Providing a preview of ABI’s upcoming Legislative Symposium to examine the future of corporate restructurings on a policy level, ABI Executive Director Sam Gerdano speaks with the architect of the event, ABI President Bob Keach of Bernstein, Shur, Sawyer & Nelson PA (Portland, Maine). The “Chapter 11 at the Crossroads: Does Reorganization Need Reform?” Legislative Symposium will take place at Georgetown University Law Center in Washington, D.C. on Nov. 16-17. Funded by ABI’s Anthony H.N. Schnelling Endowment Fund, the Symposium is a free event for ABI members, congressional staff, researchers, scholars and the press. The Symposium faculty will re-examine the traditional framework of insolvency law against today’s headlines and consider new ways going forward.
Author Archive for ABIPodcast
As high levels of household debt look to push over 1.4 million Americans into bankruptcy in 2009, ABI Executive Director Sam Gerdano discusses consumer addiction to debt with Dr. Charles Geisst, the author of the recently published Collateral Damaged: The Marketing of Consumer Debt to America. Professor of finance at Manhattan College and author of seventeen books, Dr. Geisst extensively studies and writes about issues concerning consumer debt and finance from Wall Street to main street America. The podcast examines the history of consumer debt and what policies and proposals might be effective in reversing the current economic downturn.
A new study by Federal Reserve researchers found that government initiatives to stem the country’s mounting foreclosures are hampered because banks and other lenders in many cases have more financial incentive to let borrowers lose their homes than to work out settlements. ABI Executive Director Sam Gerdano discusses the study “Why Don’t Lenders Renegotiate More Home Mortgages? Redefaults, Self-Cures, and Securitization” with two of the study’s authors, Dr. Paul Willen and Dr. Kristopher Gerardi. Willen is a Senior Economist and Policy Advisor in the Research Department of the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston and Gerardi is a research economist and assistant policy adviser in the research department of the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta. Please note that the views presented in the study and on the podcast are those of the authors, not official statements by the Federal Reserve.
A new study of more than 4,000 California foreclosures suggests that borrower behavior, such as equity stripping and multiple liens, is a principal culprit, even more than market forces. Prof. Michael LaCour-Little of California State University-Fullerton, discusses his findings in a podcast with ABI Executive Director Sam Gerdano.
For a summary of the study’s findings, please click here
To read the full study, “Follow the Money: A Close Look at Recent Southern California Foreclosures,” please click here.
The latest ABI podcast features a discussion between ABI Executive Director Samuel J. Gerdano and Dr. Robert Manning, the Director of the Center for Consumer Financial Services at Rochester Institute of Technology, author of Credit Card Nation and founder of the Responsible Debt Relief Institute. One of the leading experts on household debt, spending and the consumer lending industry, Manning discusses the some of the provisions of the Credit CARD Act signed into law last month by President Barack Obama.
The latest ABI podcast features a discussion between ABI Executive Director Samuel J. Gerdano and a panel of bankruptcy scholars examining the government’s role in Chrysler and what it suggests about the coming GM bankruptcy. Profs. Mark Roe of Harvard Law School, David Skeel of the University of Pennsylvania Law School and Todd Zywicki of the George Mason University School of Law give their thoughts on the manner in which the federal government has inserted itself into the chapter 11 process. The experts touch on such topics as whether the government has the power to pick the winners and losers among the stakeholders in bankruptcy cases, if the process engineered for Chrysler is a violation of the Code’s absolute priority rule and what the future effects are on lenders who now must weigh new potential risks of their investments.
The latest ABI podcast features a discussion between ABI Executive Director Samuel J. Gerdano and Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-N.Y.) about legislation that Maloney is sponsoring titled the “Credit Cardholders’ Bill of Rights Act.” H.R. 627 would prohibit issuers from raising rates on existing balances retroactively, require a 45-day notice of any rate increase and ban billing on balances for days not included in the last billing cycle as a result of a grace period. It is similar to rules promulgated by the Federal Reserve that will go into effect in July 2010, but contains some additional consumer protection. The bill passed the House of Representatives on April 30 by an overwhelming margin (357-70) and now moves on to the Senate for consideration. Maloney was elected to Congress in 1992 and has established a reputation as an advocate for consumer-protection issues, especially those to protect consumers from predatory credit card practices. Maloney sponsored a similar credit card protection bill that passed the House last year (312-112), but was not taken up in the Senate. During this interview, Maloney discusses H.R. 627 and its prospects for passage into law this year.
ABI Executive Director Samuel J. Gerdano talks with Dr. Karen Gross, the president of Southern Vermont College (Bennington, Vt.). A former bankruptcy law professor at New York University Law School, Gross is also the founder and former president of the Coalition for Consumer Bankruptcy Debtor Education. Providing her unique perspective on the impact of the economic crisis on higher education, Gross discusses the current recession, student debt and heightened accountability in higher education spending.
ABI Deputy Executive Director Felicia S. Turner talks with Carey Ebert, the current president of the National Association of Consumer Bankruptcy Attorneys (NACBA) and a partner with Ebert Law Offices, P.C. in Forth Worth, Texas. A consumer and small business bankruptcy practitioner for over 20 years, Carey discusses NACBA’s 2009 agenda as well as proposed changes to bankruptcy law being considered on Capitol Hill, including BAPCPA and current mortgage modification proposals.
ABI Executive Director Samuel J. Gerdano talks with Dr. Donald Morgan, Research Officer at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, about the latter’s research arguing that BAPCPA shifted risk from credit card lenders to mortgage lenders, partially helping to trigger the surge in home foreclosures. The conclusions of Morgan and his colleagues echo earlier findings that the new law’s tougher requirements appear to have increased the number of people defaulting on their mortgages or walking away from their homes rather than seeking bankruptcy protection.