Archive for March, 2007
This Blog is Going Dark in Protest For One Week
As a show of solidarity to another blogger, Kathy Sierra of Creating Passionate Users, I am taking this blog dark (i.e., no posting) for the remainder of this week. Kathy has been the victim of a foul, evil campaign including death threats and threats of sexual violence, for no reason apparently other than that she [...]
Why You Should NOT File For Bankruptcy “Pro Se”
Yes, it is in fact your Constitutional right to represent yourself in court proceedings. No question. It’s an important right, and I have no intention of arguing against it as a right. What I am going to argue in this post: as a matter of practice, you should never represent yourself in bankruptcy as a [...]
Hard Truths and Handholding
If you’re in financial distress, it can seem sometimes as if you’d be willing to give your last dime for a bit of good news, in the face of so much bad. But that’s exactly what you don’t need, and if you’re hearing nothing but good news from a bankruptcy lawyer in the early days [...]
Payday Lending - An Academic Perspective
At Credit Slips, one of my favorite blogs on the subject of consumer and bankruptcy law, Professor Lawless discusses a recently published article in the Journal of Economic Perspectives simply titled “Payday Lending.” What makes this article noteworthy? (A) Its author (Michael Stegman, the Director of Housing and Policy at the John D. and
Catherine T. [...]
HSCBC Write-off of $11B in Mortgages
From the bankruptcy blog of Mazy Hedayat, comes this link for the story of how Household Savings, a credit card and home loan issuer, is writing off billions in bad mortgage debt. Calling this a mark of an “oversold mortgage market” Hedayat notes that the same features that were the industry’s beloved tools (namely, 100+% [...]
Is a Payday Loan Better Than Overdraft?
A column by Isaac J. Bailey in the Sun News published today (March 7, 2007) comes to that conclusion. While I appreciate his use of the comparison, I think Mr. Bailey misses the point.
What is “the point”? Perhaps it’s best illustrated by this question: Which one was “better” - a Nazi concentration camp or a [...]
Citigroup Sees the Light on Anti-Consumer Credit Card Policies
Citigroup announced Friday that it was abandoning two practices widely felt to be the most antagonistic towards consumer card holders - the practice of universal default and its “anytime, any reason” rate increase policies.
Universal default is a particularly wicked little game the credit card companies began playing some time ago. Default, of course, is [...]
Feds Get Serious About Responsible Lending Practices
This past week, federal banking and credit union regulatory entities made public a proposal to require more responsible underwriting practices - no more “no income, no asset” loans - before approving what the Center for Responsible Lending calls in its press release hailing the move “dangerous subprime home loans.” The entities joining in the proposal [...]
Categories
- Arbitration Agreements
- Attorney-Client Relationship
- Back to Basics
- Bankruptcy
- Bankruptcy Estate
- BAPCPA 2005
- Cars and Consumers
- Consumer Law In the News
- Consumer Law Policy
- Credit Card Debt
- Debt Collection
- Elsewhere in Other Blogs
- Foreclosure Crisis
- Identity Theft
- Meta
- Mortgages & HELOCs
- Palmetto Pride
- Personal Finance
- Predatory Lending
- Pro Bono/LRE
- Tax Law & You
- UDAP & Consumer Law
- WOW
