What We’re Reading This Week [August 24, 2021]
A New York judge denied a motion by Trimark USA and certain of its lenders to dismiss claims brought by minority lenders alleging that certain new debt issued by the company violated the terms of the preexisting credit agreements and improperly allowed majority lenders to take priority over minority lenders. The lawsuit has been tracked closely by the industry as another example of lender-on-lender violence. The case is Audax Credit Opportunities Offshore Ltd. v. TMK Hawk Parent Corp., 565123/2020, New York State Supreme Court, New York County. Stay tuned for a more fulsome analysis of the court’s decision in an upcoming post… [Bloomberg; August 17, 2021]
Per SCOTUSblog, on Friday, August 20, property owners and real estate groups asked the Supreme Court to halt the Biden administration’s new eviction moratorium after a federal appeals court let it stay in effect. The realtors argue that the Biden administration ignored an earlier Supreme Court decision signaling that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention did not have authority to impose the latest ban on August 3. The Biden administration issued the new moratorium anyway indicating its hope that, even if the moratorium was eventually struck down, while the issue was being litigated, additional rent relief could be distributed. [SCOTUSblog; August 20, 2021]
Back in July, Federal Reserve officials indicated they were on track to begin tapering some of their stimulus programs later this year, despite lingering differences over when exactly to pull back support. The WSJ followed up and reported that minutes of the Fed’s July 27-28 meeting, which were released last week, revealed an emerging consensus to support scaling back at one of the the Fed’s three remaining policy meetings this year. The Fed’s next meeting is on September 21-22, and several Fed officials have said they would argue in favor of beginning to taper bond purchases shortly after that meeting if the recent run of strong hiring continues. But the July minutes don’t necessarily indicate that such a step will happen in September, and the WSJ suggests a reduction is more likely come after the Fed’s November 2-3 meeting. [WSJ; August 18, 2021]
