Law Commons^™

How Government Guarantees In Housing Finance Promote Stability, David Min

David Min

In the aftermath of the financial crisis, major reforms of the U.S. housing finance system are likely. One of the key issues facing policy makers in this area is whether and to what extent the federal government should maintain its current role in the residential mortgage markets. Since the New Deal, the federal government has guaranteed the primary sources of housing finance in the United States—bank and thrift deposits, and the obligations of the mortgage securitization conduits Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and Ginnie Mae.

The prevailing view of government guarantees is that they increase financial instability because they encourage excessive …

The Chaos Of 12 U.S.C. Section 1821(K): Congressional Subsidizing Of Negligent Bank Directors And Officers, Steven A. Ramirez

Steven A. Ramirez

No abstract provided.

Defining Our Terms Carefully And In Context: Thoughts On Reading (And In One Case, Rereading) Three Books, Cynthia C. Lichtenstein

Cynthia C. Lichtenstein

In preparing to write this paper, I read again Walter Bagehot’s Lombard Street: A Description of the Money Market , Perry Mehrling’s The New Lombard Street: How the Fed Became the Dealer of Last Resort and John Authers’ The Fearful Rise of Markets: Global Bubbles, Synchronized Meltdowns, and How to Prevent Them in the Future. . Bagehot, of course, was the Governor of the Bank of England when he wrote what Mehrling calls his “magisterial” treatise in 1873 on how a central bank must react to a financial crisis. Mehrling is an economist and an economic historian. Authers is a …

Is The Middle East Moving Toward Islamism After The Arab Spring? The Case Study Of The Egyptian Commercial And Financial Laws, Radwa S. Elsaman Ms., Ahmed Eldakak Mr.

Radwa S Elsaman

The parliamentary elections that followed the Egyptian Revolution witnessed an unprecedented success for Islamists as they secured an overwhelming majority of seats, suggesting that they may intend to amend many laws to bring it in compliance with the Islamic Shari’a. This article addresses legal challenges that will face the new majority if they decide to Islamize laws and regulations related to business and finance. Particularly, the article discusses Islamic money theory, trade, banking systems, consumer protection, insurance, competition, and tax systems. The article analyzes the Egyptian business and finance laws to examine whether they comply with Islamic law. It then …

Implementing Dodd-Frank: A Review Of The Cftc‟S Rulemaking Process: Testimony, Michael Greenberger

Michael Greenberger

The Relationship of Unregulated OTC Derivatives to the Meltdown. It is now accepted wisdom that it was the non-transparent, poorly capitalized, and almost wholly unregulated over-the-counter (“OTC”) derivatives market that lit the fuse that exploded the highly vulnerable worldwide economy in the fall of 2008. Because tens of trillions of dollars of these financial products were pegged to the economic performance of an overheated and highly inflated housing market, the sudden collapse of that market triggered under-capitalized or non-capitalized OTC derivative guarantees of the subprime housing investments. Moreover, the many undercapitalized insurers of that collapsing market had other multi-trillion dollar …

The Big Banks: Background, Deregulation, Financial Innovation And Too Big To Fail, Charles W. Murdock

Charles W. Murdock

Summary: The Big Banks: Background, Deregulation, Financial Innovation and Too Big to Fail

The U.S. economy is still reeling from the financial crisis that exploded in the fall of 2008. This article asserts that the big banks were major culprits in causing the crisis, by funding the non-bank lenders that created the toxic mortgages which the big banks securitized and sold to unwary investors. Paradoxically, banks which were then too big to fail are even larger today.

The article briefly reviews the history of banking from the Founding Fathers to the deregulatory mindset that has been present since 1980. It …

Deposit Accounts Under The New World Order, Ingrid Michelsen Hillinger, David Line Batty, Richard K. Brown

Ingrid Michelsen Hillinger

The new world is upon us. Repent. Revised Article 9 is the law in every state. Commercial deposit accounts are now available as original collateral. Bringing commercial deposit accounts into the Article 9 fold significantly complicates the planning of an Article 9 secured transaction. Attorneys for banks, non-bank creditors and debtors need to understand the new world order and the risks it poses to their clients. They need to develop strategies to minimize those risks so as to protect their clients' positions. Part II of this article describes the new legal framework and some of the risks it creates. Part …

Throw The Book At Them: Testing Mortgagor Remedies In Foreclosure Proceedings After U.S. Bank V. Ibanez, Claire Ward

Claire Alexis Ward

This article takes one state, Massachusetts, as its focus for a perspective on the residential mortgage foreclosure crisis. U.S. Bank v. Ibanez, in early 2011, signaled a changing tide which began to hold banks accountable for the shoddy practices they frequently used to foreclose. However, the promise of Ibanez was unfulfilled as successor cases failed to follow through with its vision. Mortgagor actions brought in the trial courts to prevent foreclosure have been unsuccessful with the elemental actions based in consumer protection, contract, and equity. However, this article proposes new and novel solutions to force banks to be held accountable …