Credit Cards
 

Well that's a gene pool problem in Minnesota.

Credit Cards
 

So, do you believe that it should only be the peasants who should remain saddled with debt and bear responsibility, or would you agree that if bankruptcy is to be restricted for consumers, it should be similarly restricted for companies like Chrysler, WorldCom, Texaco, Enron, etc.?

Credit Cards
 

I'm not sure I can answer this because I haven't read the bill and don't know its contents. I was only responding to the personal responsibility part. I assume the bill makes it harder to file? How so?

Name Dropping
 

I don't think you are an arrogant, name-dropping blowhard. I just think you are a reactionary, fuck-them-if they-ain't rich-like-me, stuck-in-the-Cold-War republican.

Other than that, from all reports, you're a nice guy, and I hope to have you join me for drinks next time I get out to the Left Coast.

Name Dropping
 

Let's not go too far,

Credit Cards
 

It places limits on who can file for chapter 7. If you have the ability to pay a certain amount over time, you are forced to file a ch. 13. It also makes more debt non-dischargeable in other ways. Incidentally, it does nothing to limit the ability of corporations to file for a ch. 11 reorganization, screw their shareholders, pensioners, and employees, then walk out of court with a nice clean balance sheet.

Credit Cards
 

If the bill makes it harder to file, isn't that a giveaway to credit-card companies, which lent money under one set of background assumptions and have now had those rules changed? And if we're going to assume people are rational -- your assumption, I think -- shouldn't we assume that they understood their bankruptcy options when they signed up for credit cards, and now are having the rug pulled out from under them?

Perverse incentives.
 

Via &c., the Wall Street Journal suggests (subscription only) that the bankruptcy bill may actually increase the number of bankruptcies by lessening the incentives to lend to people who are bad risks.

• Some bankruptcy economists theorize that there's an inverse relationship between strong consumer-protection laws and bankruptcy filings. In states where it's harder for lenders to get judgments against consumers, bankruptcies might be lower because lenders are pickier about who gets credit. In states that make it easy for creditors to repossess property, bankruptcies might be higher because more consumers are extended credit.
  
  That, the economists say, might explain why many Southern states--known for the creditor-friendly laws--have higher bankruptcy rates. Alabama, Georgia and Tennessee provide a wide range of prejudgments, creditor remedies, attachments, garnishments and wage assignments with limited or no litigation, Mr. Gerdano says.

Gerdano is the executive director of the American Bankruptcy Institute, a Washington group composed of bankruptcy judges, and accountants and lawyers who represent both borrowers and lenders.

Links here.

Credit Cards
 

Credit card companies don't care about corporate bankruptcy.

Club, it is estimated that people filing for bankruptcy will have to pay more like $800 up front for filing and that many people will have to go through two proceedings (fail at 13, go to 7) -- with the associated transaction costs -- under the new system. They are required to pay for mandatory credit counseling (or, someone will have to fund this, but the bill does not call for funding for credit counseling for debtors). It does not, at least last time I heard, end the incredibly generous homestead exemptions in states like FL and TX which allow people who really do have resources to shield properties worth hundreds of thousands or even millions of dollars.

I honestly don't see why credit card companies don't just build the bankruptcy laws into their algorithms. Or, why they don't use what they know more effectively, and just not extend credit (or as much credit, or unsecured credit) to bad credit risks. It's not like they don't pretty much have access to everyone's entire fucking financial history. Instead, they are lobbying for what amounts to increased regulation of the bankruptcy proceedings but apparently are pretty successfully selling it to chumps like you as "increasing personal responsibility."

Credit Cards
 

But thankfully, it continues to allow one to sock away tons-o-bux in opulent homes and then shelters that asset from creditors. Similarly, if one's assets reach that critical mass at which expensive legal help becomes cost-effective, one can easily set up a sheltered trust, fund it with as much as you want, declare BK, and continue to exercise complete discretion and control over the trust.

It's good to be king.

Perverse incentives.
 

You mean increasing the incentives, right?

Credit Cards
 

In addition, the Dems proferred amendments that would have amended the bill to exempt veterans, active-duty troops, senior citizens and families facing unexpected medical bills, but these were rejected.

I myself certainly don't give any credence to any reports that the votes on the amendments were accompanied by laughter, hoots and/or catcalls from the Republican side of the Senate.

Credit Cards
 

Apparently, there are solid gold fixtures in a lot of the homes in River Oaks due to the oil bust in the 80s and the ensuing desire to get as many assets into the homestead as possible.

Credit Cards
 

This was one of the only bright chapters in the birth of this bill. Just what we need - let's start exempting our pet groups from provisions. I vote to exempt lawyers who wear flannel shirts. Hank wants to exempt old hippies. Ty says that Ward Churchill should be able to file 7 whenever he wants.

It would be better to simply set up a fair and workable solution for all, rather than to set up crap, and then vote to make people we like avoid the crap.

Credit Cards
 

uh, yeah. What isn't a giveaway in washington these days? It's a bailout to bottom-feeding CC cos.

There will be a painful transition, and then ultimately a new equilibrium with the extension of even more credit to less creditworth people, who still are able to meet the requirements of the bill, and we'll go through this again.