6 - A Thumb on the Scale

Summary

The sixth chapter looks at reorganization practice after the Second World War. The heavy regulatory oversight that New Deal reforms imposed on large firms was unsuccessful. Government regulators showed themselves to be insufficiently nimble. And the law depended too much on judicial valuations that proved too malleable and too uncertain. Moreover, although the norms of the credit men and the emphasis on accommodating worthy debtors worked tolerably well for small businesses, these norms offered judges no easy way to find their bearings elsewhere. Nowhere was this more evident than in real estate insolvencies.