This study evaluates a two-day train the trainer program designed to provide instructors from diverse backgrounds with the tools needed to teach financial literacy to individual debtors. Trained teachers reported satisfaction with their training and felt prepared to teach; they also provided...

The benefits of incrementalism are frequently lauded in international lawmaking. Scholars argue that these benefits accrue to international organizations with limited resources or to nation-states that are reluctant to move too fast. Using the case of UNCITRAL's (the United Nations Commission on...

This article critiques two of the 2005 amendments to the Bankruptcy Code - one related to pre-bankruptcy counseling and the other related to post-filing debtor education. The article questions whether, when one looks beneath the surface, these new mandates actually improve the lives of consumer...

Following the Asian Financial Crisis, sovereign debt defaults prompted calls by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for a statutory Sovereign Debt Restructuring Mechanism (SDRM). In promoting the SDRM, IMF leaders argued that countries' sovereign debt problems needed something like U.S....

Debates about sovereign debt markets presume these markets are unique, because sovereign governments are unique borrowers. To the extent observers look elsewhere for guidance, it is to corporate debt markets. We argue that this conventional view—though useful to a point—has substantially and...

Although cities are a poor place to situate consumer protection regulation, especially “top down” efforts to “command and control” lending decisions, they are an especially good source of consumer “empowerment” initiatives. Consumer empowerment might take the form of debt advice or...

This article explores the content and institutional context for recently revised regulation of the markets for residential mortgages. It proposes a market-sensitive reading of the Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, and suggests that the Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection...

The market for home loans has changed dramatically over the past thirty years, due, in large part, to the development of a market for asset-backed securities. Encouraged through the creation of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac - government-sponsored entities created to purchase and package...

Our comparative case studies of bankruptcy lawmaking reveal an apparent political universal. In neither advanced (U.S., Britain) nor developing countries (China, Indonesia, Korea) do debtors consistently play a major role in corporate bankruptcy reforms. This is a puzzle. Debtors...