The new secretary of the treasury is (or was?) heavily invested in the hedge fund that owns Sears Holdings. It was started by his college roommate.
“The new secretary of the treasury is (or was?) heavily invested in the hedge fund that owns Sears Holdings. It was started by his college roommate.”
The death of Sears and Kmart is the story of the perversion of capitalism by today’s Wall Street speculators. Edward Lampert bought Kmart out of bankruptcy in 2003. Kmart then purchased Sears in 2005 for $11 billion, much of it financed by debt. Instead of infusing capital and management talent to rebuild the companies, Lampert has been milking both, deferring store maintenance and remodeling, cutting employees, cutting the quality of merchandise, reducing inventories, closing stores, and selling assets. Once loyal middle class customers have responded by defecting to other retail stores and online merchants. Hundreds of thousands of Sears and Kmart employees and suppliers have lost their jobs.
Both retailers are now beyond saving and Lampert is bleeding off the cash, closing stores as they go cash flow negative. Within the next 2 years the final chapter will be written when he shuts down the remaining stores and sells off what is left of the real estate.
Lampert is hailed as visionary investor. Once visionary capitalists built companies and industries. Today’s Wall Street applauds the destroyers, not the builders.