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The Harvey Weinstein scandal has a lot of moving parts headed towards an important hearing next week that will set the next stage in the criminal proceeding. On one end, Weinstein has been pushing a Delaware bankruptcy court to allow him to recover files maintained by The Weinstein Co. and then permit him to use those emails and other documents to defend himself from sexual assault charges in New York. On the other end, there's still pending civil lawsuits including one class action from his many accusers. On Thursday, those women sounded the alarm about Weinstein's efforts. "He should not...

The Boy Scouts of America is considering filing for bankruptcy protection as it faces dwindling membership and escalating legal costs related to lawsuits over how it handled allegations of sex abuse. Leaders of the Boy Scouts, one of the country’s largest youth organizations, have hired law firm Sidley Austin LLP for assistance with a possible chapter 11 bankruptcy filing, according to people familiar with the matter. Founded in 1910, the Boy Scouts of America says that more than 110 million people have participated in its educational programs, which promote outdoors skills, character-building and leadership. The Boy Scouts have been at...

The Boy Scouts of America is mulling declaring bankruptcy amid flagging membership and an avalanche of costly sex abuse allegations, according to the Wall Street Journal. Leaders have hired Chicago law firm Sidley Austin for help in a potential Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing, sources told the outlet. The organization has been fending off lawsuits over alleged abuse, including one filed by four former scouts who called the club a “pedophile magnet” and alleged that they were molested by scoutmaster Waldron Ackerman between 1974 and 1976. The organization has reportedly lost two-thirds of its members — some 4 million boys —...

As everyone else’s taxes rise, one favored outfit may not have to pay federal taxes for years: General Motors. In another sweet deal from its benefactors on Pennsylvania Avenue, the government-owned car company is set to profit from billions of dollars in tax breaks not available to other businesses in the same predicament. The new GM will be allowed to claim a tax benefit from some $16 billion of net operating losses carried over from the old company, allowing it to avoid paying taxes on future profits, perhaps for years. The issue is a common accounting practice called “tax-loss carry...

public pension crisis” is the kind of subject that’s easy to over-analyze, in part because there are so many different examples of bad behavior out there and in part because the aggregate damage these entities will do when they start blowing up is immense. But most people see pensions as essentially an accounting issue – and therefore boring – so it doesn’t pay to go back to this particular well too often. Still, New York City’s missing $100 billion can’t be ignored: New York City Owes Over $100 Billion for Retiree Health Care (Bloomberg) – New York City faces future...

I keep up with the events and politics. I am reading the book Kids These Days - Human Capital and the Making of Millennials by Malcolm Harris and it gave me a very different perspective on student Debt. Chapter Two called Go to College, discusses student debt, its design not to be discharged via bankruptcy, and the use of future earnings of millennials to fund current healthcare debt IE Obamacare and education capitol construction projects for the foreseeable future. This puts a different spin on what happened to these kids who have been encouraged to voluntarily take on debt that...

According to a recent estimate, the combined pension hole of all U.S. states and cities is now equal to the world’s fourth-largest economy, Germany. Also, Medicare has no money in eight years. By Lewis M. Andrews The problem of a government overcommitted to entitlement spending is one of the most predictable crises in American history. Neither of the two largest federal entitlement programs are on sound footing, according to their own trustees. The most recent report on Social Security predicts insolvency in just 16 years. For Medicare, researchers are predicting just eight more years of runway––three years earlier than previously...

Tens of thousands workers laid off when Toys R Us went bust last year have a politically powerful new ally in their fight to win severance from the bankrupt retailer: Sen. Elizabeth Warren. The Massachusetts Democrat, who is rumored to be weighing a run for the White House in 2020, is pressing the financial firms behind the decision to liquidate Toys R Us to contribute to a fund for affected employees. "The liquidation of Toys R Us -- reportedly at the urging of your firm -- caused more than 30,000 American workers to lose their jobs without the severance they...

The long-predicted Sears bankruptcy is finally here. On Monday, Sears Holdings announced it is filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in an attempt to restructure the company and save the troubled retailer from oblivion. Shoppers can expect more Sears store closures, as well as liquidation sales, in brick-and-mortar locations around the country: Sears, which owns its flagship brand and Kmart, says it will be closing an additional 142 stores by the end of the year. Which Sears Stores Are Closing?

Sears, RIP: Bowing to the inevitable, Sears' owners on Monday filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. Yes, it's a sad day for the 126-year-old company. But it's not a tragic story, for it underscores the underlying vibrancy, innovation and creativity of American capitalism. Monday's filing came as Sears faced a deadline for payment of $134 million on its debt. It didn't have the money, so it filed for protection from its creditors. Eddie Lampert — the largest shareholder in the company, with nearly half its shares — stepped down as CEO. By the end of this year, Sears will be a...

Sears was once the nation's largest retailer and its largest employer. In its heyday, it was both the Walmart and Amazon of its time. Formed in 1886 by railroad station agent Richard Sears, the company started as a watch business in North Redwood, Minnesota. Sears moved to Chicago in 1887, and he hired watchmaker Alvah Roebuck as his partner. The first Sears Roebuck catalog, which sold watches and jewelry, was printed in 1896. The Sears catalog was the way many Americans first started to buy mass-produced goods. That was an enormous shift for people who lived on farms and in...

Sears Holdings filed for bankruptcy protection early Monday after years of staying afloat through financial maneuvering and relying on billions of CEO Eddie Lampert's own money. The company also announced that Lampert will be stepping down as CEO, effective immediately, although he remains its chairman. The 125-year-old retailer, once the nation's largest, said Monday it was appointing Mohsin Meghji, managing partner of M-III Partners, as its chief restructuring officer. As part of the bankruptcy, Sears will shutter 142 stores toward the end of the year. It expects to begin liquidation sales shortly. The bankruptcy filing comes more than a decade...

Sears Holdings Corp. SHLD -5.99% has hired M-III Partners LLC to prepare a bankruptcy filing that could come as soon as this week, according to people familiar with the situation, as the cash-strapped company that once dominated American retailing faces a debt payment deadline.

For a rapidly growing share of older Americans, traditional ideas about life in retirement are being upended by a dismal reality: bankruptcy. The signs of potential trouble — vanishing pensions, soaring medical expenses, inadequate savings — have been building for years. Now, new research sheds light on the scope of the problem: The rate of people 65 and older filing for bankruptcy is three times what it was in 1991, the study found, and the same group accounts for a far greater share of all filers. Driving the surge, the study suggests, is a three-decade shift of financial risk from...

Collapse: One of “Democratic” presidential contender Bernie Sanders’ biggest campaign promises in 2016 was “Medicare for all” — the unofficial name of his universal healthcare plan. Like all avowed socialists, big ideas are based not on any realistic ability to pay for them, but rather on the notion that in order to get the big ideas passed, you’ve got to bribe voters with other peoples’ money so they’ll support you. Well, Bernie got jobbed out of the Democratic Party nomination by a corrupt DNC and an equally corrupt rival, Hillary Clinton, and the rest is history. Too bad the Medicare-for-all...

Other People’s Money: The Left-wing establishment press has found a new Democratic darling — avowed socialist Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, whose running for Congress in New York City — but to be honest, the party has been trending that way for years. The evidence can be found in the way blue states have been run — into the ground, financially speaking. Several of them are facing massive debt thanks to mostly over-promised pensions approved by Democrats that have drained state bank accounts and are set to saddle taxpayers living in them with hundreds of billions of dollars in new taxes.

Now 64 and enjoying a second career as host of “Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee,” Jerry Seinfeld breathes such rarefied air that guests on his show — who have included Dave Chappelle, Tina Fey and then-President Barack Obama — invariably state some version of this sentiment: “Jerry, why are you here, talking to the likes of me, when you could just be home sitting on your pile of money?” And Seinfeld shrugs and laughs as if to say, “Yes, that is true.” So it’s sobering to read the deep and detailed civil complaint filed by producer-director-writer Christian Charles, who has...

Jerry Storch, a former CEO of bankrupt Toys R Us, is reportedly considering reviving the toy retailer and has been working with investors and bankers to stitch his plan together. Bloomberg reported Monday afternoon that Storch has been working with Credit Suisse Group as a financial advisor, based on the news outlet's conversations with people familiar with the situation. Talks have also included Fairfax Financial Holdings, the investment firm that acquired the Canadian unit of Toys R Us, those sources told Bloomberg. Storch declined CNBC's request for comment. Toys R Us, Credit Suisse and Fairfax didn't immediately respond to CNBC's...

Summary The 2018 "official" U.S. debt figure of $34 trillion is 120% of GDP and projected to double as a percent of GDP within the next 20 years. It's big.If we add "off-the-books" net obligations like Social Security and Medicare, our all-in debt, or so-called "fiscal gap", rises to $110 trillion, or 390% of GDP. It's scary.Raising taxes and reducing benefits won't restore solvency. Something is going to break, and it won't be pretty. We're broke and no one seems to care. We're all aware that this country owes a lot of money, but no one cares because we're leading...

Maryland's stepped-up efforts to collect unpaid tolls are raking in millions of dollars for the state - outpacing the growth in toll revenue itself. State lawmakers and consumer protection groups say the crackdown - which includes referring thousands of delinquent accounts to collections - is punitive and predatory and is pushing Marylanders into debt - and in some cases bankruptcy. Transportation officials say they are only enforcing tolls motorists should be paying anyway - a major shift from years past when the state allowed scofflaws to run up hefty amounts in unpaid tolls and fines without consequences. "Certainly, we want...