First, a big thanks to to Walter Olson and PointOfLaw for the opportunity to guest blog this week. Over the next few days, I plan to raise a few issues related to my current research, which focuses on bankruptcy, mass tort, and the intersection of the two.

I begin today with a quick reference to the Congressional Oversight Panel's field hearing on the recent Chrysler and GM bankruptcies, and the manner in which TARP funds have been used to push through quick bankruptcy sales in those cases. Press coverage of the hearing has focused on Ron Bloom's (the newly-minted "car czar") vows to take a passive role and sell the government's stake in New GM and New Chrysler quickly. Perhaps the most interesting testimony of the day came from Indiana State Treasurer Richard Mourdock, who revisited several questions concerning the legality of the loans to GM and Chrysler, the manner in which the bankruptcy sales were conducted, and critical factual developments in Chrysler.

Notably absent from the hearing were representatives of the UAW, whose extraordinary recoveries under the GM and Chrysler deals ahead of senior creditors have drawn strenuous objections in both cases.