Free Republic

A panel assembled by Michigan State University’s Institute for Public Policy and Social Responsibility will discuss reforms to the emergency manager law. Any attempt to change this law ought to first understand its purpose. This law is meant to be used as a last step in a long series of attempts to ensure that Michigan’s local governments can pay their bills. Michigan local governments are creations of the state. The state defines their authority and writes the rules under which they operate. One rule is this: All local governments must be able to pay what they owe. The state has...

Moody's analysts say Sears and Kmart don't have enough money — or access to money — to stay in business. In a note published Wednesday, the analysts downgraded Sears' liquidity rating, saying the company is bleeding cash and will have to continue to rely on outside funding or the sale of assets, such as real estate, to sustain operations. "We recognize the risks associated with relying on these sources and continued shareholder support to finance its negative operating cash flow which is estimated by Moody's to be approximately $1.5 billion this year," the analysts wrote. Kmart in particular is...

The roads in Illinois are in decay. This may be the first state to go bankrupt. The question is not if, but when. State unions are so greedy that they are destroying the very state. This is exactly how Rome fell — government employees against the people. Seven states have constitutional provisions that state employee pensions must come BEFORE everything, including debt payments. Since the legislature in New Jersey was Democrat, they fought Governor Christie on pension reform. Their solution? On the ballot in November, there will be a provision to amend the state Constitution to put employee pensions before...

Minnesota's crop, livestock and dairy farmers are suffering with continuing rock bottom prices for their commodities, driving some into bankruptcy. John Quaal, 71, operates a dairy farm near Fergus Falls and tells Minnesota Public Radio News (http://bit.ly/2b5RcoD ) that it's nearly impossible to break even producing milk. "For almost two years now we've been going backwards," said Quaal. "You've got to learn to deal with it I guess. It's just the way it is." Quaal said his farm has lost as much as $40,000 in a single month and figures the family operation lost a total of $300,000 last year....

Owes millions to part owner Tencent, according to filings Fireforge, the California developer responsible for the recent Ghostbusters tie-in game, has filed for bankruptcy, owing debts of over $12 million according to papers associated with the case. The firm originally filed for voluntary chapter 7 bankruptcy on July 15, but further filings were completed on July 29. According to documents seen by Kotaku, Fireforge owed considerable amounts of money to several parties, but the majority of its debt, believed to have been accrued prior to the development of Ghostbusters, is owed to partial owner Tencent, which controls 37% of the...

Logan's Roadhouse restaurant chain has filed for bankruptcy. The filing was made Monday with U.S. bankruptcy court in Wilmington, Delaware. The plan, according to the company is "designed to restructure the company's balance sheet" while providing it with the "capital needed to turnaround operations." The Nashville, Tennessee-based steakhouse chain best known for its western flair and peanuts on the floor will close 18 restaurants as part of its restructuring. The chain operates 250 locations nationwide, including 23 in Alabama....

<p>Deficits and unfunded pension liabilities as far as the eye can see. Seated in his office here, wearing neither a necktie nor a frown, Republican governor Bruce Rauner is remarkably relaxed for someone at the epicenter of a crisis now in its second year and with no end in sight. But, then, stress is pointless when the situation is hopeless. Besides, if you can ignore the fact that self-government is failing in the nation’s fifth-most populous state, you can see real artistry in the self-dealing by the Democrats who, with veto-proof majorities in the state legislature, have reduced this state they control to insolvency.</p>

Top Story: Mobile provider is locking U.S. soldiers out of their phone service | Komando.com http://www.komando.com/happening-now/368529/top-story-mobile-provider-is-locking-u-s-soldiers-out-of-their-phone-service?utm_medium=nl&utm_source=notd&utm_content=2016-08-05-article-title August 5, 2016 Top Story: Mobile provider is locking U.S. soldiers out of their phone service By Mark Jones, Komando.com Top Story: Mobile provider is locking U.S. soldiers out of their phone service Life in the United States military can be tough. Your life can be put in danger at any moment, whether you are in a war zone, or simply patrolling a U.S. base. It's stressful for you, your family and everyone who cares about you. Having access to reliable phone service is...

New York's famous Plaza Hotel is set to go on sale in an auction next month and experts believe that the five-star hotel could sell for more than $1billion. Billionaire brothers David and Simon Reuben hold the mortgage for the storied five-star hotel and scheduled a foreclosure auction for April 26. The auction was prompted after the hotel's 75 per cent owner Sahara India Pariwar — whose chairman went to prison in 2014 for defrauding investors — defaulted on loan agreements... < snip > Foreign investors are pouring capital into New York hotels at a historic rate. Much of the...

Germany’s largest lender is set to shut over a quarter of its branches across the country as the company goes through a major restructuring process. The closures are set to take place over the next few months, with 188 of Deutsche Bank’s 723 branches nationwide due to close their doors. […] After recording colossal losses of around €7 billion in 2015, the Frankfurt lender is desperately seeking ways to cut costs. […] The bank said it hopes to redirect funds to digital banking, in which it hopes to invest €750 million by 2020. …

In a blow to General Motors Co (GM.N), a federal appeals court on Wednesday reversed part of a bankruptcy court ruling that protected the automaker from some lawsuits over an ignition switch defect that prompted the recall of 2.6 million vehicles in 2014. The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan said barring plaintiffs from suing the automaker over crashes and lost vehicle value stemming from the faulty switch would violate their constitutional rights to due process, since they had not been notified of the defect prior to GM's 2009 bankruptcy. The ruling effectively rebuffs GM's attempts to shield...

Twitter and zero hedge reporting Gawker has filed for bankruptcy.

Many dairy farmers work long hours though their pay is dropping and a growing number of farms are going bankrupt. They have a low opinion of subsidies. […] Michael Greshake is struggling with low market prices for the dairy products put out by his farm in Velbert, in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia. His main buyer, a Dutch company, has contractually agreed to buy a set amount of milk. However, Greshake’s farm assumes the risk for overproduction. If contracted farms such as Greshake’s suddenly produce a surplus — and demand fails to grow — purchase prices sink. That is why...

Hillary Clinton is a lawyer, unlike most of the population out there, and KNOWS Trump never liquidated creditors in a typical bankruptcy. Every media report repeated her lie dozens of times yesterday. People think there is one kind of bankruptcy and have no clue about Chapter 11 reorganization to PAY OFF THE CREDITORS. (photo) Donald Trump has NEVER filed personal bankruptcy! Law Dictionary: How is Donald Trump Able to File for Bankruptcy So Many Times? http://thelawdictionary.org/article/how-is-donald-trump-able-to-file-for-bankruptcy-so-many-times/ Written by James Hirby | Fact checked by The Law Dictionary staff People might ask "How is Donald Trump able to file for bankruptcy...

Undocumented illegal aliens are having a documented effect on New York City's finances. New York's flailing left-wing mayor is proposing $2 billion for the city's hospitals as part of an $82 billion budget. A budget that the city can't afford. What's driving the costs? Illegal aliens and ObamaCare. Closer to home, de Blasio said the growth in tax revenue that has swelled city coffers is starting to slow — with projected growth of 3.6% in 2016 and 1.9% in 2017, compared to an average of 7% in the last five years.

Aeropostale used to be one of the most popular teen retailers. Cheaper than Abercrombie & Fitch, and less bohemian than American Eagle, the brand was the go-to for teens who still wanted to fit in with the trends. But those days are gone. The retailer has filed for bankruptcy protection, though it says it will be out of debt in six months. Last June, Crain's New York reported that the retailer lost 95% of its value in just five years. The brand has plans to close 113 stores in the US and all 41 stores in Canada. According to Reuters,...

Later this week or next, Congress will take up legislation to rescue the commonwealth of Puerto Rico from its financial crisis that is getting worse by the day. Puerto Rico faces more than $70 billion of debt and the government is already in technical default on many of its bonds. Billions more come due in weeks ahead and the government says they are out of money to repay. These debts don’t even include an additional $43.2 billion of unfunded pension liabilities. Add it all together and the debt reaches at least 150 percent of GDP. That’s a lot of weight...

Why Sports Authority is throwing in the towel and closing all of its stores When struggling retailer Sports Authority filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy last month in the face of more than $1 billion in debt, the company indicated that it had two options going forward. One of those was to shed underperforming stores and emerge from bankruptcy as an intact, but pared-down company. The other was to sell everything and cease operating. On Tuesday, the company appeared to choose the latter. . . . “With the minimum wage going up to $15 an hour and more people turning to...

Core Media Group, the company behind "American Idol" and "So You Think You Can Dance," has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in New York. According to court papers, the company says it owes $398 million. That includes money owed for loans, back payments to former employees, and investors, according to The Hollywood Reporter. "American Idol" was the company's biggest breadwinner. And now that the show has ended at Fox, the company is unable to find a similar source of revenue. The company has been seeing losses from a decline in "American Idol" ratings for several years now, however. In 2014,...

In a sign of the times, the world’s largest private sector coal miner just went bankrupt. The St. Louis-based Peabody Energy Corp. warned a month ago that it was considering filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, and on Wednesday they made it official. Peabody’s mines will continue to operate uninterrupted through the bankruptcy process. According to Peabody’s court filing, it has obtained $800 million in debtor-in-possession financing facilities. “Through today’s action, we will seek an in-court solution to Peabody’s substantial debt burden amid a historically challenged industry backdrop. This process enables us to strengthen liquidity and reduce debt, build upon the...

SunEdison, which bills itself as the world’s largest green energy company, may soon file for bankruptcy protection, according to a recent Securities and Exchange Commission filing, as the company faces “liquidity difficulties” despite getting millions in government subsidies.

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission is looking into SunEdison to see whether or not the company exaggerated its cash on hand in disclosures last year. The news comes as the solar developer is teetering on the brink of bankruptcy. The solar company has seen its stock collapse since last year as mounting debt problems have raised concerns about the company’s ability to keep the lights on. SunEdison’s share price is off by 96 percent since last July. That has translated to a decline of the company’s market capitalization from $10 billion last summer to just $400 million today. SunEdison...

Senate Democrats have unveiled legislation to alleviate Puerto Rico’s debt woes, urging that the island be allowed to declare bankruptcy on all of its debt. The bill, released Monday, would allow the U.S. territory to restructure its $72 billion in outstanding debt and create a fiscal oversight board for the island. “For the 3.5 million American citizens living on the island of Puerto Rico, time is running short,” said Sen. Bob Menendez (D-N.J.), one of the bill’s sponsors. “Congress has to act immediately to fix the federal funding shortfalls and give Puerto Rico the tools it needs to fully restructure...

Following weeks of fertile speculation whether it will or won't file for bankruptcy, this morning Colorado-based Sports Authority, whose name graces the home stadium to the Super Bowl champion Denver Broncos, put all doubts to rest when it filed Chapter 11 in Delaware bankruptcy court (Case 16-10527) listing $500,000-$1 Bn in assets and between $1 and 10 billion in liabilities in its bankruptcy filing, adding that it will close as many as 140 of its 463 locations. As part of its bankruptcy process, the bankrupt retailer reported that it has access to a $595 million in debtor in possession...

Years of fiscal irresponsibility have caught up to Puerto Rico. Its government has long lived beyond its means and today the bills are coming due, but the island’s economy has also been hampered by costly local and federal mandates. Rather than reward Puerto Rico’s spend-happy politicians with a bailout as legislators are currently contemplating, Congress should remove impediments to economic growth so that the island can prosper. As the third-largest issuer of municipal bonds in the United States, Puerto Rico has racked up $73 billion in debt under the mistaken notion that borrowing and spending are the path to prosperity....

<p>TRENTON -- Atlantic City may run out of money within three weeks after the Borgata casino announced Friday it will stop paying taxes until the city hands over $62.5 million in court-ordered tax refunds.</p> <p>It's the latest in a long stretch of bad news for the financially ailing Jersey Shore gambling resort town, which has spent more than year reeling from the closure of four casinos -- a scenario that has decimated its tax base and led top New Jersey officials to announce a proposal last month for the state assume greater control of the city's finances to stave off municipal bankruptcy.</p>

Following an effort by Governor Jerry Brown's union-stacked Public Employment Relations Board (PERB) to nullify its 66 percent voter-approved public pension restructure, the San Diego City Council voted unanimously to appeal the PERB's ruling to the courts. Facing impending municipal bankruptcy due to a $2.3 billion unfunded pension liability, San Diego City voters passed Proposition B by a two-thirds vote on June 5, 2012. The initiative amended the city charter to replace defined benefit pensions for all newly-hired city employees, except sworn police officers, with a 401-K type defined contribution plan that most private sector workers have. Prop B is...

Dale Dorsey isn't happy.After working 33 years, he's facing a 55% cut to his pension benefits, a blow which he says will "cripple" his family and imperil the livelihood of his two children, one of whom is in the fourth grade and one of whom is just entering high school.Dorsey attended a town hall meeting in Kansas City on Tuesday where retirees turned out for a discussion on "massive" pension cuts proposed by the Central States Pension Fund, which covers 400,000 participants, and which will almost certainly go broke within the next decade."A controversial 2014 law allowed the pension...

Most student loans in the United States are guaranteed by the federal government. The main difference between private loans and the guaranteed loans is that the former usually come with a higher interest rate: Students generally don't seek these out until they cannot access guaranteed loans any longer. However, neither type can normally be discharged via bankruptcy. The problem with government-backed loans is that the guarantee creates a moral hazard of the same sort that bedeviled mortgage markets before and during the Great Recession. A college can treat a guaranteed student loan as a sure thing with no attendant obligations:...

In an effort to take out frontrunner Donald Trump, Republican presidential candidates have pelted Trump with criticism over his multiple trips to federal bankruptcy court. That criticism was on full display in CNN's Republican debate Sept. 16. Most notably, former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina criticized Trump's history of bankruptcies in his businesses. "You know, there are a lot of us Americans who believe that we are going to have trouble someday paying back the interest on our debt because politicians have run up mountains of debt using other people's money," Fiorina said. "That is in fact precisely the way you...

In 2009, Obama stole money from retired teachers and police officers in Indiana During the Chrysler bankruptcy, Obama violated the Fifth Amendment and more than 150 years of bankruptcy law by illegally treating secured creditors worse than unsecured creditors. Some of these secured creditors were retired teachers and police officers from Indiana. Richard A. Epstein, a law professor at New York University School of Law, wrote of this:"Upsetting this fixed hierarchy among creditors is just an illegal taking of property from one group of creditors for the benefit of another, which should be struck down on both statutory and constitutional...

Chris Christie, stalking New Hampshire votes, is reportedly embarrassed at the idea of Atlantic City declaring bankruptcy. He shouldn't be. There's no shame in an honest bankruptcy, whether for a city or a person. If you've taken on more than you can ever repay, it doesn't do you any good to pretend you haven't. It doesn't really help the people you owe money to, either. Last year, Atlantic City's budget deficit was more than $120 million -- or more than a third of revenues. That would be like if New York City had a budget shortfall of $20 billion. The...

Today, America's national debt hit the staggering total combined amount of $19 trillion. It has been a little over fourteen months since it hit $18 trillion. Since President Barack Hussein Obama was inaugurated into office a little more than seven years ago, he, the democrats, and a few spineless republican "leaders" in congress have increased the total combined national debt by nearly $8.4 trillion: Date                 Debt Held by the Public       Intragovernmental Holdings   Total Public Debt Outstanding 1/20/2009       6,307,310,739,681.66           4,319,566,309,231.42              10,626,877,048,913.08...

... After gaining control of two casinos through deals that loaded them with debt, [Trump] turned in 1987 to the Taj Mahal, a megaproject being built by publicly traded Resorts International Inc. Mr. Trump bought a class of shares that gave him just a slice of Resorts’ equity, but voting control. From that perch, he pushed through a service contract that would have the company pay him $108 million over five years. He told casino regulators the company could raise the cash needed to finish its casino only by assuring lenders Mr. Trump would remain involved, which this contract did....

The Department of Energy recently turned over more than 1,200 pages of heavily redacted documents in response to a records request about a subsidized biofuels company from The Daily Caller News Foundation. In October, TheDCNF filed a FOIA request with the Energy Department, asking for email records from government officials regarding federal loan guarantees given to Abengoa, a Spanish-based green energy company. The request came on the heels of reports Abengoa was running into big financial problems, despite being given generous taxpayer-backed loans. The DOE gave TheDCNF the records it requested Dec. 18, and after spending time reviewing the documents,...

Clinton Portis made enough money during his NFL career in Denver and Washington that he should be set for life: In nine NFL seasons, Portis made more than $40 million. But Portis isn’t just not set for life, he’s broke. Portis filed for bankruptcy this week, saying he has debts of more than $5 million that he can’t afford to pay.

When Health Republic came on the New York health insurance scene in 2014 it made a huge splash. Flush with Obamacare cash they offered bargain basement rates which attracted customers away from many other established insurance companies. It was simply the picture of success for the President’s new Affordable Care Act and the people rejoiced. (Syracuse.com) Health Republic of New York made a big splash when it debuted in 2014 with rock-bottom health insurance prices that undercut its competitors across the state.Its premium rates were 30 percent below average in Onondaga County. The new company, backed with $265 million...

On Thursday November 12, 2015 America's national debt hit the staggering total combined amount of $18.65 trillion. Since President Barack Hussein Obama was inaugurated into office a little less than seven years ago, the democrats, and a few spineless republican "leaders" in congress have increased the total combined national debt by more than $8 trillion: Date                 Debt Held by the Public         Intragovernmental Holdings   Total Public Debt Outstanding 01/20/2009       6,307,310,739,681.66           4,319,566,309,231.42              10,626,877,048,913.08 11/12/2015       13,422,684,032,364.47         5,226,340,763,474.31 ...

Freedom Communications Inc., owner of the Orange County Register, filed for bankruptcy protection Sunday, and its chief executive said he plans to lead a bid to acquire the troubled newspaper company. The Santa Ana-based newspaper firm, which also owns the Riverside Press-Enterprise, filed for Chapter 11 reorganization in U.S. Bankruptcy Court’s Central District of California. http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-orange-county-register-bankruptcy-20151101-story.html

I wish this headline was more surprising but these days it’s probably just another brick in a very large wall. The Daily Caller has been peeking under the covers of the Obamacare system of co-ops across the country in the wake of several of them going under recently, including outfits in Tennessee and Nevada. It turns out that, unbeknownst to both the public and Congress, nearly a dozen other co-ops have been placed on a special watch list because their future is highly uncertain and they may be at risk of folding as well. So how did nobody know...

It’s an ill financial wind that blows no one some good. A very nice and very rich old lady once explained to me that, in her view, the golden age of the American economy happened in the first years of the Reagan administration. This puzzled me: The United States had dipped into recession in 1980, and Paul Volcker was standing on the economic brakes to wring the Carter-era inflation out of the economy, jacking the federal-funds target rate up to damned near 20 percent. People were paying 18.5 percent on their mortgages. But, of course, usurious interest rates are pretty...

Mark Twain famously said, “It ain’t what you don’t know that gets you into trouble. It’s what you know for sure that just ain’t so.” That observation could easily be applied to the situation facing students who have amassed large college debt burdens: they think they know that those debts cannot be discharged through bankruptcy. But that just ain’t so. The “undue hardship” provision in the U.S. Bankruptcy Code says that student loans cannot be discharged unless “excepting such debt … would impose an undue hardship on the debtor and the debtor’s dependents….” Just how difficult is it for a...

The town where my parents grew up and where my grandparents lived no longer exists. Phillips, Texas, is a ghost town. Before that it was a company town, a more or less wholly owned subsidiary of the Phillips Petroleum Company. Phillips had already lost a great deal of its population as highway improvements sent residents off to the relative urban sophistication of Borger, and there were fewer than 2,000 people living there in 1980 when an explosion at the refinery destroyed practically all of the town’s economic infrastructure, along with a fair number of houses. Phillips, Inc., in the end...

Millions of indebted Russians will gain the right to file for bankruptcy for the first time ever on Thursday, as the country's authorities try to ease people's debt burdens as they struggle amid a deep recession. From October 1, a new law in Russia will allows citizens with total debt of more than 500,000 rubles ($7,600) and over three months of missed payments to file for bankruptcy. In addition, penalties can be imposed on debtors who fail to register as bankrupt if they cannot fulfil loan repayments.

Chicago’s Loop hums with life and commerce today. A parade of companies, including Kraft and Motorola, has moved from the suburbs into the central business district. The greater downtown apartment market is booming, with thousands of new units being constructed. Chicago hotels will add 2,200 new hotel rooms this year to accommodate throngs of tourists. The city has rolled out new amenities and attractions, including an enhanced Riverwalk along the once-polluted Chicago River, and Maggie Daley Park, a fantasy-like playground that replaced the forlorn Daley Bicentennial Plaza section of Grant Park. Also opening this year: a long-anticipated elevated rail trail...

LARES, Puerto Rico – Ismael Rodriguez looked out on a nearly empty plaza from the clothing store he opened in 1960, now hemmed in by padlocked businesses in this mountain town in northwestern Puerto Rico... experiencing the deepest malaise of just about any community on this island in the depths of an economic crisis. "I have seen the destruction of a town," Rodriguez, 67, said as he gestured toward the plaza. "Look at all the shuttered stores." Lares has become emblematic of the economic stagnation that is overwhelming Puerto Rico, and those who live here believe it is a warning...

Donald Trump has never declared bankruptcy, but his businesses have -- four times. The real estate mogul, television star and Republican presidential frontrunner filed for corporate bankruptcy in 1991, 1992, 2004 and 2009. Three of the cases were related to his casino and hotel properties in Atlantic City, N.J. And even though more than six years have passed since Trump had his last run-in with Chapter 11, it remains a touchy subject. Trump was quick to clarify at the Republican presidential debate hosted by Fox News in August that he had never filed for personal bankruptcy. Instead, he cast his...

A comparison of the tenures is a battle of bad vs. worse. It’s well known by now that GOP presidential hopeful Carly Fiorina has never held political office and is running on her business record. As many commentators have pointed out, that’s a dicey proposition since her highest-profile job as CEO of Hewlett-Packard from 1999 to 2005 was sort of a disaster.But in an interview with Fortune contributor and Yale School of Management professor Jeffery Sonnenfeld, GOP frontrunner Donald Trump—who has made a habit of criticizing Fiorina—took aim at a different stage of her career.When asked about what he thought...

Fiorina was the CEO of Hewlett-Packard (HPQ, Tech30) during a tumultuous time for the Silicon Valley legend. She joined the company in July 1999 after a successful stint at AT&T (T, Tech30) and its networking equipment spinoff Lucent. But the tech bubble burst only a few months after she took the HP job. Fiorina tried to jump start the company's growth in the PC market by acquiring rival Compaq in 2002 for $19 billion. That deal is now considered one of the worst in the history of the tech sector. And HP wound up laying off 30,000 workers during her...

The U.S. territory of Puerto Rico owes more than $70 billion—about $19,729.43 per resident—in debt to creditors and investors. First to note the territory’s fiscal problems were the credit rating agencies, which downgraded the territory’s bond status to “speculative,” the first of three steps along the junk-bond path to loan default. Over the summer, about a year and a half after insiders warned of the territory’s looming problems, Gov. García Padilla (PPD) announced, “[T]he debt is not payable.” “My administration is doing everything not to default,” Garcia Padilla said in an interview with The New York Times. “But we have...