Bankruptcy News

Here's what we're reading in November 2018

BCFP Files Amicus Brief in U.S. Supreme Court Case, Concludes Law Firm Did Not Engage in Debt Collection by Initiating Nonjudicial Foreclosure

Three Predictions for the CFPB in 2019

Bloomberg to donate historic $1.8 billion to Hopkins for low-income scholarships

How Democrats plan to save the agency Republicans love to hate

CFPB Issues Spring 2018 Semi-Annual Report

New York Times "Credit" Topic Page

A steady diet of the NYT  articles on bankruptcy and credit. 

NY Times "Personal Bankruptcies" News 

A steady diet of  NYT articles on personal bankruptcy . 

CreditSlips Blog

Active discussion of news of the day by bankruptcy law professors and lawyers. A good source of links to newsworthy events in politics and finance that affect the world of credit and bankruptcy.

BankruptcyProf Blog

Another discussion by law professors. Good source for caselaw and rules developments, as well as legislation.

InsideARM.com

An excellent, well-organized archive of timely articles on economic data affecting the debt and credit industry. The link below is for Credit Card news, but be sure to hover your cursor over the News & Analysis link for a list of other areas you can search: 

EJ-156 Current Dollar Amounts of Exemptions From Enforcement of Judgments

A lot has been written lately about whether bankruptcy makes sense for people, in light of the economic downturn, including these articles:

• NPR/Talk of the Nation: Sometimes, Filing For Bankruptcy is Best - (April 20, 2009. Jane Bryant Quinn explains why it makes sense to go bankruptcy to preserve your retirement accounts and other exempt assets. Know your rights!)
• The New York Times: Debt Settlers Offer Promises but Little Help (April 19, 2009)
• The Chicago Tribune: In this economy, bankruptcy may be an answer for many (March 15, 2009)
• The New York Times: Bankruptcy as a Step to Solvency (Jan 23, 2009)
  
• Credit Slips Blog on "Should I File for Bankruptcy" (Jan 23, 2009) ('rules of thumb' about when it's appropriate to file).

Don't like the law? Change it! Vote the rascals out. 

Click here to see how your Senator voted on bankruptcy "reform" (BAPCPA) in 2005, and  how your Representative voted.

Latest on mortgage modification legislation

See National Consumer Law Center, bankruptcy news page.

And here's a BusinessWeek article and blog entry about how credit card disputes that go to arbitration rule for the credit card company 99.9% of the time.

Wall Street Journal reports on problems with debt settlement companies

(October 15, 2008) Read about people who waste lots of money and regret not filing bankruptcy in the first place... more...

Stephen Colbert on Payday Lending Regulation

"The Payday Loan Reform Act drags the payday loan industry out of the darkness and into the anemic firefly flicker of nominal oversight. (04:16)"

Keeping track of the influence of money in Congress

http://www.rootstrikers.org

Started by Stanford Law professor Lawrence Lessig.

http://www.sunlightfoundation.com/

http://www.maplight.org/

Numbers to Watch & Where to Find Them

You can follow the credit bubble as it pops and splatters its way through our financial institutions at http://www.federalreserve.gov/releases, where the Federal Reserve posts monthly reports that track the effects of the credit crisis on America's financial infrastructure.

If the flow of money is the fuel of American capitalism, then these reports are the fuel gauges. The Fed's unglamorous reports give us hard data on how much money is coursing through the American economy.

• Monthly G.19 Reports. These are the reports on consumer borrowing, both traditional loans (such as car loans) and "revolving debt," also known as credit cards. Each month, the Fed lists the total amount Americans have on our credit card bills. The amounts are staggering -- $968 billion in credit card debt, more than 7% higher than just last year -- and show no signs of shrinking. Read more at http://www.federalreserve.gov/releases/g19/.
  
  
• The "charge off" rate. This is the percent of loans, including credit card balances, that the lender has written off as uncollectible. The latest figures show that banks are giving up on 5.47% of the credit card amounts owed to them. This figure is the highest since the current bankruptcy law took effect, with the exception of a brief flurry of bankruptcies before the passage of the law. More information here: http://www.federalreserve.gov/releases/chargeoff/.
  
  
• The savings rate. This data shows how much Americans are saving each year. It's been hovering between zero and 2% for five years: http://research.stlouisfed.org/fred2/series/PSAVERT. For other Fed research data on personal spending, see http://www.bea.gov/national/index.htm#personal.
  
  
• The bankruptcy filing rate. How many people are filing for bankruptcy, and for what kind (Chapter 7 or 13) and where (Statistics by District). This data is kept by the US court system, updated monthly and can be found here: http://www.uscourts.gov/bnkrpctystats/statistics.htm.

You can get other important numbers and information from non-governmental sources, including:

• RealtyTrac, which offers one-stop shopping for the latest foreclosure statistics and news: http://www.realtytrac.com/news-trends/index.html
  
  
• InsideARM.com, which offers an excellent, well-organized archive of timely articles on economic data affecting the debt and credit industry. The link below is for Credit Card news, but be sure to hover your cursor over the News & Analysis link for a list of other areas you can search: http://www.insidearm.com/go/tags/credit%20card.