Richard Ippolito models and attempts to assign a value to assets that employees have at risk in their employer firms. Second, he documents and proposes to explain the significant changes that we have seen in the last two decades in the terms on which corporations provide pension benefits to their employees, when they provide them at all. Third, and perhaps most importantly, the Article documents some of the changes in…

Most bankruptcy scholars who have considered the residual owner approach have come away with a healthy skepticism. But despite its theoretical difficulties, the residual owner approach persists. I attribute this persistence to an empirical assumption that usually remains implicit. In spite of the theoretical difficulties in identifying the single residual owners of bankrupt firms, the scholars who employ residual owner approaches believe that in reality, residual owners exist and can…

The Myth of the Residual Owner is vintage Lynn LoPucki. Befitting the leading empirical scholar on the Chapter 11 proceedings of large, publicly held companies, the piece rigorously exposes under-appreciated aspects of modern Chapter 11 practice. Myth enriches our understanding of reorganization practice by replacing the standard characterization of a business’s capital structure as consisting of secured debt, unsecured debt, and equity with a pattern that reveals a more complex…

As American families sink deeper into debt, they have endured nonstop criticism from multiple quarters. Economists and sociologists have set the pace, describing families’ collective lust for goods they could easily forgo. Powerful politicians and the popular press have picked up the theme, chiding families for their profligate ways. The accusations are sharp, the assertions are confident and unambiguous, and the tone of condemnation is unmistakable. The Over-Consumption Myth may…