Covered bonds, traditionally associated with European finance since the time of Frederick the Great, are now becoming an important part of U.S., Canadian, and Asian finance. In these jurisdictions, market observers and government officials perceive the safety of covered bonds as an antidote for...

The recent financial woes of Greece and other nations are reinvigorating the debate over whether to bail out defaulting countries or, instead, restructure their debt. Bailouts are expensive, in the case of Greece costing potentially hundreds of billions of euros. But a bailout was virtually...

In a prior article, Professor Schwarcz examined the factors that differentiate Enron's questionable use of off-balance sheet special purpose entities, (SPEs) from the trillions of dollars of "legitimate" securitization and other structured-finance transactions that use SPEs. The presence of...

This essay examines, what, if anything, differentiates Enron's questionable use of off-balance-sheet special purpose entries, or SPEs, from the trillions of dollars of supposedly "legitimate" securitization and other structured finance transactions that use SPEs. The inquiry is important because...

This testimony is based on the results of Prof. Schwarcz's research over the past year on systemic risk, such research and results being more fully set forth in the forthcoming paper, quot;Systemic Risk,quot; which is available at http://papers.ssrn.com/abstract=1008326

This essay examines, what, if anything, differentiates Enron's questionable use of off-balance-sheet special purpose entries, or SPEs, from the trillions of dollars of supposedly quot;legitimatequot; securitization and other structured finance transactions that use SPEs. The inquiry is important...

Although merely private entities, rating agencies have a profound economic impact on global finance. At the same time, these entities have engaged in potential abuses, such as threatening to assign unrequested ratings in order to force companies to use their services. Nonetheless, rating...

This article is the first major work of legal scholarship on systemic risk, under which the world's financial system can collapse like a row of dominos. There is widespread confusion about the causes and even the definition of systemic risk, and uncertainty how to control it. This article...

As the financial crisis has tragically illustrated, the complexities of modern financial markets and investment securities can trigger systemic market failures. Addressing these complexities, this article maintains, is perhaps the greatest financial-market challenge of the future. The article...