This Report, commissioned by the German Council of Economic Experts (Der Sachverständigenrat zur Begutachtung der gesamtwirtschaftlichen Entwicklung), addresses the key institutional and regulatory differences between the American and European securitization markets. In particular, it considers...

Credit card transactions cost American merchants six times as much as cash transactions. Why, then, do consumers pay the same price for purchases, regardless of the means of payment?The answer lies in a set of credit card network rules known as merchant restraints. Merchant restraints forbid...

Transparent pricing is a prerequisite for an efficient, competitive market and responsible consumer behavior. If the card industry were required to price its products in a straightforward manner, and it were less costly for consumers to switch cards, deceptive practices would be harder to...

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...

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...

Consumer protection in financial services has failed. A crisis is now playing itself out in the mortgage, credit card, auto loan, title loan, refund anticipation loan, and payday loan markets. Consumer protection was a traditional element states' regulatory power until federal preemption ousted...

In Distorted Choice in Corporate Bankruptcy, David Skeel offers a nuanced description of restructuring support agreements (RSAs) and how they can help a debtor to achieve the necessary consensus around a proposed Chapter 11 plan of reorganization. In this Essay we take issue with Skeel’s...

Digital wallets, such as ApplePay and Android Pay, are “smart” payment devices that can integrate payments with two-way, real-time communications of any type of data. Integration of payments with real-time communications holds out tremendous promise for consumers and merchants alike: the...

This Essay argues for the repeal of the bankruptcy safe harbors for financial contracts because they are redundant systemic risk safeguards. Most systemically important types of financial contracts now clear through clearinghouses. Clearinghouses are a superior method to the safe harbors for...

The finance literature has long recognized the existence of embedded put options within mortgage contracts, such as a prepayment option and a walk-away default option. This Article identifies a previously unrecognized option embedded in residential mortgages: a mortgagor's unilateral option to...