This book provides an in-depth analysis of both the general economic theory of secured lending, as well as the very concrete and detailed aspects of the legal framework in which it takes place, in Belgium and the United States. Legal practitioners will find a deeper economic understanding of how credit works, and answers to legal questions that no traditional, inside-the-box legal handbook will ever ask. Economists will find theory applied to, and checked by, the legal reality in which they necessarily operate, down to minute detail.