The collapse of the credit markets revealed that information critical to assessing the quality of many mortgage backed securities was unavailable. When subprime losses began to mount in 2007 and 2008, analysts were unable to obtain information necessary to assess the performance characteristics...

This is one of three lectures I am giving in December 2012 at universities and government agencies in Shanghai and Beijing. In the context of comparing Western and Chinese shadow banking concerns and regulatory responses, this lecture addresses three broad questions: What is shadow banking...

This is one of three lectures I am giving in December 2012 at universities and government agencies in Shanghai and Beijing. This lecture begins by reviewing securitization's role in the global financial crisis. Next, it examines securitization's problems and compares the U.S. and Chinese...

In this Lecture, I examine how complex securitization transactions may have created a “protection gap,” the conundrum that transaction parties may be unable to purchase or might not want to pay the price for full protection. As a result, they sometimes choose or are forced to assume the good...

We briefly introduce the financial crisis and the role played by mortgage-backed securities. Then we describe the controversy at issue: whether, in order to own and enforce the mortgage loans backing those securities, a special-purpose vehicle “purchasing” mortgage loans must take physical...

In this May 18, 2011 testimony before the Subcommittee on Securities, Insurance, and Investment of the U.S. Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs, I suggest certain regulatory responses to improve securitization. Certain of securitization's problems are typical of problems we...

There are few types of securities as internationally traded as those issued in securitization (also spelled securitisation) transactions. The post-financial crisis regulatory responses to securitization in the United States and Europe are, at least in part, political and ad hoc. To achieve a...

This brief essay attempts to integrate and critique the papers being published in a law-review symposium issue on “Securitization: 10 Years After the Financial Crisis.” In that process, the essay provides an overview of the current state of securitization, identifying securitization's abuses...

Although governments could protect against the economic devastation of future pandemics by requiring businesses to insure against pandemic-related risks, insurers do not currently offer that insurance. Even given sufficient actuarial data to set underwriting standards and rate tables, insurers...