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Sbarro has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization for the second time in just three years as the pizza chain struggles to turn its business around amid a drop in traffic at shopping mall food courts. The bankruptcy filing on Monday comes after the company shuttered 155 of its U.S. locations last month. The Melville, N.Y., company still has about 800 locations globally, half of those in North America. The pizza chain isn’t alone in hurting from the decline in traffic at shopping malls. Earlier this year, the owner of Hot Dot on a Stick also filed for bankruptcy protection,...

People apparently don't eat pizza when it is snowing... Or during an economic recovery... And certainly not when celebrating the market's all time high 5 year bull "market" anniversary. That is the conclusion one can derive from the just filed Sbarro Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing, which just happens to be the company's second in three years after it did the same in April 2011. The filing itself, which lists assets and liabilities between $100 and $500 million, is not surprising following on the heels of the announcement last month, when Sbarro said it would close 155 of 400 North...

Detroit's looming bankruptcy is making news again, this time focusing on current restructuring plans aimed to wipe out $18 billion in debt by axing pension checks of city retirees, including police and fire. Massive long-term retirement and healthcare promises were by no means solely responsible for the city's fall, but these massive pensions coupled with a tax base weakened by high unemployment and housing vacancies caused the budget to bleed out quicker. The Michigan city may be the most recent victim of bankruptcy, but many of the 61 largest U.S. cities have adopted the same retirement legacy leading to $118...

Sandwich chain Quiznos is preparing to file for bankruptcy protection within weeks as it contends with declining sales and a lofty debt load, people familiar with the matter said. The company, which has about $570 million in debt, has been negotiating with creditors for weeks on a restructuring plan that would streamline its trip through bankruptcy court, these people said. A final deal on a so-called prepackaged restructuring plan hasn't yet been reached, they said.

Italy's historic capital is on the brink of bankruptcy as its mayor plans to plead for a bailout from the national government. Mayor Ignazio Marino told the Wall Street Journal that he is in daily discussions with Italy's national government. But he stressed the parties "just needed to identify the right amount of money the government should give to Rome".

The road back for Detroit seems to be getting longer. More than three months after its historic bankruptcy filing, city officials Friday offered up their proposed plan to pay bondholders, pensioners and other creditors holding its $18 billion debt substantially less then they're owed. "We think the plan is reasonable," emergency manager Kevyn Orr told reporters. "We really don't have time for a lot of acrimony and litigation." But even before Orr had a chance to formally unveil it, the plan was under heavy attack from investors, unions representing city workers and other creditors.

Carlsbad-based chain Hot Dog on a Stick filed a Chapter 11 petition in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Los Angeles on Monday. The company, known widely for staff in brightly-colored, striped uniforms and impaled corn dogs, said in a statement that it is seeking relief in order to reorganize and restructure its business. Hot Dog on a Stick, which currently operates 93 locations, said that it plans to continue business as usual throughout the bankruptcy proceedings. The company also said that, in addition to working to save money in the supply chain and in stores, it has made significant reductions to...

On Tuesday, credit ratings agency Standard & PoorÂ’s downgraded Puerto RicoÂ’s general-obligation bonds to BB+, a level that is considered junk status. Similar action by rating agencies MoodyÂ’s and Fitch appears virtually certain, as the island territory copes with a staggering $70 billion of debt, all of which needs to be repaid with interest. Unfortunately, Puerto Rico has been in what amounts to a continuous recession since 2006, and its economy is currently shrinking at a 6 percent pace. The official unemployment rate is 14.7 percent, and its debt-to-GDP ratio is 93 percent.Furthermore, the island is experiencing the largest population...

Hold on to your wallets, folks. Without a powerful intervention, California may soon become the first big domino to fall in America's public pension debacle. To help prevent catastrophe, the California Public Policy Center (CPPC) has just made public a new database detailing the size and scope of the state's outsized expenditures on public employees — the largest ever compiled in California. Legislators and voters should take note, because California can't afford another round of fact-free partisan warfare. As recently reported in the New York Times, the fate of California cities such as Desert Hot Springs — where civic bankruptcy...

Texas-based Furr’s Fresh Buffet restaurant chain has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, the company announced Tuesday. The chain employs more than 2,000 people but plans to continue operating its 29 restaurants in New Mexico, Arizona, Arkansas, Oklahoma and Texas during the Chapter 11 process. Buffet Partners LP said a December ice and sleet storm in North Texas, leaving tens of thousands of people without power and stranding drivers, severely hurt its already tenuous liquidity. Barry M. Barron Sr., who was named chief executive of Buffet Partners last June, said in a statement that because of “the challenges facing our...

Investments in renewable energy were supposed to be a sure thing, with wind park operators promising annual returns of up to 20 percent. More often than not, however, such pledges have been illusory -- and many investors have lost their principal to boot. Indications are mounting, however, that green capitalism will not be able to meet all expectations. In courts around the country, complaints are mounting from wind park investors who haven't received a dividend disbursement in years or whose parks went belly up. Consumer protection activists are complaining that many projects are poorly structured and lack transparency. In the...

Freedom Industries, the unfortunately named company whose chemical leak contaminated the water supply for parts of West Virginia, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on Friday. The company voted to pursue bankruptcy protection during a voluntary board meeting on Friday, according to WVNS-TV. The Wall Street Journal reports official company papers from the meeting estimate their debt at roughly $10 million, which does not include the impending clean-up costs and lawsuits, which will no doubt be immense.

As I’ve said before, I love Detroit. Born and raised there to parents who were born and raised there, and went to college at Wayne State. It’s an amazing place. I passionately want to see Detroit revitalized. But part of loving something means being honest about it, and Detroit is a mess. To save the city, to really save it and get it out of the mess it’s currently it means making sacrifices. That's why the recently announced $330 deal to "save Detroit's art" and fund pensions is so disappointing. It has nothing to do with Detroit's long-term viability and...

Like Enron, Greece, and Donald Trump before us, America is about to go bankrupt. Unfortunately, our bankruptcy will probably be more Enron and less Donald Trump because we're very unlikely to come back bigger and better in the lifetime of anyone reading this column. Instead, most Americans are probably going to experience skyrocketing taxes, spiraling inflation, widespread disorder, and a dramatically reduced standard of living. This isn’t a crisis that our great-grandchildren will have to figure out one day. To the contrary, it's entirely possible it will occur within the next decade and unless we make big changes no one...

the bogey man known as “systemic risk” to gain advantage over the other creditors . ... In order for the OTC casino to work, the derivatives contracts had to be given special priority in bankruptcy. Speculative derivative instruments such as credit default swaps (CDS), which caused the failure and government bailout of American International Group, could never exist in significant size were in not for the safe harbor from bankruptcy for derivatives created by Congress in the 1980s and 1990s. Members of Congress from both parties were paid very well for their treachery. ... The intellectual author of the “systemic...

Detroit’s decline into bankruptcy and decay seems to have boosted its desirability as a sight for tourists to visit. Howard Carter, a recent visitor to the City’s ruins, was quite enthusiastic, “It’s like seeing the pyramids without having to wait thousands of years for them to turn into ruins.” Carter congratulated himself on his good fortune. “Instead of having to pay thousands of dollars to take the family to Egypt we were all able to hop in the car and drive over from Canton,” Carter boasted. “At most we’re out a few hundred bucks instead of the thousands an overseas...

The tentative decision prohibits the city from forcing current employees to contribute significantly more toward their pensions, as called for in last year's Measure B. That left each side claiming victory, even as both expected to appeal.

Kevyn Orr, Detroit’s emergency manager, is threatening to take over one of Detroit’s pension funds after a report found that retirees received extra payments while the funds lost value. Mr. Orr proposed for Detroit to pay 20 cents on the dollar for the $3.5 billion that the city says it owes its two pension funds, one for 20,500 nonuniformed retirees and one for 12,700 retired police and firefighters. Detroit, of course, is the largest municipal bankruptcy in U.S. history, although New York City and Cleveland came close. This comes after another Detroit-area fiscal meltdown, the infamous General Motors bailout. Treasury...

With the news of Betsey Johnson, the Octomom and many other celebs facing bankruptcy in this economically uncertain time, it seems appropriate to look at other celebs who have really tanked their finances. More often than not, these actors, singers and entrepreneurs are just starting out and hoping to break out in their respective industries. But many celebs are just irresponsible with finances and blow everything they earned (we're looking at you Courtney Love). 1) Anna Nicole Smith thought she was the victim of secret sabotage. Anna Nicole Smith thought she was the victim of secret sabotage. When Anna Nicole...

“Anytime somebody says it can’t happen, I whip those pictures out and say, ’Oh, don’t you bet against it,’” Orr said the other day, not long after a federal judge allowed Detroit to become the nation’s largest city ever to enter bankruptcy. “Let me show you what can happen.” Orr, 55, who has never run for political office, finds himself in an extraordinary role. He holds power even more concentrated than that of the emergency control board that intervened when New York City was teetering near bankruptcy: an unelected lawyer chiefly responsible for the reinvention of a major American city...

Detroit's workers and retirees are no longer just fighting the emergency manager over their pensions - they're fighting each other. Fox 2's Charlie LeDuff explains the two Detroit pension funds: one for police and fire and the other for other city employees such as secretaries and janitors (known as the General Retirement System). City workers explain why they don't want to be lumped in the same pension category.

Officially, the City of Detroit is the largest municipality in U.S. history to enter Chapter 9 bankruptcy.

Local Media is covering it on TV and Radio, the Judge is laying out the potential reasons for, local TV people noting what is going on, the Court is not live if you will, data must be coming to them via text etc...

[...] What is being overlooked is the new and higher deductibles and total annual out-of-pocket expenditures, especially in the Bronze and Silver plans. The amount of these greatly exceeds the ability of most individuals and families to pay, thus providing the real possibility of personal bankruptcies due to medical bills and high losses for providers who cannot collect. [...] So what will happen? The family, being responsible citizens, will initially try to pay the bills, but that will soon prove impossible. They will ultimately default. And in any case, they will most likely end any college planning or retirement savings...

The U.S. Treasury Department said it expected to sell its remaining shares of General Motors by the end of the year, a plan that may leave taxpayers with a shortfall of about $10 billion on the automaker’s 2009 bailout. It must be nice to be bailed out by Uncle Sam. Most companies go through the bankruptcy process without the Federal government interfering with the proceedings. But what about Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the beleaguered mortgage giants held in conservatorship by the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA)? More to the point, why didn’t the failed giants go into bankruptcy instead?...

Back in July, the city of Detroit filed for the largest municipal bankruptcy in United States’ history, with the city owing more than $18 billion in debt and liabilities following decades of purely blue leadership. The city’s appointed financial managers have already gotten to work on digging the city out of the massive hole into which it dug itself over the years, but not without the requisite challenges and lawsuits from unions and pension funds irate about the major losses that are going to be foisted upon everyone involved — and all of the work the city has done so...

Scranton could be headed towards another fiscal crisis like the one that resulted in city workers having their pay cut to minimum wage in 2012... Moody’s warned investors that Scranton could be facing the threat of default or bankruptcy thanks to a $20 million budget gap for the fiscal year that begins Jan. 1. The city is supposed to approve a new budget by Nov. 15, which would have to close that deficit to balance the budget. ... A similar crisis hit the city in July 2012, which lead to Mayor Chris Doherty cutting all city workers’ pay to minimum...

Desert Hot Springs, the resort town near Palm Springs, may become the first city since Detroit to seek bankruptcy protection from creditors ... Chapter 9, it would be the fourth California city since June last year to do so.

Outgoing Detroit Mayor Dave Bing says the once-thriving automotive capital of the world had no choice but to file for bankruptcy after it “hit bottom,” buried by high pension and health care obligations and millions of dollars in bond debt. But Bing told The Associated Press that while he anticipated the decision to make Detroit the largest city in U.S. history to seek bankruptcy protection, he remains convinced the state could have done more to help Detroit avoid it. … (Michigan Gov. Rick) Snyder’s office says the governor and legislators have found ways—outside of a state bailout—to help Detroit. These...

Bill de Blasio overwhelmingly was elected mayor here Tuesday, becoming the first Democrat to lead New York in 20 years and ushering in an era of activist liberal governance in the nation’s largest city. In early returns Tuesday night, de Blasio was soundly defeating Republican Joe Lhota, a protégé of former mayor Rudy Giuliani. De Blasio campaigned on a mantle of progressive change following Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg’s 12 years in office, highlighting what he saw as “a tale of two cities.” The moneyed Manhattan elite have had their mayor, he argued, and now the 46 percent of New Yorkers...

Editor's Note: This column was co-authored by Prof. Richard Vedder, the Distinguished Professor of Economics Emeritus at Ohio University. Cincinnati and Detroit are separated by barely more than 250 miles – a five-hour drive at worst, or under an hour by plane. Despite this proximity, many Cincinnatians would prefer to believe that Detroit’s horrendous fiscal situation couldn’t possibly hit their city. Not so fast. As the largest bankrupt city in America, Detroit has seen its population drop by more than half, unemployment soar to well over double the national average, and services decline. This is what happens to a locality...

Detroit Emergency Manager Kevyn Orr said Tuesday he could force a legally binding settlement on the city's creditors if they were unwilling to accept a proposed restructuring plan in bankruptcy court. The "cram down" provision of federal bankruptcy law allows a judge to approve a plan of restructuring over the objections of creditors, so long as at least one impaired class of creditors votes to confirm it.

Reuters may get the award for the worst headline of the year. “Detroit pension cuts ‘function of mathematics’ -investment banker.” It just told me that Detroit pensions would be cut. But what you learn later in the article is pretty shocking: “Buckfire, a Detroit native and investment banker with restructuring experience, later told the court the city plans to pay unsecured creditors, including the city’s pensioners, 16 cents on the dollar. There are about 23,500 city retirees.” 16 cents on the dollar? Quite a haircut! Well, that is what happens when municipal government spends too much money (inefficiently) and suffers...

**SNIP** Nonetheless, unions and pension funds are challenging Detroit on the eligibility question. They claim emergency manager Kevyn Orr, who acquired nearly unfettered control over city finances following his appointment by Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder, was not genuinely interested in negotiating when they met with his team in June and July. Orr insists pension funds are short $3.5 billion and health coverage also needs to be overhauled. Evidence will show that Orr “planned to file bankruptcy long before the purported negotiations had run their course, confirming that the ‘negotiations’ were no more than a check-the-box exercise on the way to...

Thousands of Detroit streetlights are dark. Many more residents have fled. Donors are replacing ambulances that limped around for 200,000 miles. Millions in debt payments have been skipped. Is there really any doubt the city is broke? A judge starts exploring that question Wednesday in an unusual trial to determine whether Detroit indeed is eligible to scrub its books in the largest public bankruptcy in U.S. history. Unions and pension funds are claiming the city failed to negotiate in good faith before filing for Chapter 9 protection in July. …

Another sign of the tough times in Washington these days, the White House Gift Shop, long run by a nonprofit group that helps uniformed Secret Service officers and their families, has gone broke.The Secret Service Uniformed Division Benefit Fund, which traces its roots to the 1940s and for years did business as the official White House Gift Shop, lists more than $600,000 in liabilities in a pending bankruptcy petition in Washington. The fund — which operated independently of the White House and Secret Service, and was not a part of the government — disclosed tens of thousands of dollars in...

After the housing crash of 2008, millions of US borrowers were suddenly plunged into a negative equity position of their homes where the amount they owed to lenders exceeded the value of the property. The problem was so bad that it has motivated cities to consider eminent domain to seize the underwater debt of borrowers (as in Richmond and San Bernardino California). Here is a recent map of negative equity from Zillow. zillowmapofnegeq These borrowers have nothing on Uncle Sam. Uncle Sam now owes $17 trillion to bondholders. GFDEBTN_Max_630_378 (3) Currently, Uncle Sam has public debt equal to 100.46% of...

Have you ever noticed how often cities where there are very few Republicans elect Republican mayors anyway? Or if they don't elect a Republican, they elect a Democrat who acts like a Republican. New York City is known for being a bastion of liberalism. But the city hasn't had a real liberal mayor for almost 40 years. When Jersey City, New Jersey, elected Republican Bret Schundler as mayor, there probably weren't more than five Republicans living in the whole city. Democrats have outnumbered Republicans in Dallas County, where I live, for quite some time. Yet Dallas has never really had...

New York City Opera said Tuesday it is shutting down and filing for bankruptcy protection after seven decades as a fixture on the metropolitan cultural scene. The company announced Sept. 12 that it needed to raise $7 million by the end of September. Spokeswoman Risa Heller said about $2 million had been raised, plus another $301,019 was pledged from 2,108 donors in an online campaign. … Junior to and often feistier than the Metropolitan Opera, City Opera was a spawning ground for top opera talent that included Beverly Sills, Placido Domingo, Renee Fleming and Samuel Ramey. But it was derailed...

State-appointed emergency manager Kevyn Orr wants to overhaul Detroit’s two pension systems by shutting out new workers and freezing benefits for current members. … In July, Orr made Detroit the largest U.S. city to file for bankruptcy protection. …

<p>Now that "bail-ins" have become accepted practice all over the planet, no bank account and no pension fund will ever be 100% safe again. In fact, Cyprus-style wealth confiscation is already starting to happen all around the world. As you will read about below, private pension funds were just raided by the government in Poland, and a "bail-in" is being organized for one of the largest banks in Italy. Unfortunately, this is just the beginning. The precedent that was set in Cyprus is being used as a template for establishing bail-in procedures in New Zealand, Canada and all over Europe. It is only a matter of time before we see this exact same type of thing happen in the United States as well. From now on, anyone that keeps a large amount of money in any single bank account or retirement fund is being incredibly foolish.</p>

Detroit is famous for the largest municipal bankruptcy case in the United States. But despite their fiscal woes, Detroit house prices are growing at a faster rate than Los Angeles! detla092413 And if we compare Detroit to Las Vegas, Detroit house prices are REALLY booming! splvdet Las Vegas and Detroit have the following attribute in common: both have gambling. But for Detroit, the gambling revenues are a target for creditors. The cash that the city and Syncora Guarantee (Detroit’s insurer) are fighting over comes from an unlikely source: gambling. Like many states and cities looking for additional cash in recent...

Scranton's police and fire unions have received a judgment against the city for the overdue $21 million that the city owes the unions from a landmark arbitration ruling. The money was due July 2, but the city has not yet paid and is still seeking borrowing or selling an asset to honor the bill, Mayor Chris Doherty said. But the judgment means the unions now can seize city assets and sell them to collect what is owed, said city solicitor Paul Kelly and the unions' attorney, Thomas Jennings. "Whenever a judgment is granted, you can go to the sheriff and...

IN THE 1983 movie Dr. Detroit, the flamboyant lead character goes on a rampage warning of trouble to come. “I am talking about scorched earth, no survival, wholesale destruction…body-bags and fire!” he yells. That’s pretty much what has happened to Detroit over the last three decades. Its population has shrunk by half to below 700,000. The wait for police response is five times the national average, and only 8 percent of crimes are solved. Roughly a third of the city’s 140 square miles is either unoccupied or dilapidated. About 40 percent of its tax revenue is directed to retirement or...

The toll-road authority of Orange County, Calif., is nearing the biggest municipal default since Detroit's record bankruptcy ... The Foothill-Eastern Transportation Corridor Agency... risks default on $2.4 billion in debt, according to a consultant to the Debt and Investment Advisory Commission of California Treasurer Bill Lockyer.

The East Bay's most populous fire district is going broke. As Contra Costa County Administrator David Twa put it, without changes or more money, the district will be bankrupt in 2016. This is not, as some union leaders and at least one county supervisor claim, a revenue problem. This is primarily an expenditure problem -- specifically, a pension problem. To be sure, the Contra Costa County Fire Protection, which relies almost exclusively on property tax revenue, suffered from the real estate downturn of the Great Recession. But if one looks at the other side of the ledger, a bigger problem...

LOS ANGELES — A federal bankruptcy court judge granted the city of San Bernardino eligibility for bankruptcy protection Wednesday, raising the possibility that the city will propose a plan to dig itself out of debt by cutting money promised to the public pension system. The ruling by Judge Meredith Jury came despite opposition from the powerful California Public Employees’ Retirement System, more commonly known as CalPERS. San Bernardino, a working-class city of 240,000 about 60 miles east of Los Angeles, declared Chapter 9 bankruptcy last summer, saying it had effectively run out of money to pay for day-to-day operations, in...

SAN JOSE -- A Modesto contractor awarded an $11 million contract to build a San Jose environmental center despite finishing two city fire stations late has walked off the job and filed for bankruptcy with the unfinished project more than six months overdue and $1.6 million over budget. Applegate Johnston's team failed to show up at the Las Plumas Avenue job site last month and filed bankruptcy papers two weeks later, jeopardizing the project's completion and complex financing and forcing the city this week to delay occupancy of a key tenant until next year. City officials said the deadlines to...

In the industrial midwest, the city government of Detroit went into bankruptcy in July. Out in California, the city governments of Stockton and San Bernardino entered bankruptcy proceedings in 2012. But the Detroit and California bankruptcies, like Tolstoy’s unhappy families, are not alike. They suffer from quite different ailments. You can see the difference by comparing their populations in the 1950 and 2010 censuses. In 1950, Detroit – then the nation’s fifth-largest city – had 1,849,568 people. In 2010, it had 713,777. Stockton and San Bernardino were not much more than small towns in 1950, with 70,853 and 63,058, respectively....

Much has been said about why Detroit lies in critical condition, but one serious wound has been festering for decades: the unsustainable pension and health benefits that were secured for city employees by self-serving union bosses and their political collaborators. These irresponsible promises constitute $11 billion of the once-great Motor City’s $20 billion in debt. It’s a timely lesson in government guarantees gone wrong, yet it seems that few onlookers are taking notes. States and cities across the country face similar challenges and, should they choose to do nothing, may meet a fate like Detroit’s. My home state of Pennsylvania...