruptcy to shed unwanted liabilities, particularly employee healthcare and pension commitments. Courts increasingly have agreed: Detroit's approved bankruptcy plan cut pensions, and the bankruptcy court overseeing...

A drawback of student loans is that a debtor must show “undue hardship” to discharge them in bankruptcy. An advantage of student loans is that most of them may be repaid using income-driven repayment (“IDR”) plans, under which the debtor can satisfy the obligation by paying a share of...