Tuesday, December 2, 2008

The Best of the Nov. '08 Bulletins: Stories on BAPCPA's Unintended Economic Consequences, Effect of Decrease in Credit on B'cy Filings, & More


By Andrew Toth-Fejel, Bankruptcy Litigation Support for Attorneys, Andy@BLSforAttorneys.com



Here is a list with which to easily access some of the best recent Bulletins from this website. Just click on the title to link to that story. I have two kinds of daily "Practice-Critical Bankruptcy Bulletins" on this website: 1) summaries of court opinions--mostly from the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, the Bankruptcy Appellate Panel of the 9th Circuit, and the Oregon U.S. District Court and Bankruptcy Court, with occasional especially noteworthy ones from elsewhere; and 2) stories about the local and national economy, legislation, bankruptcy statistics and other areas of interest to bankruptcy professionals. The following list is from this second category of Bulletins, and includes all Bulletins published last month of this category. A short excerpt follows each title.

Please feel free to comment on any story--just click on the blue word "COMMENTS" immediately after the body of that Bulletin. I respond to all comments.



At the Extreme of BAPCPA's Unintended Consequences: Did Arcane Provisions of BAPCPA Contribute to the Bear Stearns, Lehman Bros. & AIG Collapses?
Excerpt: "So how could mere bankruptcy code changes designed to protect financial institutions, and pushed by knowledgeable organizations like the Securities Industry & Financial Markets Association and the International Swaps & Derivatives Association, lead to the demise of some of the most venerable of these institutions? By newly exempting credit default swaps and mortgage repurchase agreements from the automatic stay, instruments which Bear Sterns and Lehman Brothers used extensively, creditors of these institutions--such as hedge funds and other financial institutions--no longer had the disincentive that the institutions could file bankruptcy and freeze their transactions and their collateral if they were pushed too hard."
Posted: November 3, 2008

The Effect of a Decrease in Credit Availability on the Number of Future Bankruptcy Filings
Excerpt: "According to The Paradox of Consumer Credit, by Robert M. Lawless, a professor at the University of Illinois College of Law, empirical data supports the . . . inclination that, in the short-run, decreases in credit availability increase bankruptcy filings. But in the long-run, bankruptcy filing rates increase with greater credit availability. Does that mean that potential long-term reductions in credit availability mean long-term reductions in bankruptcy filings?"
Posted: November 5, 2008

Will President-Elect Obama Now Make Chapter 13 Mortgage Modification Part of His First-100-Days Economic Plan?
Excerpt: "Here is a sampling of what the blogosphere is saying about the current prospects for bankruptcy law reform and specifically Chapter 13 mortgage modifications."
Posted: November 7, 2008

New Streamlined Home Mortgage Modification Program: Making Sense of Yet Another Federal Effort to Rescue Homeowners
Excerpt: "On November 11, 2008 the federal government announced another major home mortgage modification program. It is being presented by the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA), which was established by the Housing and Economic Recovery Act of 2008 signed into law on July 30, 2008, the same agency which took control of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in September by authority of that Act. This Bulletin focuses on the bankruptcy aspects of this story ... ."
Posted: November 12, 2008

New Oregon Employment Data: The Trends Behind the News
Excerpt: "Yesterday (11/17/08) the Oregon Employment Department released statewide employment data for October 2008, highlighted by an unusually large 0.9% one-month increase in the unemployment rate to 7.3%. Even though the national average unemployment rate also went up--from 6.1% to 6.4%--this increase took the state in one month from slightly worse to significantly worse than the national average."
Posted: November 18, 2008

New Chapter 13 Mortgage Modification Bill Introduced During Lame-Duck Session
Excerpt: "Earlier this week Senator Richard Durbin introduced another Chapter 13 mortgage modification bill, S.3690, during this lame-duck session of Congress. It is called the Homeowner Assistance and Taxpayer Protection Act."
Posted: November 20, 2008



by Andrew Toth-Fejel
Bankruptcy Litigation Support for Attorneys
Andy@BLSforAttorneys.com

Please note that this writer is not licensed to practice law in Oregon. This means that he is not legally permitted to give any legal advice or provide and legal services. This Bulletin and the entire contents of this website is written only for attorneys. and is not intended for the public. If any non-attorney is reading this, you must consult an attorney about ANYTHING you read here. Nothing in this website is intended to be nor should be read as being legal advice to anyone.

© 2008 Bankruptcy Litigation Support for Attorneys