Cram-down and Claw-down
March 12, 2009
Gradually some new terms are entering the American vernacular. For some months now, the media and the government have been using the term "cram-down". In this morning's Press Enterprise a featured article on the front page was entitled "Mortgage 'cram-down' bill seen as Inland key". The article begins "Federal legislation under consideration that would allow judges to reduce mortgage principals could be a key to Inland Southern California's economic recovery, says one local economist.
The so-called "cram-down" measure gives the U.S.bankruptcy courts authority to modify existing primary home mortgages of people seeking to settle with their creditors in a Chapter 13 bankruptcy."
We have all understood what it means when someone insists on doing something that we don't wish to do, but that that someone "crams down our throats." So now the use of "cram-down" is broadly used to mean making a person or an institution do something that they would not do of their own free will. There is opposition to the legislation, but will it be "crammed-down" on the legislators?
The second term has seemed to be in a developing stage. I could not find a Wikipedia definition and in fact a Google search had no references to the use of "claw-down" in the financial crisis context. Having said that, I believe it is used as a term when regulators are suggesting that funds earned from fraudulent speculation are required through law to be returned. The term suggestions the claw of an old penny arcade device that was manipulated by the operator to snatch up a prize. It is quite obviously meant to elicit negative connotations.
It is fascinating to me how new terms enter our everyday vocabulary.
Gradually some new terms are entering the American vernacular. For some months now, the media and the government have been using the term "cram-down". In this morning's Press Enterprise a featured article on the front page was entitled "Mortgage 'cram-down' bill seen as Inland key". The article begins "Federal legislation under consideration that would allow judges to reduce mortgage principals could be a key to Inland Southern California's economic recovery, says one local economist.
The so-called "cram-down" measure gives the U.S.bankruptcy courts authority to modify existing primary home mortgages of people seeking to settle with their creditors in a Chapter 13 bankruptcy."
We have all understood what it means when someone insists on doing something that we don't wish to do, but that that someone "crams down our throats." So now the use of "cram-down" is broadly used to mean making a person or an institution do something that they would not do of their own free will. There is opposition to the legislation, but will it be "crammed-down" on the legislators?
The second term has seemed to be in a developing stage. I could not find a Wikipedia definition and in fact a Google search had no references to the use of "claw-down" in the financial crisis context. Having said that, I believe it is used as a term when regulators are suggesting that funds earned from fraudulent speculation are required through law to be returned. The term suggestions the claw of an old penny arcade device that was manipulated by the operator to snatch up a prize. It is quite obviously meant to elicit negative connotations.
It is fascinating to me how new terms enter our everyday vocabulary.
posted by shirley harry at 7:58 AM
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