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Japanese Localities on Verge of Bankruptcy OCTOBER 02, 2008 08:48 The Japanese city of Miki in Hyogo Prefecture declared a financial crisis Monday. The city slashed its payroll and closed railroad routes in the red to save 2.1 billion yen, but has a long way to go. Should it fail to raise an additional five billion yen over the next five years, it will face bankruptcy. Miki was not listed as a financially unhealthy locality Tuesday by the Japanese Internal Affairs and Communications Ministry. In the eye of the ministry, Miki is not in trouble. According to the Asahi Shimbun...

This bailout was a terrible idea. Here's why. The current mess would never have occurred in the absence of ill-conceived federal policies. The federal government chartered Fannie Mae in 1938 and Freddie Mac in 1970; these two mortgage lending institutions are at the center of the crisis. The government implicitly promised these institutions that it would make good on their debts, so Fannie and Freddie took on huge amounts of excessive risk. Worse, beginning in 1977 and even more in the 1990s and the early part of this century, Congress pushed mortgage lenders and Fannie/Freddie to expand subprime lending. This...

Barack Obama called Maryland Rep. Elijah Cummings on Tuesday with a promise: As president, he would revisit bankruptcy laws to give judges more leeway to prevent foreclosures. Obama didn't need to lay out a quid pro quo because the message was clear. Cummings, who voted against the financial-markets bailout on Monday, told Obama he was “open” to changing his vote but wasn’t there yet. "I have to look beyond [the bailout] to a rainbow called Obama," he said. "When you bring in the Obama factor, that's very very important." As the final high stakes vote on the bailout bill approaches...

Bloodbath ahead Big differences in hedge fund performance could put weakest ones on endangered list By Christine Williamson The biggest performance dispersion among hedge funds and funds of funds in six years has set the stage for what some predict will be a six-month-long bloodbath. Sources said they expect the body count to total as many as 2,000 hedge funds and 500 hedge funds of funds between now and the end of March as investors redeem assets from the poorest performers and weakest managers, and move into funds managed by strong, institutionally oriented firms. Data from Hedge Fund Research Inc.,...

Derivatives Pose New Wrinkle in Lehman Case 'A Huge Amount of Uncertainty' By JULIE SATOW, Staff Reporter of the Sun | September 25, 2008 http://www.nysun.com/business/derivatives-pose-new-wrinkle-in-lehman-case/86595/ Bankruptcy lawyers and law professors are preparing for a journey into uncharted territory as the credit default swaps market gets dragged into the Lehman Brothers bankruptcy proceeding. "The courts have dealt with credit default swaps very infrequently, and certainly not at the scale they are now out there," a lawyer at Washington, D.C.-based Caplin & Drysdale, James Wehner, said. "We have a new law and a new financial phenomenon, so there is a lot of...

NEW HAVEN, Conn. - Mark Poveromo feels ripped off twice over. A judge ordered him to repay money he collected from a builder convicted of stealing from him — and told him to kick in the thief's attorney fees and court costs, too. Some legal experts say the case, in which a criminal case in Connecticut intersects a bankruptcy judgment filed in St. Louis, shows a need for Congress to revise the nation's bankruptcy laws to better treat people who are awarded money as part of ruling in a criminal case. "This is an outrageous decision," said Anthony Sabino, a...

NEW HAVEN, Conn. — Mark Poveromo feels ripped off twice over. A judge ordered him to repay money he collected from a builder convicted of stealing from him — and told him to kick in the thief's attorney fees and court costs, too. Legal experts say the case, in which a criminal matter in Connecticut intersects a bankruptcy judgment filed in St. Louis, shows a need for Congress to revise the nation's bankruptcy laws to better treat people who are awarded money as part of a ruling in a criminal case. "This is an outrageous decision," said Anthony Sabino, a...

Fury at $2.5bn Lehman bonus Nomura and Barclays table bids today for US giant’s London operation as bank’s administrator likens collapse to Enron John Waples and Danny Fortson STAFF at Lehman’s New York office who helped to cause the world’s biggest corporate bankruptcy are to share in a $2.5 billion bonanza. The bonus, which has been described by London staff as a “scandal” has been pledged by Barclays Capital, the British-based bank that last week acquired Lehman’s American operation and took on 10,000 staff. The $2.5 billion (£1.4 billion) pot, which has been ring-fenced as part of the acquisition, has...

A U.S. bankruptcy judge approved a revised version of Barclays' deal to purchase the core U.S. business of Lehman Brothers. In a Manhattan court hearing that started on Friday and lasted past midnight, U.S. Bankruptcy Judge James Peck approved the sale, saying he had found no better alternative for the assets Lehman sought to sell. "This week more than any other week since I was appointed to the bench I have felt the awesome power of this job," Peck told a packed Manhattan court room, at the end of a nearly seven-hour hearing

An American Meltdown by: Irene Warren, September 17, 2008 America is on the verge of having “the largest municipal bankruptcy ever,” said David R. Kotok, Chairman and Chief Investment Officer of Cumberland Advisors, while at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI). AEI released a report to show just what financial state Alabama is actually in. “Jefferson County, Alabama has to declare bankruptcy. The county needs protection from creditors, from bankers, from politicians-and from itself,” AEI found. “Jefferson County has issued $3.2 billion in adjustable-rate sewer bonds. Jefferson County, in an attempt to hedge its interest rate risk-entered into $5.8 billion of...

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were accidents looking for a place to happen. Their collapse was not inevitable, but the way they were managed, as placed to enrich political pals made their end tragically foreseeable. They were so-called “private” corporations with an implicit government guarantee on their bonds. They were able to borrow money at rates only a few tenths of a percentage point higher than the treasury because of the implicit guarantee. Using “cheap” money the Fannie (and Freddie) bought mortgagees from banks, put them in a package and resold them, making a profit on the difference. Knowing they...

BREAKING NEWS Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc says filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy; says no subsidiaries will be included in filing 12:34am EDT

ON THE BRINK... BARCLAYS Abandons Talks... Feds Balk at putting up taxpayer money...

ROME - The Italian government is holding emergency talks with unions and investors over a plan to save Alitalia as the bankrupt airline risks having to ground flights for lack of fuel. The rescue plan would have investors buying profitable assets and investing $1.4 billion amid wage cuts and layoffs that are opposed by the unions. The government is mediating emergency talks that started Saturday and resumed Sunday morning.

Insight: The adventure never ends in the derivatives Wonderland By Aline van Duyn, US markets editor Published: September 11 2008 19:17 | Last updated: September 11 2008 19:17 The experiences of those frazzled executives in charge of reducing risks in the credit derivatives market are starting to resemble Alice’s adventures in Wonderland. Alice shrank after drinking a potion, but was then too small to reach the key to open the door. The cake she ate did make her grow, but far too much. It was not until she found a mushroom that allowed her to both grow and shrink that...

Bailouts Will Push US into Depression: Manager By CNBC.com | 11 Sep 2008 | 09:11 AM ET The end result of the global economic slowdown may be the U.S. announcing national bankruptcy as the government cannot afford the bailouts that it promised and the market will not bail out the government, Martin Hennecke, senior manager of private clients at Tyche, told CNBC on Thursday. "We expect a depression in the United States. We expect a depression, very possibly, also in Europe," Hennecke said on "Worldwide Exchange." The estimated $300 billion cost of the Fannie/Freddie bailout will probably be considered as...

VALLEJO — A federal judge ruled Friday that Vallejo is eligible for municipal bankruptcy protection, setting the stage for a major battle over possible dissolution of city employee union contracts. The decision came less than a week after the close of a monthlong court clash between the city and union attorneys. City insolvency challengers, including three major unions, had argued that the city did not meet the legal requirements for bankruptcy protection. U.S. Chief Judge Michael McManus soundly rejected that contention in a 52-page ruling. With bankruptcy protec-tion, the city may adjust its debts without immediate reprisal from its creditors....

WASHINGTON - A son of Democratic vice presidential candidate Joe Biden was paid an undisclosed amount of money as a consultant by MBNA, the largest employer in Delaware, during the years the senator supported legislation that was promoted by the credit card industry and opposed by consumer groups. ADVERTISEMENT Barack Obama's presidential campaign said Biden helped forge a bipartisan compromise on the measure, which is now law and makes it harder for consumers to obtain bankruptcy protection in the courts. MBNA's consulting payments to Hunter Biden, first reported by The New York Times, followed his departure in 2001 from the...

Bennigan's, Steak & Ale file for bankruptcy By Lisa Baertlein Tue Jul 29, 6:32 PM ET The company behind the Bennigan's and Steak & Ale chains filed for one of the largest restaurant bankruptcies ever on Tuesday, closing outlets and cutting jobs. S&A Restaurant Corp, and three dozen other entities including various Bennigan's and Steak & Ale affiliates, submitted Chapter 7 bankruptcy petitions in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Eastern District of Texas, seeking to sell assets. The company is a subsidiary of Metromedia Restaurant Group and operates and franchises Bennigan's and Steak & Ale restaurants. The companies fall...

I blame Bennigan's for my addiction to deep-fried mozzarella sticks. The craving still resurfaces regularly, 20 years after working in the restaurant and serving probably thousands of the little golden cheese sticks with a ramekin of marinara sauce. News reports indicate that Bennigan's may be closing its heavy dark-wood doors for good today (we're not sure yet, but many stores are closed), and it's causing an unexpected tinge of sadness. Working part-time at Bennigan's in Topeka, Kansas, for about four years in the '80s helped me pay my college bills, taught me about the service industry and introduced me to...

The Palestinian Authority is facing a severe financial crisis due to the failure of donor countries to fulfill their pledges to fund the Palestinians, PA officials in Ramallah said Monday. The officials told The Jerusalem Post that the PA wouldn't be able to pay July salaries to more than 150,000 public servants and may be forced to close down several government institutions as a result of the deepening crisis. The officials disclosed that the deficit in the PA budget has risen in the past six months from $1.6 billion to $2b. "We are facing a real crisis," a top PA...

Does government do enough to help the poor? John McCain and Barack Obama could not be more divided on their approach. Obama’s Web site even has a section entitled “poverty,” with a large list of new antipoverty programs, while McCain's doesn’t. Yet, this is part of a bigger difference between the campaigns in whether to single out specific groups for help. While Obama’s Web site includes issue headings for “women,” “rural,” “seniors” and “disabilities,” McCain’s Web site generally focuses only on broad "issues" that affect everyone, such as “energy,” “education,” and “economic plan.” Both Web sites have sections on veterans....

SACRAMENTO — Resurrecting negotiations between Vallejo employee unions and city negotiators could be the next step in Vallejo's Chapter 9 bankruptcy saga, attorneys for the city and unions agreed Wednesday. The attorneys disagreed, however, on what that move would mean for Vallejo's future. Opening arguments on Vallejo's bankrupt status were heard in U.S. Bankruptcy Court before Chief Justice Michael McManus on Wednesday. McManus must first decide if the city meets the criteria for bankruptcy before considering voiding employee union contracts, set to expire in June 2010. The city filed for bankruptcy protection May 23, with the unanimous backing of the...

Ethanol Industry in DistressBusiness Adviser: 16 Ethanol Plants Filing Bankruptcy, Many More to Come By Todd Neeley DTN Staff Reporter 06/20/08 4:37:15 PM OMAHA (DTN) -- The U.S. ethanol industry is in trouble and can expect to see a rash of bankruptcies and dismantling of at least some production, according to a specialist who helps companies in distress. Alex Moglia, president of Moglia Advisors based in the Chicago area, said he knows of at least 16 ethanol companies that are filing for bankruptcy, and there will be at least two to three times that number filing within the next year....

DETROIT (Reuters) - General Motors Corp (NYSE:GM - News) will need to raise as much as $15 billion in cash to shore up liquidity and bankruptcy is "not impossible" if the U.S. auto market continues to slump, Merrill Lynch said. Other analysts have suggested GM, whose shares fell to a new 54-year low on Wednesday, needs to raise funds to ride out the downturn in the U.S. auto market through 2009. But Merrill's estimate of GM's financing needs is the highest yet. It also carried the most stark warning of the bankruptcy risk for the largest U.S. automaker. GM declined...

Taxpayers in Contra Costa (and around the world) are closely watching the implosion of the City of Vallejo into bankruptcy and wonder at potential outcomes. This week Vallejo asked judges to void four contracts with unionized public employees. A hearing is set for July 23. The city faces its first major bankruptcy milestone, tomorrow, Friday June 27, when city and union officials present their initial arguments to the court. With an eye toward similar potential disaster in Contra Costa County, some wonder if it’s even possible to void such contracts. One observer opined that pro-union Democrat legislators have helped install...

Vallejo, Calif., took the extreme step of filing for bankruptcy to get out of generous obligations to public employees. Other cities and states are watchingThe jig is up. For years, politicians have been playing what amounts to a multi-trillion-dollar shell game with state and local pensions. They've doled out lush retiree benefits to their heavily unionized workforces, knowing that they could shove the cost for those benefits onto future generations of taxpayers. But a recent financial bombshell dropped by a San Francisco suburb shows why that shell game is now starting to unravel in a nasty way. And it's a...

The Wall Street Journal reports that the stagnant economy and spiraling commodity prices have brought back the specter of a Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing for a Detroit Three automaker – especially for General Motors. Market prices for GM's credit-default swaps imply a greater risk of bankruptcy for GM than for Ford, according to the Journal report, and the smaller car maker also now sports a stock-market value almost 50 percent higher than GM's.

NEW YORK (AP) The San Francisco Bay area suburb of Vallejo on Friday became the largest California city to file for bankruptcy protection as it struggles with a mounting budget deficit from rising employee costs and declining tax revenue. The city filed Chapter 9 bankruptcy protection in federal court in Sacramento. Vallejo, a mostly blue-collar city of 120,000 about 30 miles northeast of San Francisco, has been hit especially hard by the mortgage crisis and has one of the highest foreclosure rates in the U.S. Below are a few questions and answers about what happens when a city files for...

VALLEJO, Calif.—The city of Vallejo has filed for bankruptcy protection to deal with a ballooning budget deficit caused soaring employee costs and declining tax revenue. The San Francisco Bay area suburb of about 120,000 residents is the largest California city to declare bankruptcy. Mayor Osby Davis says the city's attorneys filed papers seeking Chapter 9 bankruptcy protection in federal court in Sacramento on Friday. The City Council voted to authorize the city manager to file for bankruptcy on May 6 after months of failed negotiations with its public safety unions. Some officials blame the financial crisis on labor contracts they...

The city of Half Moon Bay found itself in serious financial trouble last year after U.S. District Court Judge Vaughn Walker ruled that the city had to pay a local developer $37 million - $41 million with legal fees added. The judgment amounted to close to four times the city's annual budget, or more than $3,000 per resident in this city of fewer than 13,000. Bankruptcy loomed. Walker found that a city drain project inadvertently had created wetlands on developer Charles "Chop" Keenan's property. When Half Moon Bay later cited those same wetlands as grounds to stop Keenan from developing...

Yesterday the Senate voted to end debate on a bill that requires police officers, firefighters and other first responders across the nation to submit to collectively bargaining. Before the Senate votes on final passage of the bill later this week, lawmakers really ought to take a very close look at a city council vote in the sleepy California town of Vallejo last week. The Vallejo City Council voted May 6 to become the largest city to ever declare bankruptcy in California. The cause of Vallejo’s demise? Contracts with fire and police unions account for 74% of the city’s $80 million...

Hoping to prevent a city bankruptcy that would suspend their union contracts, Vallejo's police, firefighters and rank-and-file employees went public Monday with an offer to cut their salaries and give up raises. Capping months of fiscal agonizing, the City Council voted last week to file for Chapter 9 bankruptcy following dire predictions by city staff of imminent insolvency. The petition for bankruptcy is expected to be filed sometime this week, said city spokeswoman Joann West. Only one other city in California - Desert Hot Springs (Riverside County) in 2001 - has gone into bankruptcy. Orange County took the same step...

By declaring bankruptcy, Vallejo has thrust itself into the national spotlight as a test case for thousands of floundering cities desperate to unload their extravagant public employee contracts. "There's a wave of this coming across the U.S.," said Sajan George, an adviser to struggling public entities who worked on restructuring Orange County after it declared bankruptcy in 1994. "What happens in Vallejo could definitely set a precedent." Battered by the plummeting housing market and skyrocketing public employee contracts, Vallejo made dubious history Tuesday night by becoming the largest California city to declare bankruptcy. The North Bay city of 117,000 was...

Troubled Journal Register Co. warned late Friday in a regulatory filing that it probably will be in default of its loan covenant before the end of July. Journal Register (OTC: JRCO.PK) said it was in compliance with the total leveraged financial covenant in the first quarter of the year ended March 30, but it is likely to be in default in the second quarter unless business picks up in some unexpected dramatic way. "Unless there is significant improvement in the company's operating results during the second fiscal quarter or the company is successful in obtaining an additional amendment to the...

The question you have to ask about the officially bankrupt city of Vallejo, and other California cities with similar financial profiles, is this: Didn't you know something was wrong when you realized you were spending 75 cents of every dollar in the general fund on public safety costs? In a broader sense, how can any city anywhere make a legitimate claim of vibrancy when so many essential social services are shortchanged? It seems we're about to find out in Vallejo, a city with a population of 117,000 whose City Council voted unanimously Tuesday night to file Chapter 9 bankruptcy protection...

Vallejo has become the first city of its size in California to seek bankruptcy protection. The decision to file for bankruptcy came in a unanimous vote by the city council Tuesday night as hundreds of residents watched. The dramatic vote came despite a last-minute appeal by state Sen. Pat Wiggins, D-Santa Rosa, and an aide for Assemblywoman Noreen Evans for the city to avoid bankruptcy. Mayor Osby Davis said he had "turned over every rock he could find to find a solution" but none came and there is no longer an ability for the city to pay its debts. Vallejo...

Vallejo has become the first city in California to file for bankruptcy because it didn't have enough money to provide basic services. This is dreadful news for Vallejo - and its citizens - but it's also an ominous report for the rest of us. The city council's unanimous decision Tuesday night, which came after hours of impassioned public comment, represents a failure of Vallejo's police and firefighter unions to understand basic economic realities. The unions - whose members are among the highest-paid in the state - refused to allow the city to cut their pay. Perhaps they didn't believe that...

VALLEJO — With hundreds of concerned residents looking on, the Vallejo City Council voted unanimously late Tuesday to file for bankruptcy, making the city the first of its size to seek protection due to unaffordable labor contracts. The dramatic vote came despite a last-minute appeal by state Sen. Pat Wiggins, D-Santa Rosa, and an aide for Assemblywoman Noreen Evans for the city to avoid bankruptcy. Four council members — Michael Wilson, Tom Bartee, Hermie Sunga and Erin Hannigan — joined Mayor Osby Davis in switching in favor of filing for bankruptcy. In the past they had been part of a...

The fallout from losing its New Jersey casino license will force the owner of Tropicana casinos in Atlantic City and Las Vegas to seek Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, the company said Monday. --- The bankruptcy filing would cover nine properties: The Tropicana Casino & Resort in Las Vegas; Bayou Caddy's Jubilee Casino in Greenville, Miss.; Casino Aztar in Evansville, Ind.; Horizon Casino Hotel in Vicksburg, Miss.; Horizon Casino Resort and the MontBleu Resort Casino & Spa, both in Lake Tahoe, Nev.; the Tropicana Express Hotel & Casino in Laughlin, Nev.; River Palms Resort & Casino in Laughlin, Nev.; and the...

Vallejo's city manager advised the City Council on Friday to declare bankruptcy next week after weeks of negotiations with police and fire unions failed to turn around the city's economic tailspin. If the council votes Tuesday to file for Chapter 9 protection, the city of 117,000 people would be the largest in California to declare bankruptcy - and the first to do so because of long-term economic woes. City Manager Joseph Tanner made the recommendation after city officials scrambled for two months to fix the budget before the fiscal year ends on June 30, when the city faces a projected...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Medicare is lurching toward disaster and it is too late for the Bush Administration and Congress to do anything about it, U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Michael Leavitt said on Tuesday. He said the next administration will have to act to stop rising costs and get control of the $400 billion federal health insurance plan for the elderly, which now covers 44 million people. "Higher and higher costs are being borne by fewer and fewer people. Sooner or later, this formula implodes," Leavitt said in a speech to the right-leaning Heritage Foundation and American Enterprise Institute...

Vallejo will inch closer to financial ruin Tuesday when the City Council lets pass its do-or-die date to avert bankruptcy. City staff members have been unable to come up with a detailed, long-term financial plan because negotiations with the police and fire unions are still ongoing. The city is asking for steep concessions from the unions, whose members are among the highest paid in the Bay Area and whose salaries comprise about 74 percent of the city's budget. "We had hoped to have an agreement by April 22 to give to the council," said Mayor Osby Davis, who has sat...

Home retailer Linens 'n Things is expected to file for bankruptcy protection by early next week, according to reports, a warning sign for retailers already struggling in the economic downturn. The Wall Street Journal reported Friday that the Clifton, N.J., retailer was expected to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy-court protection by Tuesday, quoting several people close to the matter. Formerly a publicly-traded company, Linens 'n Things was acquired by private-equity group Apollo Management in Feb. 2006 for $1.3 billion. While not a complete shock to investors, the move would mark the first major retailer to seek protection. Signs of trouble...

Washington - Republicans and business-friendly Democrats on Thursday scuttled a plan to give people threatened with losing their homes more leverage in winning favorable loan terms from their lenders in bankruptcy courts. The Senate killed the bankruptcy plan by a 58-36 vote on the first full day of debate on a bill designed to boost the slumping housing market.The Democratic-backed bankruptcy law changes, opposed by banks and their GOP allies and a handful of Democrats, would have given judges the power to cut interest rates and principal on troubled mortgages to help desperate borrowers trapped in subprime mortgages keep their...

American Bankruptcy Institute says first-quarter filings rose as households creak under heavy debt load. The number of individuals filing for bankruptcy surged during the first-quarter as American households struggled to stay on top of debt, according to a report released Wednesday. The American Bankruptcy Institute said that consumer bankruptcy filings increased 27% nationwide in the first three months of the year, compared with the same period last year. In March alone, 86,165 individuals filed for consumer bankruptcy - a 13% increase over the 76,120 cases filed in February. "Bankruptcies are rising due to the heavy burden of household debt and...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Senate on Thursday voted against adding an amendment to a housing market rescue bill that would have given bankruptcy judges the power to ease mortgage payment terms for some distressed borrowers. Offered as an amendment by Illinois Democratic Sen. Richard Durbin to a broad bill hammered out earlier this week, the amendment was opposed by Republicans and the banking industry. The overall bill, estimated to cost $15 billion to $20 billion, would give homebuilders and other businesses hit hard by the recent housing slump a $6 billion temporary tax break. It would also give the...

The former comptroller general of the United States, David Walker, said in a recent interview that the unfunded liability for Social Security and Medicare was $20 trillion in 1990. The Social Security and Medicare trustees issued their annual report last week indicating that the unfunded liability for those two programs is now $53 trillion. Congress has done absolutely nothing to curtail this national financial tidal wave. For decades, some members have talked – only talked – about the problem. But all of them have allowed the unfunded liabilities to explode, and the national debt to grow to almost $10 trillion....

Thornburg Mortgage has said it is trying to raise almost $1bn (£500m) in extra capital to avert a possible bankruptcy filing. The lender, which specialises in big home loans, also plans to offer its lenders a 27% stake in the company. The measures will significantly dilute the stakes of existing shareholders and the company's shares fell 47%. Thornburg said that without the new capital it may be forced to seek bankruptcy protection. Jumbo loans In a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, the company warned that bankruptcy would be a possibility because it would have to sell off the...

While Vallejo's finances were plunging faster than a roller coaster at the Six Flags amusement park, the city's firefighters were going abalone diving, grilling tri-tip and drinking cocktails on the public's dime, records show.Under their contract, the firefighters union has been allowed since 2003 to charge the city 600 hours a year - at a cost of more than $24,000 annually - for union activities that were approved by the union's chief. The junkets included an annual Seafood Extravaganza at the fairgrounds, a 10-kilometer run ending with a party at the amusement park and a dunk tank at the Waterfront...