Much of the blame for the current financial crisis is attributable to problems in the subprime mortgage market. In this Article we argue that changes in the nature of the mortgage contract make it both legally plausible and normatively desirable that subprime mortgages brokers be treated as...

This chapter from our forthcoming book on financial institution regulation identifies the fundamental economic form of a commercial banking firm. We argue that a commercial bank is a financial intermediary that operates as a payments specialist. The intermediation and payment functions are not...

This article objects to a recent tendency of legal and economic scholars to "romanticize" the corporate governance role of German universal banks and Japanese main banks. There are potential conflicts between banks' interests as lenders and as shareholders that are likely to make banks...