Bailing Out the Bailouts

The economy continues to struggle and we are doing do-overs on the first wave of bailouts. In the bankruptcy world, we talk about Chapter 22s and Chapter 33s—firms that have been in Chapter 11 bankruptcy two and three times. Unfortunately, as the case of AIG seems to suggest, we need a similar nomenclature for bailouts (AIG 3.0no?).

If a seminar can be simultaneously lively and depressing, we have hit that mark in the bailouts seminar this quarter (David Weisbach may have done so also in his climate change seminar). The class bailouts blog is full of interesting posts. Last week, student presentations started and we heard about AIG; LTCM; Japan; Iceland; and municipal financial distress. If you are interested in getting a better handle on any of those situations, download the slides and go to some of the materials that the students have put together at the blog.