Articles, poems and commentaries
MONEY MANAGEMENT
Two decades ago Barr Rosenberg founded the innovative quant shop
By Alyssa A. Lappen
Institutional Investor | April 1998
Vol. 32, No. 4, p. 49-54
3,759 words
Regulating Bankruptcy Claims and Claim-Participations Trading under the Federal Securities Laws
By Thomas Donegan *
Emory Bankruptcy Developments Journal | 1998
Emory University School of Law
* J.D., Emory University School of Law, 1998; B.A., with honors, University of Florida, 1994. The author wishes to thank Professor William Carney for his guidance, and his wife and family for their love and support.
Text: 19,829 words
SUMMARY:
… In the 1990s, the federal bench has seen a marked increase by individuals and corporations filing petitions for bankruptcy protection. … Purchase and sale of claims, so long as the purchaser is not the debtor, an affiliate of the debtor, or an insider, simply substitutes one creditor for another . . . . The right to make those decisions and the risks inherent in bankruptcy proceedings are merely shifted to another who stands in the shoes of the original claimant. … A claim seller is typically motivated by its own self-interest rather than the debtor’s interest, while the investor is seeking to ultimately gain value from the instrument greater than his cash outlay, and not a short-term, fixed interest rate. … However, the peculiar nature of postpetition claims trading compels the federal securities laws to focus more on protection of the typically unsophisticated claim seller than the “bottom-feeding investor.” …
Citation:
n23 T. Rowe Price Prepares $ 125 [Million] Distressed Fund, BUYOUTS, Dec. 4, 1995 (interviewing Todd Ruppert, partner). The attraction of bankruptcy claims as potential profit-generators is understandable. For example, Harvard University tripled its original investment of $ 129 million in distressed companies last year, while other clients are similarly seeking returns which can average more than 22% per year. See Alyssa A. Lappen, “The Greenhaus Effect” (Vulture Investor Shelley Greenhaus), INSTITUTIONAL INVESTOR, Oct. 1, 1995, at 317.
MONEY MANAGEMENT
What happens when some of the stars of academic finance take up money management? Here are six case studies.
by Alyssa A. Lappen
Institutional Investor | March 1998
WARNING: This file is for the reader’s use only. It may not be copied, redistributed or cross-posted on any website.
William Hogarth made the world with etchings
of which I heard when I was young
and saw a few years later
in a London museum.
His city was raw—too rough
for unseasoned idealists
(like I was then) to fathom.
There was a lesson, though,
in those sketches I did not see
’til now; I was to live,
jotting my own impressions
on my brain,
each line indelibly framed
against a day when I’d need
to tell someone, to teach
that life has meaning,
and pain is the price
of learning what.
“Illustrations” was first published in Kudzu in January 1998.
for D. H. C., Jan. 7, 1927-July 30, 1997
If only the roses could throw off
their mantle of death, the half-sheared
mid-summer cape of blooms—
long past prime and drying,
their petals flaking like dead skin to the touch—
still draped across the tower of thorns
that rises above your roof.
Always, before, you disrobed death
in a few July days of deft clipping
from a ladder.
The briars grabbed and nibbled
at your skin. But you prevailed.
No longer. Now the sun
will rise, forever, and forever,
on the unfinished work.
Still, your voice rises
in storm gusts from the north,
the vastness of your breath
taking those dead blooms again.
Your littlest grandson hears it yet,
and oblivious to irony,
runs as boats approach and shouts,
“Bompie’s coming back!”
But so you are, albeit in younger forms, already here.
The children have absorbed in their short years
your many gifts–that trademark twinkle,
reassuring blinks and waggles of the tongue,
firm grip and loving eye,
silent blessings that bid us to go on.
“Jepson Island” was first published in Kudzu in 1998.
MONEY MANAGEMENT
The sons and grandchildren of Rupert Johnson have turned the quiet muni bond company into a diversified, global contender — without abandoning Franklin’s commonsense culture.
By Alyssa A. Lappen
Institutional Investor | November 1997
WARNING: This file is for readers’ personal use only, and may not be copied or cross-posted on any website.