Segregation and the Geography of Creditworthiness: Racial Inequality in a Recovered Mortgage Market

The subprime boom and subsequent foreclosure crisis highlighted risk associated with pursuit of the American Dream of homeownership. People of color and those living in segregated areas were particularly harmed by the dramatic rise and fall of the housing market. Almost a decade after the economy’s collapse, questions remain about racial and spatial disparities in access to mortgage credit. I leverage Home Mortgage Disclosure Act data to explore mortgage application outcomes in 2014. Well into the economy’s recovery, minority borrowers remained at a disadvantage in the mortgage approval process. Whereas 71% of White applicants were approved for home loans, approval rates were lower for Asians (68%), Latinos (63%), and Blacks (54%). Black and Latino borrowers were also significantly more likely to receive higher cost loans than Whites, a practice that has accelerated since the foreclosure crisis. Results suggest that segregation exacerbated racial disparities as lenders funneled expensive credit into isolated minority communities. Furthermore, the differences between White and minority outcomes were largest in census tracts where subprime lending was common in 2006 and foreclosures accumulated during the Great Recession. Together, these findings indicate how spatially organized markets have racialized consequences in a highly segregated society.     

关于应对县域突发融资事件的思考

2011年以来，受国家宏观政策调控和货币政策趋紧影响，少数企业资金链条绷紧、民间高息举债、银行融资不畅等深层次问题显现，最终导致了一些地方融资事件的发生。其中，东营市垦利县在当地部分企业融资事件发生后，妥善介入事件处理，为区域性金融危机的应急处置积累了丰富的经验。防止类似融资事件的发生，必须引导中小企业把握好国家信贷政策，积极改善金融服务，规范民间资本的合理流动，同时进一步健全完善地方担保体系。     

Batterers Stalking Patterns

This clinically based study asked 165 batterers attending a court-mandated assessment program to quantify a series of behaviors that occurred since being convicted of battering. The behaviors clustered into 2 factors: (1) an Ambivalent Contact Pattern whereby behaviors of batterers were associated with contacting their ex-partner, sending gifts and letters, and watching her without her knowing while harboring conflicting feelings of love, hate, and anger; and (2) a Predatory Contact Pattern whereby the behaviors of batterers were associated with hang up calls, entering her home without permission, threatening or physically causing harm to her while harboring a propensity for abusiveness. Clinicians should assess batterers for predatory thoughts about the estranged partner, and reason for the contact since separation. Presence of stalking behaviors and predatory fantasy is a window to determine repetitive and escalating domestic violence.     

民间融资规范化探析

我国民间融资日趋活跃,借贷规模不断扩大,已成为中小企业的重要融资渠道。另一方面,民间融资的无序发展也产生了大量的负面影响,存在着较大的风险隐患。文章认为,应制定单行法规,并修改完善相应的法律法规,建构风险检测和监管制度,引导民间融资规范、有序发展。     

试析民间借贷纠纷案件中的文书司法鉴定

随着社会经济的发展,特别是在金融危机和诚信缺失等社会因素的影响下,民间借贷纠纷案件中的文书司法鉴定正面临越来越多的难点和挑战。通过大量民间借贷纠纷案件文书司法鉴定的经验积累,分析归纳这类案件文书司法鉴定的特点和检验要点,并提出规范文书制作以避免法律纠纷的若干建议。     

Imperial governance,sovereignty and the management of chronic instability in Africa

An important political consequence of the crisis of capital in the 1970s has been an increasing intensification of informal imperialism within Africa. This paper argues that the advanced capitalist countries again confronted the endemic problem of overcapacity alongside a decline in the rate of profit and that the major neoliberal reforms foisted upon the African continent were part of the spatio-temporal fix that followed. The quotidian management of many African states was not an intended consequence of structural adjustment, but the subsequent perturbations that beset many developing countries after following such policies has led to such a degree of institutional instability that a new form of imperial governance has come into being. Juridical sovereignty has been maintained, but political sovereignty has been severely compromised through the emergence of this neo-imperial governance. Today an array of external actors is embedded in the sinews of these states, setting the general parameters of state policy to such an extent that one can no longer speak of these countries as possessing de facto independence. The rise of these so-called ‘governance states’ and the new emphasis on ‘governance with government’ constitute a new non-territorial, political form of imperialism.     

Comment on Michael A. Stegman et al.’s “Preventive servicing is good for business and affordable homeownership policy”: What prevents loan modifications?

Abstract

After discussing the article by Stegman et al., this comment describes the barriers to preventive servicing for securitized residential loans and assesses the importance of loan modifications, given the recent increases in default and foreclosure rates for subprime loans. Several hurdles slow or reduce such modifications, even those that help borrowers and investors alike. For example, self‐interest may reduce servicers’ willingness to modify loans rapidly. In addition, underlying securitization agreements may impede servicers’ ability and discretion in this area. Further, tax laws that govern a common securitization entity may limit modifications, as may accounting standards. Finally, “tranche warfare,” the sometimes contradictory fiduciary duties servicers have toward investors holding different tranches of securitized pools, may decrease their ability or their willingness to modify loans.

This comment concludes that barriers to effective loan modifications should be reduced or eliminated where feasible, but that the securitization of subprime loans creates risks for borrowers.     

The impact of predatory loan terms on subprime foreclosures: The special case of prepayment penalties and balloon payments

Previous research has shown that housing abandonment contributes to neighborhood decline by depressing nearby property values. However, most past research estimated the impact of abandonment through cross-sectional analysis without controlling for nearby foreclosures or local housing market trends. Therefore, it remains unclear whether abandoned properties reduce nearby property values or whether abandonment is more common in areas with already lower-valued properties. Prior research also has not explored how the duration of abandonment influences nearby property values. Therefore, to extend the current level of understanding of the impact of abandonment, this research examines the impact of abandoned properties on nearby property values in Baltimore, Maryland, from 1991 to 2010 using longitudinal data sets while simultaneously controlling for both nearby foreclosures and local housing market trends. This research finds that as properties are abandoned for longer periods of time, the impact on nearby property values not only increases in magnitude but also is seen increasingly farther away.     

中国P2P小额信贷中介服务行业法律监管研究

基于对域外P2P行业监管的梳理和分析,结合我国P2P小额信贷中介服务机构所兼具的创新性金融服务机构、投资咨询类中介服务机构和电子商务金融创新服务平台的三重性质,我国应当尽快完善并不断发展P2P小额信贷中介服务行业的法律制度体系建设,践行多方推动、统筹兼顾、虚实结合、着力创新、注重实效、规范发展、保障安全的新型监管理念并将政府主导型监管制度和市场需求引致型监管制度演变相结合,从而建立起由中国人民银行主导监管、银监会在相应业务领域紧密配合、地方政府严格实施、工商行政管理机关和工信部门积极参与的P2P行业监管框架.     

Fraud, banking crisis, and regulatory enforcement: Evidence from micro-level transactions data

Can widespread fraud cause large scale banking crises? We address this issue in the context of the recent Turkish banking crisis of 2000, which was followed by a severe recession and currency crisis. Using detailed micro-level transactions data, we show that related lending and back-to-back loans across banks were used to circumvent regulation and transfer deposits to private holding companies that were ruined. Our evidence suggests that systemic fraud coupled with weak enforcement of conventional regulatory principles can be a source of banking crisis.