This is a short research brief for the Filene Research Institute on the impact of the Credit C.A.R.D. Act on credit unions. The brief presents data on credit unions' credit card operations. Only around half of credit unions even issue credit cards, and for most that do, credit cards are a minor...

The creation of a market in bankruptcy claims is the single most important development in the bankruptcy world since the Bankruptcy Code's enactment in 1978. Claims trading has revolutionized bankruptcy by making it a much more market-driven process. The limited scholarly literature on claims...

Fictitious scare statistics have featured prominently in recent debates over consumer credit policy. The latest example is David Evans and Joshua Wright's statistical claims about the impact of the Consumer Financial Protection Agency Act on the cost and availability of consumer credit and...

Recent proposals to address housing market troubles through principal modification raise the possibility that such policies could increase the cost of credit in the mortgage market. We explore this using historical variation in federal judicial rulings regarding whether Chapter 13 bankruptcy...

Mandatory use of swaps clearinghouses represents the principal regulatory response to the systemic risk from credit derivatives. Scholars are divided on the merits of clearinghouses; some scholars see them as reducing systemic risk, others contend they increase it. The case for swaps...

Asset bubbles come and go. Only the housing bubble, however, brought the economy to its knees. Why? What makes housing uniquely a cause of macroeconomic risk? This article examines the workings of the housing market as well as theories and empirical evidence about the housing bubble. It explains...

Two parallel real estate bubbles emerged in the United States between 2004 and 2008, one in residential real estate, the other in commercial real estate. The residential real estate bubble has received a great deal of popular, scholarly, and policy attention. The commercial real estate bubble,...

The most recent round of state budget crises has resulted in calls to permit states to file for bankruptcy in order to restructure and reduce their financial obligations. This Article argues that these proposals are misguided because states' financial distress is primarily a political problem...