Posts Tagged ‘bankruptcy’

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CFTC Gives Tentative Green Light to Volcker Rule

Wednesday, February 1st, 2012

The federal Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) proposed limiting banks’  proprietary trading and hedge fund investments under the Dodd-Frank Act’s Volcker rule. The CFTC  3-2 vote makes it the last of five regulators to seek public comment on the proposal. This vote opens the measure to 60 days of public comment.  The rule, named for former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker, was included in Dodd-Frank to rein in risky trading at banks that benefit from federal deposit insurance and Fed discount window borrowing privileges.

The CFTC stayed mum when the Fed, Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, Securities and Exchange Commission and Office of Comptroller of the Currency released their joint proposal last year. The four agencies extended the comment period on their proposal until February 13 after financial-industry groups and lawmakers cited the complexity of the rule and the lack of coordination with the CFTC in requesting an extension.

The CFTC may soften Dodd-Frank a bit, granting Wall Street banks exceptions to rules requiring dealers to sensibly believe their derivatives are suitable for clients and in the best interests of endowments and other so-called special entities.  The rules “implement requirements for swap dealers and major swap participants to deal fairly with customers, provide balanced communications, and disclose material risks, conflicts of interest and material incentives before entering into a swap,” CFTC Chairman Gary Gensler said.

Opponents say the CFTC proposal would cause “severe market disruption” by transforming the relationship between swap dealers and clients such as pensions and municipalities, according to Sifma and the International Swaps and Derivatives Association, Inc.. Under the final rule, dealers must disclose material risks and daily mid-market values of contracts to their clients. The CFTC may also complete rules designed to protect swap traders’ collateral that is used to reduce risk in trades. The rule insulates the collateral if the broker defaults, while allowing the customer funds to be pooled before a bankruptcy, according to a CFTC summary of the regulation.

Commissioner Scott O’Malia voted in favor or the rule, but said he did not want to give market participants “a misleading sense of comfort” that it would have prevented the loss of customer money at the brokerage giant.  “This rulemaking does not address MF Global,” O’Malia said. “This rulemaking would not have prevented a shortfall in the customer funds of the ranchers and farmers that transact daily in the futures market. Nor would it have expedited the transfer of positions and collateral belonging to such customers in the event of a collapse similar to that of MF Global.”

Commissioner Jill Sommers, who voted against the rule, criticized the rule for doing nothing to protect a futures commission merchant’s futures customers.  “Given recent events, we need to re-think this approach so we can provide adequate protections, in a comprehensive and coherent way, to swaps customers and to futures customers,” Sommers said. “I do not favor a piecemeal approach to customer protection.”

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We Deliver – More Slowly – For You

Wednesday, December 21st, 2011

First-class mail is likely the next casualty as the United States Postal Service (USPS) looks for ways to stave off bankruptcy. The USPS is planning to shutter 252 mail processing centers nationally and slow first-class delivery as soon as spring, citing steadily declining mail volume.

According to USPS vice president David Williams, the agency wants to effectively eliminate the likelihood that stamped letters will arrive at their destination the next day.  Williams says the postal service is not “writing off first class mail”; rather, it must respond to changing market realities in which people are turning more to the Internet for email communications and bill payment.  After peaking in 2006, first-class mail volume is now at 78 million.  It is projected to drop by approximately 50 percent by 2020.

The estimated $3 billion in reductions are part of a wide-ranging effort by the cash-strapped USPS to cut costs without receiving any help from Congress.  Although the changes would provide short-term relief, they ultimately could prove counterproductive by moving more business onto the Internet.  The move has the potential to slow everything from check payments to Netflix’s DVDs-by-mail, add costs to mail-order prescription drugs, and threaten the existence of newspapers and time-sensitive magazines.

Ideally, first-class mail would be delivered in two to three days, a change from the current one to three days in the 48 contiguous United States.  But, the postal service said mailers “who properly prepare and enter mail at the processing facility prior to the day’s critical entry time” could have their mail delivered the following delivery day.”  Magazine delivery could take two to nine days.

“It’s a potentially major change, but I don’t think consumers are focused on it and it won’t register until the service goes away,” said Jim Corridore, an analyst with S&P Capital IQ, who tracks the shipping industry.  “Over time, to the extent the customer service experience gets worse, it will only increase the shift away from mail to alternatives.  There’s almost nothing you can’t do online that you can do by mail.”

The post office already has announced a penny increase in first-class mail to 45 cents, whch goes into effect on January 22.  “We have a business model that is failing.  You can’t continue to run red ink and not make changes,” said Patrick Donahoe, Postmaster General.  “We know our business, and we listen to our customers. Customers are looking for affordable and consistent mail service, and they do not want us to take tax money.”

According to Donahoe, “We are in a deep financial crisis today because we have a business model that is tied to the past.  We are expected to operate like a business, but we do not have the flexibility to do so.  Our business model is fundamentally inflexible.  It prevents the postal service from solving problems and being effective in the way a business would.”

Senator Susan Collins, (R-ME), the ranking Republican of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, was unhappy with the USPS’ plans.  “Time and time again in the face of more red ink, the Postal Service puts forward ideas that could well accelerate its death spiral,” Collins said.  “Closing thousands of rural post offices, eliminating Saturday delivery, and slowing first-class mail delivery could harm many businesses and their customers.”

Writing in the Washington Post’s Federal Eye column, Ed O’Keefe commiserates with postal customers, but offers no quick fixes. “And what about those customers who rely on first-class mail to get letters delivered the next day?  Donahoe and other officials hope those customers will switch to Priority or Express Mail, a more expensive option that can guarantee deliveries by a certain date.”

If the plan is approved by the Postal Regulatory Commission, the changes have the potential to save about $3 billion, and allow the Postal Service to cut approximately 28,000 jobs.

According to USPS spokesman Dave Partenheimer, the changes allow increased time between deliveries, clearing the way to close or consolidate mail processing centers across the country.  “It’s no longer a challenge of growth — it’s a challenge of staying ahead of the cost curve,” Partenheimer said.  “The fact of the matter is, our network is too big.”

Sally Davidow, a spokeswoman for the American Postal Workers Union, said the changes will hurt communities and take the Postal Service in the wrong direction.  “They should be trying to speed up and modernize the mail, not slow it down and make it less relevant in the digital age,” she said.

Davidow said the retirement payment mandate and overpayment into the Postal Service’s pension accounts are the main culprits.  She believes that USPS leadership should focus on pressuring Congress to fix them instead of cutting service and jobs.  “Addressing those two things would go a very long way toward resolving the crisis and giving the Postal Service the breathing room and the capital it needs to modernize and to be relevant in the digital age,” Davidow said.

The postmaster general offered his opinion on that.  “The American public pays bills online,” Donahoe concluded.  “We can’t sit back for another five, or six, or 10 years and wait for these changes.”

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Harrisburg, PA, Goes Broke

Monday, November 14th, 2011

Pennsylvania’s capital city, Harrisburg,  filed for a rare Chapter 9 bankruptcy protection, listing debts of $500 million and assets of $100 million, according to an attorney for the city council.  Mark D. Schwartz said he filed the documents by fax to a federal bankruptcy court.  Such a filing could not be confirmed with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Harrisburg.  The filing comes on the heels of the city council’s 4-3 vote Tuesday night to seek bankruptcy protection.  “This was a last resort,” said Schwartz.  “They’re at their wits end.”

“They were tired of being humiliated and denigrated,” Schwartz said, referring to the four council members who voted for a bankruptcy filing.  Chapter 9 is “a much better forum if you really want to address the financial problems of the city,” Schwartz noted.  Chapter 9 bankruptcy allows the financial reorganization of cities, towns, taxing districts, counties, school districts and municipal utilities.

Unfortunately, this is a scenario that other cash-strapped cities across the country could face in the future.  This comes on the heels of Topeka, KS, repealing a law against domestic violence because of the cost of prosecuting offenders.

“This really is our only option out there, ” Councilman Brad Koplinski said. “I believe this is the only thing that will work.”  Controller Dan Miller said that Harrisburg had attempted to tackle the debt problem for years and that he felt the state of Pennsylvania had tried to “railroad” the city’s citizens.  “It’s unfortunate that it came to this,” Miller said.  In June, the Pennsylvania legislature passed a bill saying bankruptcy would result in the loss of state aid, and added an amendment to the bill in September that permits a state takeover of Harrisburg.  The city must repay $310 million in bonds and restructure its debt, as well as reimburse Dauphin County and insurer Assured Guaranty Municipal, which both made payments that the city missed on its incinerator project.

“The size of the outstanding bond debt is overwhelming,” according to the bankruptcy filing.  “Negotiations are impracticable with one group of creditors where negotiations with another key group have hit an impasse.”  Harrisburg’s bondholders include Ambac Financial Group, Inc., with more than $70 million of revenue bonds, and Covanta Holding Corporation, with about $120 million of bonds and advances of funds.

“The city meets the ‘generally not paying’ definition of insolvency, because it has repeatedly failed to pay the guaranteed incinerator bond debt as it has become due,” according to Harrisburg’s filing.  “Under the guarantees the city would need to cover a combined $83 million of past due payments and the 2011 debt service.”

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Saab Story

Thursday, July 7th, 2011

Venerable Swedish automaker Saab is unable to pay its employees and is likely headed into bankruptcy.  Saab and Zeewolde, Netherlands-based owner Swedish Automobile NV, are in talks to raise cash, the company said.  Options include selling and leasing-back the factory in Trollhaettan, Sweden.  “There can however be no assurance that these discussions will be successful or that the necessary funding will be obtained,” said Swedish Automobile, which was previously known as Spyker Cars NV.

Saab’s chances are “slim,” according to Martin Crum,  an analyst at Amsterdam’s Effectenkantoor BV.  “The company is still not able to produce cars; that’s the main concern.  If you don’t sell cars, you don’t get cash in.”  The pending property sale “can provide some badly needed liquidity for the short term, but for the longer term they of course need more,” Crum said.  Saab came close to being a casualty of GM’s brand shedding after its government-backed bankruptcy, when it stopped the production of Saturn, Hummer, and Pontiac cars.  The Swedish unit was slated to shut down after a group led by Koenigsegg Automotive AB pulled out of talks.  Spyker’s bid came after GM had already begun to shut down Saab, ultimately paying $74 million in cash and $326 million in preferred shares.

A spokeswoman for Saab admitted that approximately 2,200 office workers, designers and engineers might not be paid as Sweden goes into a holiday.  Apologizing for leaving production line staff without paychecks, she said “The last thing we want is to be forced to come with this very sad news the day before a major Swedish holiday.  We would not have done this if we were in a situation where we had an alternative.”  She said Saab was not actively preparing for bankruptcy, but the carmaker is making an eleventh-hour bid for cash by negotiating a sale-and-lease back of its Trollhättan factory with unnamed parties.  “(Bankruptcy) is not the scenario that we are working with.  We are working very intensively on securing short-term financing to improve the situation of the company, of course to pay our employees and to work with suppliers to get production going again.”

Neil King, an analyst at IHS Automotive, said Saab seems to have been left behind by the emerging market boom in nations such as Brazil, China and India.  “They suffered as a result of the financial crisis but unlike their peers, they have not capitalized on booming demand for premium cars in the emerging markets.”  Saab production fell sharply from 123,000 in 2007 to 33,000 in 2010.

Swedes are mourning the waning of the Saab brand,  which was established in 1937 and became one of two internationally known Swedish automakers along with Volvo.  At present, Saab appears to be on its last leg as there has been no recent talk of a government bailout or rescue plan.  Upon hearing the news, one employee said “It is dreadful.  Completely unbelievable.  I get chest pains,” worker Fredrik Almqvist said.  “How on earth are we supposed to pay our bills?”  “I have worked at the factory and know many who worked there.  You should never give up hope, but right now it looks extremely bleak,” Veli-Pekka Saikkala, a representative of IF Metall, said.

Writing on the Automobile website, Donny Nordlicht  says that Saab appears to have had a bit of a reality check, as its latest press statement says ‘There can, however, be no assurance that these discussions will be successful or that the necessary funding will be obtained.’ Saab’s newfound realistic outlook is not assuaging fears, however.  IF Metall is demanding that the automaker pay its members wages, saying it needs to resolve the short-term cash flow issues immediately.  If Saab does not pay up, IF Metall has threatened to enter legal proceedings to procure the wages, something that would most likely end only in bankruptcy for the automaker.”

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Netflix Beats Blockbuster

Wednesday, June 1st, 2011

While Blockbuster may have at one time ruled the world of video rentals, in recent years it has been overtaken by Netflix.  The internet-based DVD movie and television rental-by-mail service, which came to so dominate the market, has forced Blockbuster into bankruptcy.  I wrote about this for the Huffington Post back in January, but I saw this cool graphic recently which illustrates this David and Goliath story compellingly.

According to the Daily Infographic website, Netflix has become so popular that, “Once having drawn in $6 billion in revenue, Blockbuster now owes millions to companies like Fox, Warner Brothers and Sony.  With their radically different business model and youthful appeal, Netflix shows how a small company can come in at any time and take out a giant.  Netflix knew what the people wanted, they wanted their movies delivered to them and they wanted as many as they could get in while paying a set price each month.”

Netflix gives the public what they want.

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Economists Say U.S. Economy Is on the Road to Recovery

Wednesday, April 27th, 2011

The American recovery is on the road to recovery, unless the mounting federal deficit slows its momentum.

A recent survey by Smart Brief and the international market research firm Ipsos of 841 financial professionals found that 67 percent think that stock prices will rise this year and that the country’s economic output will increase by 65 percent; another 59 percent said they expect unemployment to decrease slightly in the next 12 months.  The survey found that even such modest optimism is tempered by expectations of rising health care costs (88 percent); higher fuel prices (85 percent); rising prices for durable goods such as appliances, automobiles and consumer electronics (72 percent); and slightly higher interest rates (59 percent).  Additionally, 43 percent expect home prices to continue declining, while only 21 percent expect them to rebound; 34 percent expect no change.  By a margin of 70 percent – 30percent, respondents oppose allowing states to declare bankruptcy; 77 percent expect the nuclear disaster in Japan to drive greater investment and funding into renewable energy.

“Financial professionals are cautiously optimistic about economic prospects in the near term; indeed, they think that the overall scenario will improve, and they’re making business decisions on that basis, such as increased investment and hiring,” said Ipsos Managing Director Cliff Young.  “That being said, there are still concerns in the short to medium term about the increased costs of inputs such as fuel and durable goods.”

Larry Summers, former president of Harvard and architect of the Obama administration’s stimulus plan agrees, noting that “An economy in economic freefall has now recovered for 18 months,” he said.  “Make no mistake, the American economy has a feeling of normalcy that was completely absent in 2009 and that is a substantial achievement.”  Summers warned that the nation faces new challenges, including reducing the 8.9 percent unemployment rate, which he said is “far, far too high.”  He said it will be important for the US — and Massachusetts, in particular — to keep the life sciences industry strong.

To keep the recovery on track, the International Monetary Fund urged the United States to speed up efforts to slash the budget deficit.  “It is important the United States undertakes fiscal adjustment sooner rather than later,” said Carlo Cottarelli, director of the IMF Fiscal Affairs Department, the U.S. is projected to have a fiscal debt balance as a percentage of GDP of 10.8 percent in 2011, the biggest percentage among advanced countries. “Market concerns about sustainability remain subdued in the United States, but a further delay in action could be fiscally costly,” the IMF said.

According to the IMF, although most advanced economies have taken steps to tighten budget gaps, two of world’s largest economies — Japan and the United States — had delayed action to maintain their recoveries.  “Countries delaying adjustment in 2011 will face more significant challenges to meet their medium-term objectives,” the IMF warned in its updated “Fiscal Monitor” report.

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House Republicans Want to Water Down Dodd-Frank Financial Reforms

Monday, March 7th, 2011

Republican congressmen searching for sizeable spending cuts are targeting Wall Street’s regulators over a plan to slash millions from the budgets of several vital agencies. They are setting their sights on the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).  The workload of both agencies is expected to increase significantly as the Dodd-Frank financial reform law is implemented. House Republicans want to slash the CFTC’s funding by $56.8 million – nearly 33 percent of the agency’s entire budget — over the next seven months.  The SEC’s funding would be cut by $25 million over the same time.

CFTC Chairman Gary Gensler said he would have no option but to reduce his staff from 680 to fewer than 440 if the cuts are approved.  “We’d have to have significant curtailment of our staff and resources,” Gensler said.  “We would not be able to police…or ensure transparent markets in futures or swaps.”  Under Dodd-Frank, the CFTC regulates the multi-trillion dollar derivatives market that includes over-the-counter products called credit default swaps.  The story is similar at the SEC, which is working to augment its enforcement of Dodd-Frank.  “It (budget cuts) will have a very real effect on the SEC’s ability, not just with respect to Dodd-Frank implementation, but also with respect to our core mission,” SEC Chairman Mary Schapiro said in testimony before Congress.

Leading the charge in Congress is Representative Randy Neugebauer, chairman of the House Financial Services Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations. One of Neugebauer’s top priorities is assuring that regulators are not “overreaching” and moving too quickly with their new authorities under Dodd-Frank.  Neugebauer expressed concern about whether regulators are adequately performing cost-benefit analyses on every rule in Dodd-Frank, a process required under federal rule-making procedures.  He expects to call SEC Chairman Schapiro and CFTC Chairman Gensler back to testify about the issue, especially since he believes that Gensler gave him “vague” responses about cost-benefit analyses on derivatives rules.  Neugebauer said another of his major priorities will be to rein in the powers of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, an entity created under Dodd-Frank.  The Texas congressman wants to move the bureau to the Treasury Department and out of the Federal Reserve’s control.

Another congressional Republican makes this point.  “When the House and Senate passed the Dodd-Frank Act, supporters continually purported that small financial institutions, like many I represent, were exempt,” Representative Shelley Moore Capito, (R-WV) said.  “As the provisions of Dodd-Frank are going through the rule making process, I am starting to hear concerns from small institutions about the unintended consequences that could adversely affect them.”

One point of contention with the Republicans is the orderly liquidation provision that authorizes regulators to seize large financial institutions that are about to fail and dismantle them in a way that is less disruptive than either taxpayer bailouts or bankruptcy.

“People are saying we won’t have the guts” to invoke orderly liquidation, acknowledged Democratic Representative Barney Frank, (D-MA), who co-sponsored the legislation with now-retired Senator Christopher Dodd (D-CT).  “Well, we had the guts with regard to the TARP to get the money back.  We got it back,” he said, referencing the $700-billion Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) that bailed out Wall Street firms and which has been largely repaid.  “I don’t have any question that we’re going to go through with it,” Frank said.

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RIP: The Iconic Pontiac

Tuesday, December 14th, 2010

RIP The Iconic Pontiac

The Pontiac – renowned for its muscle cars in the 1960s and 1970s – recently ended its 84-year run when General Motors (GM) pulled the plug on the once-iconic brand.  Pontiacs – which peaked at nearly one million sales a year in 1968 – came to an end due to a combination of bad corporate strategy and drivers’ changing tastes.  At the peak of Pontiac’s popularity, it was a favorite of young drivers because of its high horsepower models like the GTO, Trans Am and Catalina 2+2.

In the late 1980s, GM shifted its strategy on Pontiac, bringing the brand into line with its other cars.  As a result, Pontiac lost its edge.  Bill Hoglund, a retired GM executive who headed Pontiac during the days of the “We Build Excitement” ad campaign, blames the brand’s passing on a corporate reorganization led by then-CEO Roger Smith in the late 1980s.  “There was no passion for the product,” according to Hoglund.  “The product had to fit what was going on in the corporate system.”

Introduced in 1926, Pontiacs were originally aimed at working-class families who wanted reliable transportation.  A sales slump in the 1950s nearly finished the brand, but GM revitalized the cars by giving them powerful V8 engines that strongly appealed to young drivers.  Sales spiked to 17 percent of all GM cars and trucks sold in the United States in 1968.  The GTO, in particular, was a subject in popular culture and was the subject of a 1960s hit song by Ronny and the Daytonas.  The song’s chorus honored the car “C’mon and turn it on, wind it up, blow it out GTO.”

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Migration Leads Thousands to Georgia, Arizona, Despite Recession

Monday, March 1st, 2010

Arizona, Georgia and Texas lead the nation in new household formations. Arizona, Georgia and Texas are the growth centers in terms of new residents in the last few years, according to an Associated Press analysis of Internal Revenue Service migration data. The IRS compared the states where taxpayers filed their returns from 2007 to 2008 to arrive at their conclusions.

Texas led the nation, with 62,827 new households; the largest number of families moved there from California and overseas.  Georgia ranked second, with 37,559 new households, many of whom moved there primarily from Florida and New York.  Arizona reported a net gain of 20,300 new households, with the majority relocating there from California and Michigan.

The IRS statistics indicate that Americans are not moving much at present, with the annual migration rate at 11.9 percent – the lowest number in decades.  United States Census Bureau estimates released at the end of 2009 confirm the IRS numbers.  According to the AP analysis, counties with better-educated taxpayers typically see the highest county-to-county migration gains.

“People who move tend to be younger and have lower incomes,” according to William Frey, a demographer with the Brookings Institution.  “Normally, if there is a big influx of young people, that could pull down the income of an area; and if there is a big outflux of young people, that can raise income in an area.”

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Lehman Brothers Workout Could Take Three to Five Years

Tuesday, October 6th, 2009

1105000_lehman_brothersCleaning up the mess left by Lehman Brothers’ collapse and bankruptcy involves salvaging a national portfolio of 900 properties valued at $16 billion.  What the advisory firm overseeing Lehman’s bankruptcy achieves could be a framework for the strategies that big banks across the country use as they deal with their own troubled assets whose loans are maturing over the next 18 months.

According to Bryan Marsal, the head of Alvarez & Marsal, the advisory firm overseeing Lehman’s bankruptcy proceedings, “It’s not a great time to sell today.  We are not passively waiting for a better market.”  Marsal’s firm has 66 people overseeing the Lehman portfolio, as well as 250 outside contractors.  Describing the effort as the “biggest workout department in the U.S.,” Marsal estimates that it could take his team three to five years to complete the wind down of Lehman with its creditors and in federal bankruptcy court.

Lehman’s restructuring could provide a lesson for U.S. banks and thrifts holding more than $1.2 trillion in commercial mortgages backed by office buildings, hotels, shopping malls and apartments.  With falling property values and tight credit, commercial property lenders’ losses could total as much as $115 to $150 billion, according to a Deutsche Bank AG report.

The Lehman portfolio clearly demonstrates the depth of losses across the board.  One group of properties fell in value by an estimated $5.4 billion between the weekend of its bankruptcy filing and December 31.  This was due to a combination of a deteriorating market and unrealistically high valuations prior to the bankruptcy filing.

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