NEW YORK The billions of dollars in coronavirus relief targeted at small businesses may not prevent many of them from ending up in bankruptcy court.

Business filings under Chapter 11 of the federal bankruptcy law rose sharply in March, and attorneys who work with struggling companies are seeing signs that more owners are contemplating the possibility of bankruptcy.

Companies forced to close or curtail business due to government attempts to stop the virus's spread have mounting debts and uncertain prospects for returning to normal operations. Even those owners receiving emergency loans and grants aren't sure that help will be enough.

The most vulnerable companies include the thousands of restaurants and retailers that shut down, many of them more than a month ago. Some restaurants have managed to bring in a bit of revenue by serving meals for takeout and delivery, but even they are struggling financially. Small and independent retailers, including those with online stores. are similarly at risk; clothing retailers have the added problem of winter inventory that they are unlikely to sell with spring here and summer approaching.

Independent oil companies whose revenue was slammed by the collapse in energy prices also are strapped, as are other companies that were already burdened with high debt levels before the virus struck.

Jennifer Bennett, who closed one of her San Francisco restaurants on Wednesday, was still waiting for the financial aid she sought from the federal, state and city governments. Even with the money, she doesnt know if the revenue will cover the bills when shes finally able to reopen Zazie especially if shes required to space tables six feet apart for social distancing.

Our occupancy is going to be cut 60% to 65%, Bennett says. I fear bankruptcy is a possibility.

Other small companies have similar anxieties, says Paul Singerman, a bankruptcy attorney with Berger Singerman in Miami.

There is no reliable visibility into when business operations will be able to resume the pre-COVID normal, Singerman says.

Even larger companies are in trouble, including already struggling retailers who had to shut their stores.

The jeans company True Religion filed for Chapter 11 earlier this month, saying extended closures of its stores in the pandemic have hurt its business. Recent reports say department store chains Neiman Marcus and J.C. Penney, which has struggled for years with slumping sales, could soon file for bankruptcy protection.

The number of Chapter 11 filings rose 18 percent in March from a year earlier, a dramatic swing from the 20 percent decrease in February, according to the American Bankruptcy Institute, a trade organization for attorneys and other professionals involved in bankruptcy proceedings. The numbers dont break out filings by company size, but given that the vast majority of companies are small to mid-size, it does give an indication that smaller companies are struggling.

The federal government has already approved or given out more than 2 million loans and grants to small businesses totaling nearly $360 billion; another $310 billion is on the way to one of the programs. Still, the money may be at best a stopgap for companies with little to no revenue coming in. And the new funds are expected to go so quickly that thousands of owners wont get loans.

Theres no way to predict how many companies will file for bankruptcy. There were over 160,000 bankruptcy filings from 2008 to 2010, during the Great Recession and its aftermath, according to statistics compiled by the federal court system. The numbers dont break out filings by company size. The majority were for liquidations. although some companies restructured their debt and continued operating under Chapter 11.

Many companies, however, just shut their doors, and thats likely to be the case again, Singerman says. According to some estimates, 170,000 companies failed during the recession.

But the Small Business Reorganization Act, which took effect in February, may encourage more companies to seek Chapter 11. The law is aimed at allowing owners to retain their ownership rather than lose their companies to their creditors; that is generally what happens in Chapter 11. The law also streamlines the reorganization process so a company is not wiped out by attorneys fees, says Edward Janger, a professor at Brooklyn Law School in New York whose expertise includes bankruptcy law.

Another change under the law is that a bankruptcy judge can approve the reorganization over creditors objections, Janger says.

Business owners will try to avoid bankruptcy by seeking leniency from landlords, lenders and vendors, bankruptcy attorney David Wander says. But with their companies financial troubles beyond their control because of the virus outbreak, many will file for Chapter 11 because the stigma that bankruptcy has long held will be gone, says Wander, a partner at Davidoff Hutcher & Citron in New York.

The tsunami is going to happen in the coming months and its going to be ongoing, Wander says.

Originally posted here:

A Flood of Business Bankruptcies Likely in Coming Months - The New York Times

A J. Crew storefront on Madison Avenue in New York and a Brooks Brothers store in Beverly Hills, California (Credit: Richard Levine/Corbis and FG/Bauer-Griffin/GC Images)

J. Crew and Brooks Brothers are among the latest retailers on the brink of bankruptcy.

J. Crew, which has 322 stores, is seeking $400 million in financing to fund operations during bankruptcy, CNBC reported. And Brooks Brothers is seeking to sell itself, a deal that could potentially be part of a bankruptcy filing, according to Bloomberg.

J. Crew, whose holdings include retailer Madewell, was struggling before the coronavirus sent shoppers home in March. The company saw meaningful improvement in its 2019 business, according to Moodys, compared with the prior year, but as of February it had $93 million in total liquidity as debts came due. TPG Capital and Leonard Green & Partners bought the company in 2011 for $3 billion.

Similarly, Brooks Brothers woes predate the health crisis. The Wall Street favorite has $600 million in debt and many of its 250 U.S. locations were also struggling before the pandemic, sources told Bloomberg. Its attempt at a sale began last year.

The pandemic has exacerbated retailers financial problems. High-end department store Neiman Marcus is also nearing bankruptcy, though a group of its investors are pushing for the firm to seek a sale. J.C. Penney, too, is in talks with its lenders for at least $800 million in bankruptcy financing. [CNBC, Bloomberg] Georgia Kromrei

View post:

J. Crew nears bankruptcy, Brooks Brothers seeks buyer - The Real Deal

COVID-19 will trigger a wave of healthcare bankruptcies in 2020, but the pandemic had the opposite effect in the first quarter.

That's because the economic turmoil in March likely threw a wrench in the exit strategies of companies that had previously planned to file last month. And since most of the damage hit in mid-March when many stay-at-home orders took effect, March 31 was too soon for most other filings.

"If there was no COVID, I think the number of bankruptcies would be a little higher," said Jeremy Johnson, a shareholder with the law firm Polsinelli who handles bankruptcies, said of the first quarter filings. "But then we know it's going to go up."

Polsinelli's first quarter 2020 distress report found the healthcare distress index grew by eight points in the recently ended quarter, which is 133% above the benchmark created in the fourth quarter of 2010. The report's distress index measures bankruptcy filings on a trailing, four-quarter basis, which the firm says smooths volatility and provides a better picture of long-term trends.

Polsinelli measured healthcare's distress index at 233.3 in the first quarter, significantly higher than the overall Chapter 11 distress index of 54.5, and the real estate distress index of 30.8.

The report includes all patient-facing healthcare, including hospitals, ambulatory surgery centers, physician clinics and behavioral health clinics. Lately, Johnson said it's been a lot of senior living facilities and hospitals. In the first quarter, that included Thomas Health in West Virginia and Randolph Health in North Carolina.

Although the bankruptcies that will inevitably be prompted by COVID-19 didn't hit in the first quarter, Johnson said they'll start to trickle in in the second, third and fourth quarters.

One example is for-profit Quorum Health Corp., whose hospitals are located in rural and mid-sized markets. The Brentwood, Tenn.-based company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in early April, the second quarter. Quorum has lost money since its 2016 spinoff from Community Health Systems, and cited COVID-19 as one factor that prompted its filing.

Hospitals have been forced to halt profitable elective procedures during the pandemic, prompting steep revenue declines. That coupled with the expense of treating complex COVID-19 patients for extended periods of time has placed many in dire financial positions.

Most health systems have been scrambling to boost liquidity by drawing on credit lines, issuing bonds and taking out bank loans. But that won't be enough for some, especially smaller hospitals or health systems.

There's a legal question as to whether or not companies can file for bankruptcy while simultaneously collecting federal stimulus funding under the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act.

Cynthia Romano, a global director in CohnReznick's restructuring and dispute resolution practice, said companies are not allowed to collect stimulus relief while they're in bankruptcy, which will postpone healthcare filings to the third and fourth quarters "when stimulus funds are no longer in play."

Struggling healthcare providers could argue that's discrimination against companies that need stimulus funding the most, Johnson said. He predicts a forthcoming wave of litigation on that question. That may be a losing battle for providers, though, as the stimulus funding is likely to run out before their court victories, he said.

Lots of bankruptcies will correspond with lenders or private equity firms taking stock of their portfolios and determining where demand has rebounded and where it hasn't, Romano said.

"They will be making choices about who lives and who dies from a corporate perspective," she said.

In the first quarter, 71% of healthcare's Chapter 11 filings were among the smallest companies measured: those with $1 million to $10 million in assets, Polsinelli found. The report excludes companies with fewer than $1 million in assets. Johnson said it's typical for most bankruptcy filings to be smaller providers, especially rural hospitals.

The highest concentration of filings were in the Southeast, South and Pacific Northwest.

Healthcare bankruptcies had already been on the rise before the pandemic hit, Romano said. Healthcare comprised 2.9% of all corporate bankruptcies at the end of 2015 and 9.9% by the end of 2018, she said.

Now, in the age of COVID-19, even previously strong providers are on thin ice.

"I don't care how healthy you were," Romano said. "You think about the teetering ones, that puts them over the edge. If you think about the really healthy ones, that puts them in significant distress."

Continue reading here:

COVID-19 pandemic likely put some bankruptcies on hold - ModernHealthcare.com

The other shoe is about to drop.

A trio of high-profile, but struggling retailers including J. Crew Group, Neiman Marcus Group and J.C. Penney Co. Inc. are all said to be preparing to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection by mid-May.

Together the three companies bring in sales of more than $18 billion annually and represent a wide swath of the industry from value-priced broadline retailing to mall-based specialty stores to refined department store luxury.

All of them have been on the industrys watch list for months, but each had plans to turn around their fortunes that appear to have been overwhelmed by the now six-week shutdown of the consumer economy that was forced by COVID-19.

J. Crew was betting on a spin-off and initial public offering for its successful Madewell division to satiate the companys debt holders. But the plan missed its window as markets tanked and multiple reports Thursday said a filing could come as soon as this week. A spokesman declined to comment.

Neiman Marcus missed an interest payment mid-month and has been on the cusp of filing for bankruptcy. It is reported to be working with multiple lender groups as it looks to secure the debtor-in-possession financing that would see it through Chapter 11.

J.C. Penney also missed an interest payment and has been exploring its options during a 30-day grace period. And while one source close to the situation said no decision has been made and that options other than bankruptcy remain on the table, another source familiar with the process said a filing could come May 14 or 15.

Even strong retailers tend to live hand-to-mouth, using their sales to cover their expenses and the industry has proven ill-equipped to handle a complete shutdown. It has responded by furloughing workers, canceling orders from suppliers and pushing off their landlords. Those actions have rippled up and down the supply chain, hurting companies of all kinds.

The question now for companies that came into the crisis in a heavily indebted or otherwise weakened position is: Even if they could survive through the immediate shutdown, would they be strong enough to survive the dire consumer landscape on the other side?

The U.S. economy was thrown into reverse in the first quarter, with gross domestic product falling 4.8 percent even though that included just a few weeks of real disruption in late March. The second-quarter contraction is expected to be one for the record books, topping 30 percent.

Thirty million people have applied for unemployment since the shutdown started and its not clear just when they will go back to work and start to spend.

Washington has raced to ease the pain and Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell said this week the central bank would keep taking aggressive actions to support the economy.

The next phases are more uncertain, highly uncertain, but we will go through a phase starting fairly soon where we begin to reopen the economy, and probably the economic activity will pick up, as consumer spending picks up, Powell said. Consumer spending has gone down quite a lot. It will begin to pick up as people start to return to their normal patterns of spending.

Its a toxic brew that could lead to an especially harrowing trip through bankruptcy, which even in the best of times leads to cutbacks and store closings as the court tries to create a company that can stand on its own while often wiping out equity holders.

In todays climate its not clear just how long bankruptcy would last, whether landlords will be forced to essentially float rent payments for some time and stores destined to be closed for good could be liquidated.

J. Crew, J.C. Penney and Neiman Marcus are just the leading edge of what could be a massive wave of business failures. Ascena Retail Group Inc., Lord & Taylor and Academy also came into the crisis on debt watch lists.

And now, every retailer and brand is under the microscope, and their future prospects are being examined down to every last cent.

View post:

COVID-19 Retail Bankruptcies Ready to Boil Over - WWD

The nations governors have asked for at least $500 billion in federal bailouts to make up for falling state revenues and to backfill their systemically underfunded pension plans. Some members of Congress have seconded the request, but, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnellAddison (Mitch) Mitchell McConnellPelosi, McConnell decline White House offer of rapid COVID-19 tests Congress must pass coronavirus tort reform Trump says there's 'tremendous' testing capacity for returning senators MORE (R-Ky.) recently suggested that states have another option: Bankruptcy.

The fact is, no state or local government will need to declare bankruptcy just because of COVID-19. Rather, if states or municipalities do face insolvency, it will be the result of decades of fiscal mismanagement.

The important takeaway behind Sen. McConnells statement is that the federal government is not responsible for states budgets.

Yes, the federal government has an obligation to help cover the costs of addressing the pandemic. To that end, Congress has already sent states unprecedented aid.

And, yes, state and local governments are experiencing a decline in income-, sales-, and some other tax revenues. But unforeseen circumstances is one of the reasons states have rainy day funds. In aggregate, those funds were at an all-time-high prior to COVID-19, but not every state was well-prepared. While Wyoming had an entire years worth of revenue saved away, Illinois and Kansas had mere minutes of revenue saved.

COVID-19 could be the straw that broke the camels back for states already headed toward insolvency. But it alone isnt sufficient to create a need for either bailouts or bankruptcy.

When Puerto Rico entered bankruptcy, its debt equaled about three times its annual revenues. And when Detroit entered bankruptcy in 2013, the citys debt was 13 times its annual revenues. A few months or even a few years of lower revenues wont create bankruptcy situations for states. Government insolvency results from prolonged, systemic mismanagement.

Already, the federal government has provided state and local governments with direct grants worth $150 billion to help cover COVID-19 expenses. And it appears that states dont need more money for that. Otherwise, why have governors asked for flexibility to use these funds for non-pandemic costs? Why have some used the money for temporarypay raisesandbonusesfor public-sector workers, while26 million Americans have lost their paychecks?

Then theres the Federal Reserves $500 billion in unprecedented short-term lending to state and local governments. That amounts to half of every state and local governments annual income- and sales-tax revenues. Its unlikely those revenues will fall by 50 percent, if only because Congress has provided roughly $1.3 trillion in the form of small-business grants and loans, checks to households and massively-expanded unemployment insurance benefits all of which will help prop up state and local tax receipts.

Its becoming increasingly clear that what states really want is just an all-purpose bailout for their pre-existing problems.

Prior to the pandemic and despite the exceptionally strong economy, New York Gov. Andrew CuomoAndrew CuomoNew York to distribute millions more cloth masks to vulnerable populations A Hillary Clinton-Barack Obama ticket to replace Joe Biden? Is it even possible? New York reports 299 coronavirus deaths, slight uptick from previous day MORE was facing a $6.1 billion annual budget deficit. Illinois had projected a $3.2 billion deficit.

The $40 billion in federal taxpayer funds requested by Illinois Senate Democratic Caucus would go mostly to financing the states consciously-enacted deficit and propping up its bloated pension systems, which entered the year with an unfunded liability of $137 billion.

If Congress were to provide a nation-wide state bailout proportionate to what Illinois requested, it would cost federal taxpayers an additional $1 trillion. Thats not far off from what House Speaker Nancy PelosiNancy PelosiPelosi, McConnell decline White House offer of rapid COVID-19 tests HHS making 1K coronavirus tests available as senators return to DC Coronavirus stimulus money went to some health-care providers facing criminal probes: report MORE (D-Calif.) is seeking.

Theres a fundamental unfairness to state bailouts. They force taxpayers in well-run states to subsidize those who have systematically squandered a strong economy and shortchanged pension plans of trillions of dollars worth of required contributions.

Some have suggested requiring more prudent budgeting from states that accept bailouts. Its a rather ironic suggestion, considering that the federal governments fiscal recklessness has created over $70,000 in debt per capita, while state debt averages less than $10,000 per capita.

Moreover, bailing out states denies the problems of socializing costs. If youve ever gone out to dinner with a large group, you might remember how the expensive steak, an extra drink and dessert are more appealing if those costs are split by everyone at the table. If thats what everyone is thinking, then everyone pays more in the end.

Socializing government debts by redistributing state and local costs to federal taxpayers in times of crisis is like splitting the check: Everyone still pays they just wind up paying a lot more.

Rachel Greszler is a research fellow in The Heritage Foundations Center for the Federal Budget. Adam N. Michel is a senior policy analyst in the center.

Read the rest here:

State bankruptcy is irrelevant to COVID-19 and bailouts aren't the answer | TheHill - The Hill

Cities across the country are facing a red-ink cascade. On April 22, Mitch McConnell recommended that cities and states try bankruptcy if theyre struggling during the coronavirus pandemic. This is a terrible idea, and we dont need to look farther than Detroit to see why.

Although filing for bankruptcy enables a city to renegotiate debts with its creditors, freeing future revenues for uses beyond interest payments on outstanding debt, the maneuver exacerbates negative trends. Bankruptcy does not bring back lost jobs or shuttered businesses, nor will it magically reconstruct a tax base.

While some cities with resilient industries may have reserves to weather the storm, many that were already contending with unemployment, stagnant wages and rising inequality will fare worse. Officials in San Jose, Calif., anticipate losses of $110 million in revenue, three times higher in relative terms than the 2008 financial crisis. The mayor of Dayton, Ohio, has modeled a future with 30 percent fewer firefighters and police officers, while the New Orleans mayor forecasts $100 million in reductions from the citys operating budget.

Detroits 2013 bankruptcy and the experiences of people who endured it demonstrate the limits of a bankruptcy declaration as a cure-all. Instead, its important to invest in people directly.

I got to know Miles, a man in Detroit in his late 40s, as I studied the lingering effects of Detroits bankruptcy.

Everywhere you look someones getting sick or they cant go to work, he told me recently. Its getting thick out there, real thick.

Already struggling to make a living in construction, he fears the loss of his livelihood, his house and his ability to afford food. Since bankruptcy, Detroit has balanced its budget by welcoming speculative property investment and levying costs on residents like Miles. A company in Florida scammed him on a house with unpaid property taxes, triggering tax foreclosure a few months after the sale. He has been juggling minimum payments on bills in a suddenly more expensive metropolis. Now, faced with the loss of more income from Michigans stay-at-home order, he wonders in earnest: Could I quarantine myself at a job site in order to get work?

In the private sector, bankruptcy only helps companies with viable business models and temporary revenue disruptions. Many have repeatedly entered bankruptcy before permanently going out of business. Similarly, municipal bankruptcy is most effective in addressing onetime debt imbalances such as a large, outstanding legal judgment or to cover losses on misguided investments. Declaring bankruptcy will not reverse deeper and more pervasive challenges.

Though the Families First Coronavirus Act eased some pressures on state unemployment insurance programs and augmented federal coverage of Medicaid payments, similar aid during the financial crisis was more generous. The 2020 CARES Act pledged loans, loan guarantees and other investments to businesses, states or municipalities, but that money can only be used to reimburse costs stemming from the virus. It cannot boost general revenues, Medicaid spending or unemployment insurance.

The CARES Act also provides only half as much funding to state and local governments as they received following the 2008 financial crisis. Senator Elizabeth Warren has highlighted the need for guarantees that the funds available under the act would first flow to state and local governments rather than to large corporations.

In the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis, federal grants increased to support state and local government spending. By 2011, that spigot had largely run dry. In 2012, Stockton, Calif., became the largest city at that time to file for bankruptcy. Several hundred cities struggled on the brink of default, shrinking their public payrolls, cutting services and selling public land. Since 2007, more than 70 American municipalities have entered bankruptcy, a deluge in comparison to the three cities that chose that route between 1970 and 2007.

The choice to abandon cities to their own insufficient budgets created weaknesses that still hamper the response to the coronavirus. In the lead-up to bankruptcy, for example, Detroit reduced spending by outsourcing the responsibilities of the public health department to a private agency. To boost revenues from Detroits water system and leverage its value as a city asset in the bankruptcy, service shut-offs of customers with delinquent accounts surged. During the bankruptcy episode, the water department turned off water at 900 houses a day, threatening a public health crisis.

During this period, Miles found himself responsible for an unpaid water bill from the company that sold him his home. When added to the companys unpaid property taxes, he nearly lost the house. Detroits attempts to raise revenues from residents, through higher taxes, fines and fees, left residents like Miles with less savings to withstand a crisis like the coronavirus.

Isnt the economy us thats sitting at home, and us that have no choice but to go to work? Miles asked.

Municipal balance sheets reflect the financial health of city residents. In Detroit, when Miles can fully realize his talents, he will pay more in city income taxes and spend more in the local economy. The future of cities lies in investing in people like him.

Read the original post:

Bankruptcy Didn't Help Detroit Fight the Coronavirus - The New York Times

BUILDING PERMITS

(Listed by owner, tenant or building name. This weekly update lists new commercial construction, expansions and enlargements of more than $50,000. Information is from initial applications and is subject to change. Dollar amount is valuation declared by owner.)

19-047963 114 N. Boston, 114 N. Boston Ave., alteration, $200,000.

20-058693 Airpark, 11605 E. 27th St. North, alteration, $100,000.

20-053676 Nellis Family Dentistry, 9314 S. Delaware Ave., accessory structure, $750,000.

20-054502 Eastgate Metroplex, 14002 E. 21st St., alteration, $50,000.

20-058182 Premium Cannabis Plug, LLC, 5264 N. Peoria Ave., alteration, $250,000.

20-054470 Jenks East Elementary Building D, 8925 S. Harvard Ave., alteration, $350,000.

20-054474 Jenks East Elementary Building F, 8925 S. Harvard Ave., alteration, $100,000.

20-058725 Gypswy Industries, 6525 E. 40th St., alteration, $725,000.

BUSINESS BANKRUPTCIES

(Weekly update includes filings classified as business in the numerical list of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court, Northern District in Tulsa, and which also list business as nature of debt on bankruptcy document.)

20-10632-M Joseph Lee Kerschen, 9345 N. 145th East Ave., Owasso, assets: $460,342.62, liabilities: $554,149, attorney: Brian W. Huckabee, chapter 7.

20-10651-R Claude Daniel Pentecost, 4630 S. Columbia Ave., assets: $570,066, liabilities: $6,281,703.72, attorney: Ron D. Brown, chapter 7.

See the article here:

For the record: Building permits and bankruptcies | Work & Money - Tulsa World

Support This Is Renos COVID-19 news coverage

We are reporting daily on how the coronavirus is impacting the Reno area. This coverage is outside of our paywall, provided free of charge.

Please support us by becoming a subscriber or contributing a tax-deducible donation to our COVID-19 news fund. Any amount is appreciated.

Feature Image: Trevor Bexon

Business owners in the Reno area arent rushing to file for bankruptcy protection, but theyre beginning to ask their lawyers about the possibilities.

Thats a good thing, the lawyers say. Too often in the past, business owners have waited until theyve watched all their assets personal, sometimes, along with the business dwindle away before they seek the shelter of bankruptcy.

Plus, it reduces the worry.

The unknown is what is so scary for a lot of people, says Tricia Darby, who practices bankruptcy law in Reno with her husband, Kevin. Were visiting today with smart people who want to understand what their options might be.

Timothy Lukas, who specializes in bankruptcy as a partner at the law firm of Holland & Hart in Reno, says unknowns abound for business owners as a result of the freeze-in-place orders by state and local officials six weeks ago.

There are still a lot of unknowns about when and how our local economy will emerge from the current financial crisis, says Lukas. The abrupt, system-wide disruption to the economy means business owners and lenders need to work out the problems theyre facing.

The federal stimulus packages designed to help business weather the COVID-19 storm present even more issues to sort through.

The current stimulus bills prohibit or limit relief if a business chooses to file for bankruptcy.Right now, all of the obligations and commitments for business owners remain in place, Lukas says.

On the other hand, Darby says Congress opened the doors for more small businesses that are floundering as a result of the pandemic to reorganize under the protection of Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. Some filing deadlines were extended.

But Lukas cautions that those measures are valid only for a year.

If one waits too long to file for bankruptcy, it can be a disaster, he says, recommending that business owners and their attorneys understand today what a bankruptcy filing could accomplish or not if theres even a chance that a company will go under.

Chapter 11 bankruptcy filings cases in which businesses try to regroup while they get their feet back underneath themselves were declining in the region before the pandemic-related shutdowns. Last year saw 14 filings of Chapter 11 cases in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Reno. That compared with 26 a year earlier.

Chapter 7 cases the ones in which a judge oversees the liquidation of a business totaled 566 last year. A year earlier, 1,133 of those cases were filed in the bankruptcy court in Reno.

We are reporting daily on how the coronavirus is impacting the Reno area. This coverage is outside of our paywall, provided free of charge.

Please support us by becoming a subscriber or contributing a tax-deducible donation to our COVID-19 news fund. Any amount is appreciated.

The Regional Information Center team reported today a large increase in the number of COVID-19 cases, including two additional deaths.

Governor Steve Sisolak this week came under fire for lack of communication not just with the news media but with noted constituent groups as the Silver State

Governor Steve Sisolak yesterday signed another emergency directive, this time to provide economic relief to some Nevadans.

Governor Steve Sisoak revealed yesterday what phase one of reopening Nevada will look like from his plan Nevada United: Roadmap to Recovery.

Inmates at the Washoe County Sheriffs Office Detention Facility will receive one free weekly video visit with someone off-site starting next week.

Criticism against Governor Steve Sisolak is ramping up after he surprised Nevadans with plans to reopen the state on national media.

OPINION: With such an abundance of health and nutrition information, how do you separate fact from fiction? UNRs Extension provides tips to sort through the junk science.

A group of local business leaders launched Hospitality Industry Partnerships, HIP, to help feed out of work restaurant, bar and gaming employees.

OPINION: Berkbigler, a lobbyist and politician by trade, is showing she believes she knows more about science than medical specialists, epidemiologists and public health experts.

Business owners in the Reno area arent rushing to file for bankruptcy protection, but theyre beginning to ask their lawyers about the possibilities.

Visit link:

Suddenly, bankruptcy is on the mind of business owners - ThisisReno

The airline industry is limping into the third month of what insiders have called the biggest crisis in its history.

Travel demand began to fall off in the Asia region in mid- to late-January, and broadly in the rest of the world by mid-March.

As it became evident by late-March that this would be a prolonged crisis, squashing any hope for the type of rapid decline-rapid recovery seen after the 2003 SARS outbreak, experts began to forecast a recovery that would likely extend beyond 2020.

Now, as analysts begin to reach a consensus on when the industry may bounce back, the outlook remains bleak.

Earlier this month, a research report from airline analyst Joseph DeNardi at Stifel indicated air travel demand would likely not return to normal until mid-2021 at the earliest, noting that such a return was a best-case scenario, and that a more bearish course appears to be emerging.

At the time, the estimate seemed conservative. Now, however, analysts and experts including DeNardi are reaching a consensus that it will take at least two full years for travel demand to return to 2019 levels, and possibly as long as five.

Ken Herbert of Canaccord Genuity wrote in late January that the virus posed a "substantial" risk to global air travel and the aerospace sector, while Tourism Economics warned of a $10 billion hit to the US travel industry if visits from China fell substantially.

In the three months since, the outbreak has swept across the globe and decimated the entire global airline sector. What initially looked like a potentially quick rebound Canaccord's Herbert predicted a V-shaped recovery, using other outbreaks like SARS as a framework is now widely believed to be slow, and difficult.

The initial reports worked under the assumption that, like past outbreaks such as SARS and MERS, COVID-19 would be a mainly regional crisis, possibly with flare-ups in other areas, but primarily affecting Asian markets.

During fourth-quarter 2019 earnings calls, which took place in January, airline analysts and executives hardly mentioned the coronavirus outbreak aside from consideration of service to China and Hong Kong.

Now, as the virus has brought much of the world to a standstill, the focus has shifted.

The Alaska Airlines ticket counter at Austin-Bergstrom International Airport. Joey Hadden/Business Insider

Over the past several weeks, travel demand has tanked.

"It certainly feels like we're at the bottom," American Airlines CEO Doug Parker said during a television interview on April 15. "Our revenues are down 90% on a year-over-year basis. And they've been that way now for a few weeks. So, the real question is how long do you stay at the bottom? And when do we begin to recover?"

Analysts across the board agree that even if the recovery begins soon, it will be prolonged.

"We are growing increasingly convinced that industry recovery to 2019 levels of output will be a multi-year affair," analyst Jamie Baker of JPMorgan wrote in early April, "resulting in the material shedding of aircraft and headcount along the way."

"Airline bookings remain at unprecedented lows," Bank of America analyst Andrew Didora wrote in an April 26 research note. "Based on what has transpired in China, volumes could stay at these levels for a few weeks before beginning to recover. Then, we think the recovery could be slow."

"We assume a 2-3 year period for demand to return to 2019 levels," Joseph DeNardi of Stifel wrote in an April 21 note, observing that the reduced supply resulting from airlines temporarily grounding fleets would help make up for a "historically slower return to normal."

During the CNBC interview, American's Parker noted there were perhaps early signs of an impending recovery, noting that the airline had seen a slight uptick in bookings for more than 90 days out, as well as some corporate interest in travel for the fourth quarter.

But Parker (and a spokesperson for the airline, in a follow-up discussion with Business Insider) acknowledged that even if a recovery begins in the coming months, it will take a while before the industry returns to 2019 levels of revenue and demand.

Boeing CEO David Calhoun agreed, making headlines earlier this week when he said, "it will take two to three years for travel to return to 2019 levels and an additional few years beyond that for the industry's long-term growth trend to return."

Calhoun also noted that reduced travel demand means a reduced need for new airplanes.

Helane Becker of Cowen thinks a turnaround could take even longer.

"We expect it to take 2 to 5 years to recover to 2019 levels," she wrote in a lengthy April 13 report titled A Winding Road to Recovery, adding: "our working assumption is 2021 revenues will be back to 2016 levels."

"April and May will be the worst months for the airlines as social distancing and sheltering in place continue," she wrote. "June and July seem to be a targeting timeline for return to work for much of the US economy."

"Unfortunately, return to work might not mean immediate return to the air," she added. "It is highly likely that any recovery won't start until the fourth quarter at the earliest, and then continue slowly through 2021 and into 2022."

Southwest Airlines CEO Gary Kelly agreed with the longer-term assessment. On the airline's first quarter earnings call this week, he said that based on past recessions, he expects business travel to take about five years to return to pre-outbreak trends, possibly even longer.

"Based on history, in a recessionary environment, it is a long recovery period for businesses. And it's intuitive to me on why that would be," Kelly said. "This one feels like it could be worse."

Kevork Djansezian / Getty Images

Analysts and industry leaders are also beginning to agree that leisure travel may recover faster, even if business travel begins its recovery sooner.

"We may see an initial surge in business travel, but nothing we would view as sustainable," Becker wrote. "There is significant liability for companies that push their employees to travel too quickly. Leisure travel, which traditionally comes back first, is likely to be slow to return as well."

"We believe business travel is likely to return ahead of leisure travel," she added, "but given the amount of teleconferencing, the use of Zoom, Skype, WebEx, GoToMeeting and other ways people are staying in touch and conducting meetings, this suggests that while business travel will return, it also will return at a slower pace than prior recoveries."

According to an April 19 note from Bank of America's Didora, leisure bookings declined at a slower rate than corporate, but have reached roughly the same low level.

Regardless, the industry's financial outlook is likely to remain grim for a while.

"For purposes of modeling, we assume the phenomenon of negative net bookings (refunds exceeding sales) continues well into the third quarter," JPMorgan's Baker wrote on April 22.

REUTERS/Thomas Peter

Over the past several years, the airline industry both globally and in the US has been on a rapid and steady expansion, adding capacity, new planes, and new routes.

Almost overnight, that expansion screeched to a halt, and that reversal could continue, even after the pandemic is contained.

"[W]e believe the airlines will end 2020 at least 20% smaller than they ended 2019 and probably closer to 30% smaller," Cowen's Becker wrote.

The downsizing would see airlines cut costs wherever possible, but the two major savings areas will be labor and aircraft.

According to Becker, mainline US airlines employ about 473,000 people. Airlines for America, an industry trade and lobbying organization, puts that number at 750,000 people, when regional carriers are included.

Despite payroll assistance from the federal government, which helps airlines cover employee salaries and prohibits layoffs before October, 2020, Becker wrote that she expects to see the mainline carriers eliminate 95,000-105,000 jobs by the end of this year.

"United and American have said they could be 15-20% smaller in 2021 than they would have otherwise," Stifel's DiNardi wrote.

He also noted that during past recessions, using the 2008 crisis as an example, airlines emerged with more disciplined growth strategies and more deliberate expansions as they focused on profitability. That suggests that the recovery years could see fewer new, interesting, or leisure-focused direct flights launched as airlines focus on more proven measures.

"We believe a return to capacity discipline and lower capex spending could drive a period of strong performance for the group coming out of the pandemic," DeNardi said.

Airlines are likely to retire older aircraft or place them into long-term storage to cut costs.

"Aircraft over 20 years old are unlikely to ever fly again in passenger revenue service," Becker wrote. "They are the first aircraft to go into storage and will be the last to come out."

She added that American Airlines has already begun reevaluating its fleet by retiring the 757, 767, E190, and some A330 planes, as well as some older 737NGs.

The move would eliminate at least three types of plane from the airline's fleet, helping it save money in the long term.

The major US airlines are likely to retire a total of 800-1,000 aircraft during the crisis, Becker wrote, which would inherently come with job cuts. US airlines employ an average of 97 people per aircraft, she said.

Flybe passenger planes are parked at Birmingham Airport in England. Associated Press

In March, the aviation consultancy CAPA saidthat by the end of May, "most airlines in the world will be bankrupt" without coordinated government and industry intervention.

Several have already occurred, including the UK's FlyBe, which ceased operations, and Virgin Australia, which entered voluntary administration a form of bankruptcy restructuring.

Several regional airlines in the US Trans States, Compass Airlines, and RavnAir have also folded.

The risk of a larger-scale consolidation in the industry is likely, several analysts have said.

"As the mainline airlines cut capacity and eliminate routes, we expect them to eliminate or scale back service to smaller cities. As they do that, it is likely to put pressure on the regional airlines," Cowen's Becker wrote. "We expect regional airline consolidation first, as we are already seeing, followed by consolidation among medium-sized airlines."

"Among the larger airlines, we would not be surprised to see the ultra-low cost airlines consider merging to get through the downturn," she added.

According to JPMorgan's Jamie Baker, however, it's possible that major carriers could also be vulnerable.

In an April 6 research note, Baker focused primarily on American, though suggested that the analysis could apply to other airlines.

American is not necessarily "mortally wounded," Baker wrote that the risk of a bankruptcy is, arguably for the first time in the crisis, becoming more pronounced, given the fact that the airline will likely need to significantly downsize its staff and its aircraft fleet.

There are "five, and basically only five, reasons why airlines file for bankruptcy," the report said:

Given those historical reasons for past bankruptcies, the report says, it's theoretically possible that a bankruptcy would be the most effective play for the airlines following the crisis.

The report cautions that this is only one possible scenario: "We don't think management is rushing to file for bankruptcy. We also don't think it's inevitable."

Over at Cowen, while raising the possibility of bankruptcies, Becker wrote that even with new debt, she thinks the major US airlines will be able to avoid considering bankruptcies at least through the end of the year, by which time demand may be recovering.

"Ultimately, we find the airlines have sufficient liquidity to survive through at least July," she wrote. "At this point, we do not have bankruptcy concerns for any of the US airlines we cover for the remainder of 2020, assuming each opts for and receives Phase III stimulus grants."

Read the original:

Airlines need years to recover from COVID-19, if they avoid bankruptcy - Business Insider

The company will take the money but the state won't get a say: this is a concise summary of what Lufthansa's Executive Board, headed by CEO Carsten Spohr, has been telling German politicians in the past few weeks.

According to an investigation by Business Insider, Lufthansa is now so up to its neck in water, the airline's management had to come to an agreement with the German state on the afternoon of Monday, April 27, after hours of negotiations.

The agreement entails the state using $10 billion to bail out Germany's last remaining international airline.

But the state should not be given a say in corporate policy, insiders say.

It's expected that one or two supervisory board mandates will be given to the German federal government.

The company could face insolvency within weeks. Reuters

However, as a result of the worldwide travel restrictions in the Corona crisis, Lufthansa is currently making losses of around $1 million every hour.

The company could face insolvency within weeks.

Founded in 1953, Lufthansa began flight operations two years later and was, until 1963, entirely in state hands.

The federal government, however, sold its shares in the mid-1990s, so Lufthansa has been fully privatized since 1997.

Spohr wants to formally seal the deal with Merkel and Germany's finance minister, Olaf Scholz on Tuesday, April 28. Getty

According to the investigation, the state is pumping just under $10 billion into the badly hit company.

In return, the government, as the new shareholder, will receive a blocking minority and one or two supervisory board seats, but these will not be filled by civil servants or politicians.

Formally, the company will then be associated with the Federal Ministry of Finance as a state holding.

According to the group, a rough agreement has been reached.

The most crucial factor in the agreement was that the appointment of civil servants or politicians to the supervisory board was unacceptable in the eyes of Lufthansa's executives.

The state is pumping just under $10 billion into the badly hit company. Larry Downing/Reuters

Spohr himself didn't officially take part in yesterday's talks but on Tuesday, he wants to formally seal the deal with Chancellor Angela Merkel and Germany's finance minister, Olaf Scholz.

Through the investigation, Business Insider learned that it's unlikely the matter will be negotiated again.

Spohr had recently proposed an Airbus model for Lufthansa. Germany, France, and Spain hold a quarter of the shares of the aircraft manufacturer but don't exercise any direct influence over the company.

See the rest here:

German government to bail Lufthansa out of bankruptcy with nearly $10 billion state aid - Business Insider - Business Insider

The nonprofit, which designed a Turbo Tax-like tool for bankruptcy in response to the fact that the people who most need bankruptcy cant afford a lawyer or navigate the complex process on their own, is expecting filings to swell over time. During the economic recession of 2008, bankruptcy filings increased by 2-3 times, and based on the number of people claiming unemployment right now, I think that we should see bankruptcy filings at around the same rate, says Upsolve cofounder and CEO Rohan Pavuluri. That would be my guess, especially because of the level of consumer debt that already exists in our economy. In the week ending on March 21, a record 3.28 million Americans filed for unemployment benefits.

While each case varies, it often makes sense for people to file a bankruptcy claim at the lowest point of their financial problems, so its likely that filings will steeply grow later in the year. People should oftentimes wait until they think their financial situation is going to get better instead of filing only to fall into more debt afterward, Pavuluri says. We would predict that it wouldnt be in the next couple of months, but around the end of Q2 or beginning of Q3, the rate of bankruptcy filings should increase.

An additional challenge: Most courts only allow online filing when someone has a lawyer, so people who are trying to file on their own using Upsolve have to take an extra trip into public at a time when everyone should be sheltering in place to slow the spread of the disease. The bankruptcy system discriminates against poor people by only allowing people who can afford lawyers to file electronically, he says. During normal times, thats an additional barrier because it requires people who are poor to go ahead and print out their forms and mail them or hand-deliver them, which can cost up to a hundred bucks because of all the filings. . . . But thats a problem thats made even more acute during COVID because you are putting yourself in physical harm if you are needing to go to FedEx and needing to hand-deliver the forms to the bankruptcy court.

Its one more way that the bankruptcy system is hardest to navigate for those who are most in need of it. At every step of the way, the bankruptcy process, in addition to so many areas of poverty law, discriminates against people who cant afford lawyers, says Pavuluri. The forms are particularly complicated. The filing procedures are particularly complicated. And [this country has] designed the system around the assumption that people have lawyers, by and large because this system has been built by lawyers.

One Upsolve user, a single mother, told the startup that shes been struggling to find a place to affordably print out the dozens of pages of forms now that her local library has closed; shes also trying to juggle taking care of kids that she suspects may have the virus and trying to afford to feed them. Pavuluri says that a small number of courts are beginning to allow online filing, and hes hopeful that will grow. Courts are also beginning to hold hearings by phone rather than in person.

Bankruptcy was built for addressing unexpected financial shocks, and COVID-19 is the definition of an unexpected financial shock, he says. The unfortunate thing is that there are some barriers in placelack of electronic filing, namelythat really harm consumers when they need bankruptcy the most. We hope that something good can come out of COVID-19 in the sense that courts can realize the injustice in how theyre treating poor people today.

Here is the original post:

Upsolve's bankruptcy tool is seeing its first coronavirus cases - Fast Company

Dive Brief:

Publix, Aldi and Schnuck Markets were among the winning bidders for stores and a distribution center put on the auction block by Luckys Markets, the bankrupt natural foods retailer announced on Friday. The court-supervised auction raised $29 million from 10 bidders who collectively are taking control of 23 Luckys stores in Colorado, Florida, Ohio, Missouri and Michigan. Six Luckys stores will remain in operation, the company said, and the approximately 500 workers who work in the stores will receive job offers, Luckys said.

A company led by Bo Sharon, a co-founder of Luckys, won the bidding for a pair of Luckys locations in Colorado, with an offer of $1.16 million. Sharon and his wife announced in January that they would acquire seven Luckys stores shortly after the company sought Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.

Several smaller grocers submitted winning bids for Luckys locations. They include Daves Market, a 13-store chain in the Cleveland area that bid $1.72 million for two Ohio locations; and Sebras Market, which bid $1.25 million for a Luckys store in Hunters Creek, Florida.

The bankruptcy court-supervised dispersion of Luckys Market's fleet of stores comes just two months after the once high-flying chain threw in the towel in its effort to thrive as a store that sold good-for-you foods at reasonable prices. Luckys business model had once seemed so promising that Kroger in 2016 struck a partnership with the grocer, which was expected to serve as a way for Kroger to enter the Florida grocery market. But Kroger exited the deal in December, with its CEO explaining that it no longer saw the partnership as worthwhile.

Publix, Aldi and Southeastern Grocers claimed more than a dozen Florida stores in the auction, solidifying their positioning in the battleground state. Publix paid $11.5 million for five leased stores located in Naples,Neptune Beach, Clermont, South Orange, and Ormond Beach, Florida. Aldipaid $7.8 million for one owned property in Oakland Park, Florida and five leased locations in Coral Springs, Sarasota, Vineland, Colonial Landing and Venice, Florida. Southeastern Grocers paid $2.4 million for four leased stores in Gainesville,Melbourne,Fort Meyers and Lake Mary, Florida.

Luckys ran into trouble because it built stores in areas that were already controlled by competitors, and its flame-out marks the end of its quest to stand out by selling natural foods more affordable than other stores and with a customer-friendly twist. The companys failure coincided with the collapse of specialty grocer Earth Fare, which lost its way as a local grocer after trying to expand too fast, and Fairway Market, which was felled by debt after attempting to duplicate its New York City-oriented strategy in the suburbs.

What will happen to the Lucky's brand?Shortly after the chain filed for bankruptcy, a group led by co-founders Trish and Bo Sharon announced plans to acquire seven stores, including locations in Colorado, Missouri, Michigan and Florida. However, the group ended up purchasing just two stores in Boulder and Fort Collins, Colorado. Most of the other locations, including a store in Columbia, Missouri claimed by Schnucks and one in Traverse City, Michigan bought up by Oryana Food Cooperative, will switch over to the acquiring company's brand, according to local reports.

Luckys bankruptcy auction took place at the same time that Fairway sold off a chunk of its assets in a similar proceeding. Fairway announced March 25 that a trio of bidders, including Amazon, had won the bidding for six stores and two store leases in an auction that netted $81.5 million. PJ Solomon, the investment banker that has been advising Lucky's, also worked with Fairway.

Visit link:

Grocers feast on Lucky's Market stores in bankruptcy auction - Grocery Dive

Welcome to Money Talks, a series in which we interview people about their relationships with money, their relationships with each other, and how those relationships inform one another.

Running Balance is a newsletter about a family of four living at 200 percent of the poverty line. Mrs. Running Balance is bringing in the family income, Mr. Running Balance is a stay-at-home dad, and they have a 3-year-old and an 18-month-old. The Running Balances recently declared bankruptcy and are sharing their income and expenses online so people can understand what its really like to raise two children in Houston on $47,000 a year.

The following remarks have been lightly condensed and edited for clarity.

Mr. RB: Its been this kind of weird learning curve, especially since having kids. When youre two single people living around 200 percent of the poverty line, you can be as flexible as you need to be. Once you have kids, you cant put off something for them. You become so much more acutely aware of where your finances are falling short.

Mrs. RB: In 2014, when I was 28 years old, I moved back to my hometown and accepted a receptionist position making $33,000 a year. I was single, and I was like, I think I can make that work on my own! Then I called my now-husband, who was my former high school boyfriend (we dated for, like, a week in high school), and he was living with his parents while freelancing and going to school, and then we just kind of moved in together, and then we just kind of got married, and then we just kind of had kids, and there was no real point where we got financially prepared to have kids. It was just like, oh, this is happening.

Mr. RB: Were in a major metro area, so rent is very expensive, especially if you need to find room for kids. Were living in an 800-square-foot apartment with a 3-year-old and an 18-month-old. [Editors note: Rent for this apartment is $1,050 a month.] Until very recently, most of the rest of our money went toward credit cards.

Mrs. RB: When our bankruptcy attorney pulled my credit report, it came out to about $53,000 in debt; $9,000 is from a joint card I had with my mother that I didnt know about, so that isnt technically ours, but the rest is for sure.

Mr. RB: Having kids turned out to be a lot more expensive than we thought it would be. Literally the process of all those appointments. During the pregnancies for both of our children, Mrs. RB was still hourly, so anything youre missing for a doctors appointment is actual hours off, and both times she had to go on bed rest for high-risk pregnancies. Thats a huge part of our debt.

Mrs. RB: My husband and I came up with an estimate of about $7,000, which includes $5,000 in lost wages, combined over the two pregnancies. We were so lucky, too, compared to a lot of people. I didnt get maternity leave, but I got short-term disability, so I was really lucky that I was able to get 80 percent of my pay while I was on bed rest and for 10 weeks after both of my C-sections. But taking a 20 percent pay cut on back-to-back years was a real hit financially.

We started putting things on the cards in emergencies there were times when we would go out to eat where we probably shouldnt have because we couldnt afford it, but more often we would spend all the money we had and then wed need to get diapers or formula or groceries, and it would go on the credit card, and the next month the credit card minimum would be higher, so wed pay the minimum and would have less money for groceries and diapers and formula. So it kind of got to be this vicious cycle.

Mr. RB: We started considering bankruptcy when we began thinking about moving states, from Texas to Washington, and were looking at, Okay, if we want to move into a job search and possibly have to go off any kind of savings and start really trying to save money, how much would we need to save? We are lucky to have the opportunity to stay with a family member when we get there, so we wont have to immediately save a first-last-deposit situation, but we started looking at it and said, Oh, well never be able to save enough money to last even a few weeks, not with the amount of debt payments were making. Even if we dont have to pay rent for a month, there was just going to be no way.

I looked at Mrs. Running Balance one day and said, We dont have debtors prison. We could just not pay this. She was like, But then how would we get a house?

Mrs. RB: Im a really big rule follower, so I was kind of screaming internally when he said that. But then we came to the realization that if we ever wanted a house, we have no money, so wed have to save money and we cant save money the way were doing now. So if a bankruptcy is going to be on my credit report for seven years, we werent going to be able to buy a house in that amount of time anyway if we didnt declare bankruptcy.

Since that was really the only reason holding me back also the rule-following, and the stigma of it, that was something to get over we just realized that, in our case, maybe it did make sense to clear it out and start over.

We reached out to a bankruptcy lawyer and did a consultation, and she had us write down all of our debts and all of our assets, and then she said, This is a pretty clear-cut Chapter 7 case, and youll be able to walk away from it. Youll be able to keep your car if you keep making your payments, and you wont have to give up your clothes or your childrens toys because there are exemptions for all of that. So we went ahead and went forward with that, and although were still in the process of finalizing it, its been such a huge relief. Like, the mental stress of it, I cant even describe to you.

Mr. RB: When I was 21, I was living check-to-check and I took out a payday loan under the advice of a neighbor. Then I was under the same payday loan for a year and a half, because if youre somebody whos taking out a payday loan, youre never going to make up that initial shortfall to pay back the loan and the interest and also not need money for rent and food and living.

The credit cards I kind of realized that it was like a payday loan in slow motion. You were never going to make up the shortfall without a significant positive financial change.

Mrs. RB: We just realized that we were never going to make enough money, unless and this is literally how I paid off my student loans, my father died and I used his life insurance policy to pay off my loans. Thats kind of where I was with the credit cards, where I was, I dont know, going to pay the minimums for another 20 years, until one of us got an inheritance and we could clear them out.

Mr. RB: I think the single biggest big-picture thing for us, having the two kids, is looking at a house before theyre out of elementary school. I grew up sharing a bedroom with my twin brother for most of my childhood, and being just on top of each other, theres no space to do anything in a small apartment, and that was the biggest impetus for the bankruptcy. It was like, Oh, were never going to get out from under this. We were never going to be able to afford a house.

In researching bankruptcy, one of the No. 1 scare tactics is no matter how far you are in debt, whatever you do, dont declare bankruptcy because people wont want to give you a home loan. But if youre so far in debt, its not like youre on the precipice of homeownership. Its not like, Oh, if we could just make the payments for a couple more months, well be in a four-bedroom.

Mrs. RB: I grew up in apartments inside the city with a single mom, and we moved every year or every two years, and thats something I dont necessarily want my kids to have to do. It was fine, but to have a better sense of stability for them is something thats important to us.

Mr. RB: As soon as we stopped paying the credit cards, we were all of a sudden saving money. The ever-increasing credit card debt we found ourselves in was kind of a budgeting boot camp, because we were like, We have to stop putting money on these cards but we have to keep making the payments. Now that were not making the payments, we have the same financial discipline, but the money is not just evaporating. We have a small savings account now literally very small, hundreds of dollars, but its there.

Mrs. RB: Our biggest struggle is eating outside of the house, but other than that, weve cut our expenses pretty close to the bone.

Mr. RB: It was insane to find ourselves so far in debt, because we have none of the physical things that youd associate with people winding up in debt. We dont have a fancy car, we dont have a lot of clothes I think both of us have five outfits each and our TV cost $108 from Walmart.

That said, the theme of the Running Balance blog seems to be sometimes you have to get Chipotle. Our family is struggling, but we just spent $23 on chips and salsa. We used to say that we would never eat out, but any time you say youre never going to do something, you actually end up doing it more. Instead of having the planned release valve, you end up saying, This just has to happen today. Then, two days later, because its not on the schedule, you say, Okay, more Chipotle!

Mrs. RB: This is our first paycheck where were actually budgeting for eating out: $50 per paycheck, or $100 a month. Honestly, budgeting $100 a month toward eating out still feels a little outrageous to me, even though I know were spending that much even if we dont budget. With two kids and a tiny apartment kitchen, to be able to get a meal outside of the house once a week is a reasonable goal.

Mr. RB: Theres nothing our kids hate more than seeing me on the other side of a baby gate with a bunch of hot pans going. Plus, when youve got two howling babies and your partner says, Why dont we get fast food, I had a terrible day, the emotional stakes of going, No, I dont think that should happen; tell me more about how bad your day was, but no greasy nuggets for you, are pretty high.

Mrs. RB: Theres a lot of talk in the news about people who receive government benefits and people who are in poverty, and its really hard to see those people as human sometimes. Part of starting the Running Balance newsletter, for me, was to put my voice out there. Im a nice person, I work a good job, but we are also struggling. I wanted to shine a light on people who have the same kind of issues that we do.

This interview took place before the spread of Covid-19 changed many of our lives; I got back in touch with the Running Balances to learn how the coronavirus was affecting them financially, and here is Mrs. Running Balances response:

Mrs. RB: Im so, so lucky that my job is letting me telecommute for the foreseeable future, so we arent worried about making rent or paying bills.

My bankruptcy lawyer finally got back to me after a period of no communication and gave me a case number, which means everything has been filed and I should get a court date in the mail by the end of this week. (Assuming courts stay open?) On top of the virus stuff, Ive been getting about five or six calls a day from credit card companies, so that will be a huge weight off.

We dipped into savings to get more groceries the day before payday (last Friday) because our usual grocery store got cleaned out and I was admittedly spooked by it. We went to a different grocery chain near our house and stocked up on five gallons of milk (not as drastic as it sounds with two toddlers), eggs, diapers, potatoes, and some household essentials we were running low on. (A package of toilet paper, dish soap, laundry detergent, and tissues.)

We did break our one-streaming-service-at-a-time rule and signed up for a trial of Disney+ that were probably not going to cancel.

Im expecting to spend more on charging the car this month since Im not charging for free at work. Im also expecting to have to pay overages for data for our home internet with all of the streaming well be doing, not just kid shows but also virtual meetings that Ill need to be in. But we have almost no other expenses since we cant really leave the house.

We havent eaten out in a week and have no plans to going forward. It just feels like too big of a health risk.

Sign up for The Goods newsletter and well send you the best Goods stories exploring what we buy, why we buy it, and why it matters.

Get our newsletter in your inbox twice a week.

Continued here:

How the family behind Running Balance handles budgeting and bankruptcy - Vox.com

Updated: May 25, 2018:

JD Supra is a legal publishing service that connects experts and their content with broader audiences of professionals, journalists and associations.

This Privacy Policy describes how JD Supra, LLC ("JD Supra" or "we," "us," or "our") collects, uses and shares personal data collected from visitors to our website (located at http://www.jdsupra.com) (our "Website") who view only publicly-available content as well as subscribers to our services (such as our email digests or author tools)(our "Services"). By using our Website and registering for one of our Services, you are agreeing to the terms of this Privacy Policy.

Please note that if you subscribe to one of our Services, you can make choices about how we collect, use and share your information through our Privacy Center under the "My Account" dashboard (available if you are logged into your JD Supra account).

Registration Information. When you register with JD Supra for our Website and Services, either as an author or as a subscriber, you will be asked to provide identifying information to create your JD Supra account ("Registration Data"), such as your:

Other Information: We also collect other information you may voluntarily provide. This may include content you provide for publication. We may also receive your communications with others through our Website and Services (such as contacting an author through our Website) or communications directly with us (such as through email, feedback or other forms or social media). If you are a subscribed user, we will also collect your user preferences, such as the types of articles you would like to read.

Information from third parties (such as, from your employer or LinkedIn): We may also receive information about you from third party sources. For example, your employer may provide your information to us, such as in connection with an article submitted by your employer for publication. If you choose to use LinkedIn to subscribe to our Website and Services, we also collect information related to your LinkedIn account and profile.

Your interactions with our Website and Services: As is true of most websites, we gather certain information automatically. This information includes IP addresses, browser type, Internet service provider (ISP), referring/exit pages, operating system, date/time stamp and clickstream data. We use this information to analyze trends, to administer the Website and our Services, to improve the content and performance of our Website and Services, and to track users' movements around the site. We may also link this automatically-collected data to personal information, for example, to inform authors about who has read their articles. Some of this data is collected through information sent by your web browser. We also use cookies and other tracking technologies to collect this information. To learn more about cookies and other tracking technologies that JD Supra may use on our Website and Services please see our "Cookies Guide" page.

We use the information and data we collect principally in order to provide our Website and Services. More specifically, we may use your personal information to:

JD Supra takes reasonable and appropriate precautions to insure that user information is protected from loss, misuse and unauthorized access, disclosure, alteration and destruction. We restrict access to user information to those individuals who reasonably need access to perform their job functions, such as our third party email service, customer service personnel and technical staff. You should keep in mind that no Internet transmission is ever 100% secure or error-free. Where you use log-in credentials (usernames, passwords) on our Website, please remember that it is your responsibility to safeguard them. If you believe that your log-in credentials have been compromised, please contact us at privacy@jdsupra.com.

Our Website and Services are not directed at children under the age of 16 and we do not knowingly collect personal information from children under the age of 16 through our Website and/or Services. If you have reason to believe that a child under the age of 16 has provided personal information to us, please contact us, and we will endeavor to delete that information from our databases.

Our Website and Services may contain links to other websites. The operators of such other websites may collect information about you, including through cookies or other technologies. If you are using our Website or Services and click a link to another site, you will leave our Website and this Policy will not apply to your use of and activity on those other sites. We encourage you to read the legal notices posted on those sites, including their privacy policies. We are not responsible for the data collection and use practices of such other sites. This Policy applies solely to the information collected in connection with your use of our Website and Services and does not apply to any practices conducted offline or in connection with any other websites.

JD Supra's principal place of business is in the United States. By subscribing to our website, you expressly consent to your information being processed in the United States.

You can make a request to exercise any of these rights by emailing us at privacy@jdsupra.com or by writing to us at:

You can also manage your profile and subscriptions through our Privacy Center under the "My Account" dashboard.

We will make all practical efforts to respect your wishes. There may be times, however, where we are not able to fulfill your request, for example, if applicable law prohibits our compliance. Please note that JD Supra does not use "automatic decision making" or "profiling" as those terms are defined in the GDPR.

Pursuant to Section 1798.83 of the California Civil Code, our customers who are California residents have the right to request certain information regarding our disclosure of personal information to third parties for their direct marketing purposes.

You can make a request for this information by emailing us at privacy@jdsupra.com or by writing to us at:

Some browsers have incorporated a Do Not Track (DNT) feature. These features, when turned on, send a signal that you prefer that the website you are visiting not collect and use data regarding your online searching and browsing activities. As there is not yet a common understanding on how to interpret the DNT signal, we currently do not respond to DNT signals on our site.

For non-EU/Swiss residents, if you would like to know what personal information we have about you, you can send an e-mail to privacy@jdsupra.com. We will be in contact with you (by mail or otherwise) to verify your identity and provide you the information you request. We will respond within 30 days to your request for access to your personal information. In some cases, we may not be able to remove your personal information, in which case we will let you know if we are unable to do so and why. If you would like to correct or update your personal information, you can manage your profile and subscriptions through our Privacy Center under the "My Account" dashboard. If you would like to delete your account or remove your information from our Website and Services, send an e-mail to privacy@jdsupra.com.

We reserve the right to change this Privacy Policy at any time. Please refer to the date at the top of this page to determine when this Policy was last revised. Any changes to our Privacy Policy will become effective upon posting of the revised policy on the Website. By continuing to use our Website and Services following such changes, you will be deemed to have agreed to such changes.

If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy, the practices of this site, your dealings with our Website or Services, or if you would like to change any of the information you have provided to us, please contact us at: privacy@jdsupra.com.

As with many websites, JD Supra's website (located at http://www.jdsupra.com) (our "Website") and our services (such as our email article digests)(our "Services") use a standard technology called a "cookie" and other similar technologies (such as, pixels and web beacons), which are small data files that are transferred to your computer when you use our Website and Services. These technologies automatically identify your browser whenever you interact with our Website and Services.

We use cookies and other tracking technologies to:

There are different types of cookies and other technologies used our Website, notably:

JD Supra Cookies. We place our own cookies on your computer to track certain information about you while you are using our Website and Services. For example, we place a session cookie on your computer each time you visit our Website. We use these cookies to allow you to log-in to your subscriber account. In addition, through these cookies we are able to collect information about how you use the Website, including what browser you may be using, your IP address, and the URL address you came from upon visiting our Website and the URL you next visit (even if those URLs are not on our Website). We also utilize email web beacons to monitor whether our emails are being delivered and read. We also use these tools to help deliver reader analytics to our authors to give them insight into their readership and help them to improve their content, so that it is most useful for our users.

Analytics/Performance Cookies. JD Supra also uses the following analytic tools to help us analyze the performance of our Website and Services as well as how visitors use our Website and Services:

Facebook, Twitter and other Social Network Cookies. Our content pages allow you to share content appearing on our Website and Services to your social media accounts through the "Like," "Tweet," or similar buttons displayed on such pages. To accomplish this Service, we embed code that such third party social networks provide and that we do not control. These buttons know that you are logged in to your social network account and therefore such social networks could also know that you are viewing the JD Supra Website.

If you would like to change how a browser uses cookies, including blocking or deleting cookies from the JD Supra Website and Services you can do so by changing the settings in your web browser. To control cookies, most browsers allow you to either accept or reject all cookies, only accept certain types of cookies, or prompt you every time a site wishes to save a cookie. It's also easy to delete cookies that are already saved on your device by a browser.

The processes for controlling and deleting cookies vary depending on which browser you use. To find out how to do so with a particular browser, you can use your browser's "Help" function or alternatively, you can visit http://www.aboutcookies.org which explains, step-by-step, how to control and delete cookies in most browsers.

We may update this cookie policy and our Privacy Policy from time-to-time, particularly as technology changes. You can always check this page for the latest version. We may also notify you of changes to our privacy policy by email.

If you have any questions about how we use cookies and other tracking technologies, please contact us at: privacy@jdsupra.com.

The rest is here:

Preparing for a Joint Venture Partners Bankruptcy in the Aftermath of COVID-19 and an Oil Price Collapse - JD Supra

31 Mar, 2020 | Tue | 14:05

The COVID-19 pandemic has almost put everything to a halt, including events in the art industry. Museums and exhibitions around the globe are closed while most auctions are postponed. A lawyer from the U.S. who specialises in cases related to art dealing has issued a piece, warning the art world about a wave of bankruptcies in the upcoming months to years. His piece mentions Paddle8s recent bankruptcy, using it as an example to provide legal advice for artists, galleries and auction houses.

Nicholas M. ODonnell

The piece was issued by Nicholas M. ODonnell, an art law partner at Sullivan & Worcester in Boston. According to the law firms website, ODonnells practice focuses primarily on complex civil litigation, including many cases related toNazi-looted art. He has also authored and contributed to several books on art law.

ODonnell is the editor of the Art Law Report, a blog that provides updates and commentary on legal issues in the museum and visual arts communities. The blog is often put under the spotlight as ODonnells commentary is frequently used by the media. Even the New York Times quoted ODonnell when reporting a forgery case related to an art gallery in New York. His recent piece on the art worlds potentialbankruptcy wave was released on this blog.

In ODonnells blog, he writes, The art world, from museums, to large auction houses and mega galleries, to small businesses and service providers, is reeling from the sudden inability to gather together with other people. We all know this and feel its absence already. Even before the fallout from the larger economic situation is felt in terms of whatever effect is yet to come on buyers willingness to spend money on art, all the events, fairs, and gatherings to which we are accustomed (particularly in New York) are suspended indefinitely.

The MET is forced to close due to the spread of COVID-19

The current situation suggests an unfavourable future for many museums in the U.S as they have already suffered a great loss in a short period of time. For instance, the MET is looking at a minimal loss of US$100m, having to close and reopen in July at the earliest. Demands to support non-profit cultural organisations by including them into the U.S. relief package and funding them through the Federal Emergency Relief Administration (FERA) have been heard.

The MOCA LA has also closed its museum in an effort to contain the spread of the coronavirus. To cut costs, it has also laid off all 97 of their part-time staff. Prior to this, their total number of employees was around 185 which means that they have discharged over half of their staff.

Frieze New York 2020 has been cancelled

ODonnell also comments on Paddle8s bankruptcy in his blog post. He writes, While the Paddle 8 bankruptcy seems to have been driven by business conditions long before the complete upheaval of the art and business world due to COVID19, it is all but certain now that the cascading closures of businesses large and small for the foreseeable future will bring a wave of bankruptcies in the months and year to come...Most businesses are going to need to think very soon about their roles as creditors who are owed some good or service, in the hopes of avoiding becoming debtors who need the help of bankruptcy laws to reorganize or stave off liquidation.

Details of Paddle8s bankruptcy can be found in our previous article- Online Auction House Paddle8 Filed for Bankruptcy, Owing Justin Bieber and Jay-Z Over US$130,000 In Total.

Paddle8 organised a charity sale last year for the nonprofit New American Cinema Group (NACG). However, NACG failed to receive payments from Paddle8 and their clients did not receive the works that they bid for. Therefore, NAGC finally filed a lawsuit against Paddle8. A week later, Paddle8 filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in New York.

Paddle8s filing for bankruptcy might save their business

Paddle8 has filed for bankruptcy Chapter 11 reorganization, not Chapter 7 liquidation. It protects debtors from creditors demanding to settle loans prior to the filing of bankruptcy. According to ODonnell, it will get more complicated as there are very severe penalties for continuing to pursue a lawsuit without leave of court where the automatic stay of 11 U.S.C. 362(a) is in effect. What drove Paddle8 to bankruptcy is unknown but from the perspective of the law it might be the best way to save their business.

The case has also ignited discussions on how art sellers and dealers can protect their rights. ODonnell writes in his blog, typically when an owner conveys property to a gallery or auction house in the business of such sales, if the gallery becomes insolvent, the consignor cannot simply exercise its right to retrieve its painting. Rather, the paintings and all other property held by the gallery or auction house become part of the debtors estate when the petition is filed to be distributed to allowed claimants in the bankruptcy in accordance with priorities established by the Bankruptcy Code.

He continues to say that if the consignor has not taken other action to protect itself, the typical consignor is regarded as a general unsecured creditor. The owner will not be entitled to the return of his artwork and may stand to receive little to none of the proceeds in the event that the artwork is ultimately sold by the debtor.

ODonnell also gives suggestions to those who will potentially be affected by the bankruptcy wave. He tells those who have consigned art to a dealer or gallery to first account for any works of art that are not in their possession by getting U.C.C.-1 statements on file so that they can retrieve their works when bankruptcy happens.

Forgalleriesand auction houses, they should get their records in order to avoid having to explain why funds or consigned works (particularly in New York) were not maintained separately. At the end of his piece, ODonnell expresses his fear of a Paper Chase situation that will happen in the art world.

Read more here:

US Lawyer Warns That COVID-19 Might Cause a Bankruptcy Wave in the Art World | News - TheValue.com

British companies struggling amid the coronavirus outbreak are to be given greater protection from bankruptcy under emergency changes to insolvency laws due to be unveiled by the government this weekend, the Guardian has learned.

Ministers are preparing to announce measures to give firms greater leeway to continue trading, including offering them more protection from creditors in effort to prevent mass company failures and a sharp rise in unemployment.

Sources said the government planned a rapid shakeup of insolvency laws to bring in rules similar to chapter 11 bankruptcy in the US, which give firms time to pay off their debts over time while remaining in business.

The sources said the business secretary, Alok Sharma, would amend wrongful trading rules, which make it a criminal offence for a company director to keep on trading if they know the business is unable to repay its debts.

The government has already announced a series of unprecedented policies to try to prevent the downturn created by the pandemic from turning into a slump, with Boris Johnson promising the nation would put its arms around every worker.

News this week that 477,000 people had submitted new claims for universal credit sparked fears that unemployment is already rocketing, as businesses who have had to close their doors as a result of stringent social distancing measures have laid off staff.

As growing numbers of companies come under financial stress, the fresh steps could help to prevent normally healthy companies from going bust.

Experts said the measures could also include a moratorium on the ability of company creditors to force firms to wind up their operations.

Roger Barker, head of corporate governance at the Institute of Directors, which has been pushing for changes, said: A lot of companies will want to carry on and to maintain employment, take out emergency loans with government backing. But if at some future point they could be held personally liable for not putting their firms into insolvency, that may cause them not to carry on.

At the current time of emergency we need as many companies as possible to keep going, providing employment and providing goods and services keep the economy going.

The radical shakeup of the bankruptcy regime would require legislation and would be likely to require MPs to return to Westminster after recess, despite suggestions that the Easter break could be extended.

The Liberal Democrat leadership contender Layla Moran, who has called for a more lenient bankruptcy regime during the crisis, said that would be the right thing if it allowed some firms to weather the storm.

This change would require legislation but we would have the political will to make it happen. We must do this, jobs are on the line, she said.

Some companies have been criticised for continuing to trade during the crisis, though there has also been widespread confusion about which economic activities must be curtailed as a result of the governments rules.

In his broadcast on Monday evening, the prime minister urged the public to stay at home but also said they could travel to work if their job was essential and they were unable to work from home.

The government has so far declined to order construction work to halt, with Johnson insisting he does not want to shut down the economy.

See the article here:

British firms to be given more protection from bankruptcy - The Guardian

Updated: May 25, 2018:

JD Supra is a legal publishing service that connects experts and their content with broader audiences of professionals, journalists and associations.

This Privacy Policy describes how JD Supra, LLC ("JD Supra" or "we," "us," or "our") collects, uses and shares personal data collected from visitors to our website (located at http://www.jdsupra.com) (our "Website") who view only publicly-available content as well as subscribers to our services (such as our email digests or author tools)(our "Services"). By using our Website and registering for one of our Services, you are agreeing to the terms of this Privacy Policy.

Please note that if you subscribe to one of our Services, you can make choices about how we collect, use and share your information through our Privacy Center under the "My Account" dashboard (available if you are logged into your JD Supra account).

Registration Information. When you register with JD Supra for our Website and Services, either as an author or as a subscriber, you will be asked to provide identifying information to create your JD Supra account ("Registration Data"), such as your:

Other Information: We also collect other information you may voluntarily provide. This may include content you provide for publication. We may also receive your communications with others through our Website and Services (such as contacting an author through our Website) or communications directly with us (such as through email, feedback or other forms or social media). If you are a subscribed user, we will also collect your user preferences, such as the types of articles you would like to read.

Information from third parties (such as, from your employer or LinkedIn): We may also receive information about you from third party sources. For example, your employer may provide your information to us, such as in connection with an article submitted by your employer for publication. If you choose to use LinkedIn to subscribe to our Website and Services, we also collect information related to your LinkedIn account and profile.

Your interactions with our Website and Services: As is true of most websites, we gather certain information automatically. This information includes IP addresses, browser type, Internet service provider (ISP), referring/exit pages, operating system, date/time stamp and clickstream data. We use this information to analyze trends, to administer the Website and our Services, to improve the content and performance of our Website and Services, and to track users' movements around the site. We may also link this automatically-collected data to personal information, for example, to inform authors about who has read their articles. Some of this data is collected through information sent by your web browser. We also use cookies and other tracking technologies to collect this information. To learn more about cookies and other tracking technologies that JD Supra may use on our Website and Services please see our "Cookies Guide" page.

We use the information and data we collect principally in order to provide our Website and Services. More specifically, we may use your personal information to:

JD Supra takes reasonable and appropriate precautions to insure that user information is protected from loss, misuse and unauthorized access, disclosure, alteration and destruction. We restrict access to user information to those individuals who reasonably need access to perform their job functions, such as our third party email service, customer service personnel and technical staff. You should keep in mind that no Internet transmission is ever 100% secure or error-free. Where you use log-in credentials (usernames, passwords) on our Website, please remember that it is your responsibility to safeguard them. If you believe that your log-in credentials have been compromised, please contact us at privacy@jdsupra.com.

Our Website and Services are not directed at children under the age of 16 and we do not knowingly collect personal information from children under the age of 16 through our Website and/or Services. If you have reason to believe that a child under the age of 16 has provided personal information to us, please contact us, and we will endeavor to delete that information from our databases.

Our Website and Services may contain links to other websites. The operators of such other websites may collect information about you, including through cookies or other technologies. If you are using our Website or Services and click a link to another site, you will leave our Website and this Policy will not apply to your use of and activity on those other sites. We encourage you to read the legal notices posted on those sites, including their privacy policies. We are not responsible for the data collection and use practices of such other sites. This Policy applies solely to the information collected in connection with your use of our Website and Services and does not apply to any practices conducted offline or in connection with any other websites.

JD Supra's principal place of business is in the United States. By subscribing to our website, you expressly consent to your information being processed in the United States.

You can make a request to exercise any of these rights by emailing us at privacy@jdsupra.com or by writing to us at:

You can also manage your profile and subscriptions through our Privacy Center under the "My Account" dashboard.

We will make all practical efforts to respect your wishes. There may be times, however, where we are not able to fulfill your request, for example, if applicable law prohibits our compliance. Please note that JD Supra does not use "automatic decision making" or "profiling" as those terms are defined in the GDPR.

Pursuant to Section 1798.83 of the California Civil Code, our customers who are California residents have the right to request certain information regarding our disclosure of personal information to third parties for their direct marketing purposes.

You can make a request for this information by emailing us at privacy@jdsupra.com or by writing to us at:

Some browsers have incorporated a Do Not Track (DNT) feature. These features, when turned on, send a signal that you prefer that the website you are visiting not collect and use data regarding your online searching and browsing activities. As there is not yet a common understanding on how to interpret the DNT signal, we currently do not respond to DNT signals on our site.

For non-EU/Swiss residents, if you would like to know what personal information we have about you, you can send an e-mail to privacy@jdsupra.com. We will be in contact with you (by mail or otherwise) to verify your identity and provide you the information you request. We will respond within 30 days to your request for access to your personal information. In some cases, we may not be able to remove your personal information, in which case we will let you know if we are unable to do so and why. If you would like to correct or update your personal information, you can manage your profile and subscriptions through our Privacy Center under the "My Account" dashboard. If you would like to delete your account or remove your information from our Website and Services, send an e-mail to privacy@jdsupra.com.

We reserve the right to change this Privacy Policy at any time. Please refer to the date at the top of this page to determine when this Policy was last revised. Any changes to our Privacy Policy will become effective upon posting of the revised policy on the Website. By continuing to use our Website and Services following such changes, you will be deemed to have agreed to such changes.

If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy, the practices of this site, your dealings with our Website or Services, or if you would like to change any of the information you have provided to us, please contact us at: privacy@jdsupra.com.

As with many websites, JD Supra's website (located at http://www.jdsupra.com) (our "Website") and our services (such as our email article digests)(our "Services") use a standard technology called a "cookie" and other similar technologies (such as, pixels and web beacons), which are small data files that are transferred to your computer when you use our Website and Services. These technologies automatically identify your browser whenever you interact with our Website and Services.

We use cookies and other tracking technologies to:

There are different types of cookies and other technologies used our Website, notably:

JD Supra Cookies. We place our own cookies on your computer to track certain information about you while you are using our Website and Services. For example, we place a session cookie on your computer each time you visit our Website. We use these cookies to allow you to log-in to your subscriber account. In addition, through these cookies we are able to collect information about how you use the Website, including what browser you may be using, your IP address, and the URL address you came from upon visiting our Website and the URL you next visit (even if those URLs are not on our Website). We also utilize email web beacons to monitor whether our emails are being delivered and read. We also use these tools to help deliver reader analytics to our authors to give them insight into their readership and help them to improve their content, so that it is most useful for our users.

Analytics/Performance Cookies. JD Supra also uses the following analytic tools to help us analyze the performance of our Website and Services as well as how visitors use our Website and Services:

Facebook, Twitter and other Social Network Cookies. Our content pages allow you to share content appearing on our Website and Services to your social media accounts through the "Like," "Tweet," or similar buttons displayed on such pages. To accomplish this Service, we embed code that such third party social networks provide and that we do not control. These buttons know that you are logged in to your social network account and therefore such social networks could also know that you are viewing the JD Supra Website.

If you would like to change how a browser uses cookies, including blocking or deleting cookies from the JD Supra Website and Services you can do so by changing the settings in your web browser. To control cookies, most browsers allow you to either accept or reject all cookies, only accept certain types of cookies, or prompt you every time a site wishes to save a cookie. It's also easy to delete cookies that are already saved on your device by a browser.

The processes for controlling and deleting cookies vary depending on which browser you use. To find out how to do so with a particular browser, you can use your browser's "Help" function or alternatively, you can visit http://www.aboutcookies.org which explains, step-by-step, how to control and delete cookies in most browsers.

We may update this cookie policy and our Privacy Policy from time-to-time, particularly as technology changes. You can always check this page for the latest version. We may also notify you of changes to our privacy policy by email.

If you have any questions about how we use cookies and other tracking technologies, please contact us at: privacy@jdsupra.com.

Excerpt from:

Paddle 8 Bankruptcy a Harbinger in the Time of COVID19 and the Coming Art World Crisis - JD Supra

Updated: May 25, 2018:

JD Supra is a legal publishing service that connects experts and their content with broader audiences of professionals, journalists and associations.

This Privacy Policy describes how JD Supra, LLC ("JD Supra" or "we," "us," or "our") collects, uses and shares personal data collected from visitors to our website (located at http://www.jdsupra.com) (our "Website") who view only publicly-available content as well as subscribers to our services (such as our email digests or author tools)(our "Services"). By using our Website and registering for one of our Services, you are agreeing to the terms of this Privacy Policy.

Please note that if you subscribe to one of our Services, you can make choices about how we collect, use and share your information through our Privacy Center under the "My Account" dashboard (available if you are logged into your JD Supra account).

Registration Information. When you register with JD Supra for our Website and Services, either as an author or as a subscriber, you will be asked to provide identifying information to create your JD Supra account ("Registration Data"), such as your:

Other Information: We also collect other information you may voluntarily provide. This may include content you provide for publication. We may also receive your communications with others through our Website and Services (such as contacting an author through our Website) or communications directly with us (such as through email, feedback or other forms or social media). If you are a subscribed user, we will also collect your user preferences, such as the types of articles you would like to read.

Information from third parties (such as, from your employer or LinkedIn): We may also receive information about you from third party sources. For example, your employer may provide your information to us, such as in connection with an article submitted by your employer for publication. If you choose to use LinkedIn to subscribe to our Website and Services, we also collect information related to your LinkedIn account and profile.

Your interactions with our Website and Services: As is true of most websites, we gather certain information automatically. This information includes IP addresses, browser type, Internet service provider (ISP), referring/exit pages, operating system, date/time stamp and clickstream data. We use this information to analyze trends, to administer the Website and our Services, to improve the content and performance of our Website and Services, and to track users' movements around the site. We may also link this automatically-collected data to personal information, for example, to inform authors about who has read their articles. Some of this data is collected through information sent by your web browser. We also use cookies and other tracking technologies to collect this information. To learn more about cookies and other tracking technologies that JD Supra may use on our Website and Services please see our "Cookies Guide" page.

We use the information and data we collect principally in order to provide our Website and Services. More specifically, we may use your personal information to:

JD Supra takes reasonable and appropriate precautions to insure that user information is protected from loss, misuse and unauthorized access, disclosure, alteration and destruction. We restrict access to user information to those individuals who reasonably need access to perform their job functions, such as our third party email service, customer service personnel and technical staff. You should keep in mind that no Internet transmission is ever 100% secure or error-free. Where you use log-in credentials (usernames, passwords) on our Website, please remember that it is your responsibility to safeguard them. If you believe that your log-in credentials have been compromised, please contact us at privacy@jdsupra.com.

Our Website and Services are not directed at children under the age of 16 and we do not knowingly collect personal information from children under the age of 16 through our Website and/or Services. If you have reason to believe that a child under the age of 16 has provided personal information to us, please contact us, and we will endeavor to delete that information from our databases.

Our Website and Services may contain links to other websites. The operators of such other websites may collect information about you, including through cookies or other technologies. If you are using our Website or Services and click a link to another site, you will leave our Website and this Policy will not apply to your use of and activity on those other sites. We encourage you to read the legal notices posted on those sites, including their privacy policies. We are not responsible for the data collection and use practices of such other sites. This Policy applies solely to the information collected in connection with your use of our Website and Services and does not apply to any practices conducted offline or in connection with any other websites.

JD Supra's principal place of business is in the United States. By subscribing to our website, you expressly consent to your information being processed in the United States.

You can make a request to exercise any of these rights by emailing us at privacy@jdsupra.com or by writing to us at:

You can also manage your profile and subscriptions through our Privacy Center under the "My Account" dashboard.

We will make all practical efforts to respect your wishes. There may be times, however, where we are not able to fulfill your request, for example, if applicable law prohibits our compliance. Please note that JD Supra does not use "automatic decision making" or "profiling" as those terms are defined in the GDPR.

Pursuant to Section 1798.83 of the California Civil Code, our customers who are California residents have the right to request certain information regarding our disclosure of personal information to third parties for their direct marketing purposes.

You can make a request for this information by emailing us at privacy@jdsupra.com or by writing to us at:

Some browsers have incorporated a Do Not Track (DNT) feature. These features, when turned on, send a signal that you prefer that the website you are visiting not collect and use data regarding your online searching and browsing activities. As there is not yet a common understanding on how to interpret the DNT signal, we currently do not respond to DNT signals on our site.

For non-EU/Swiss residents, if you would like to know what personal information we have about you, you can send an e-mail to privacy@jdsupra.com. We will be in contact with you (by mail or otherwise) to verify your identity and provide you the information you request. We will respond within 30 days to your request for access to your personal information. In some cases, we may not be able to remove your personal information, in which case we will let you know if we are unable to do so and why. If you would like to correct or update your personal information, you can manage your profile and subscriptions through our Privacy Center under the "My Account" dashboard. If you would like to delete your account or remove your information from our Website and Services, send an e-mail to privacy@jdsupra.com.

We reserve the right to change this Privacy Policy at any time. Please refer to the date at the top of this page to determine when this Policy was last revised. Any changes to our Privacy Policy will become effective upon posting of the revised policy on the Website. By continuing to use our Website and Services following such changes, you will be deemed to have agreed to such changes.

If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy, the practices of this site, your dealings with our Website or Services, or if you would like to change any of the information you have provided to us, please contact us at: privacy@jdsupra.com.

As with many websites, JD Supra's website (located at http://www.jdsupra.com) (our "Website") and our services (such as our email article digests)(our "Services") use a standard technology called a "cookie" and other similar technologies (such as, pixels and web beacons), which are small data files that are transferred to your computer when you use our Website and Services. These technologies automatically identify your browser whenever you interact with our Website and Services.

We use cookies and other tracking technologies to:

There are different types of cookies and other technologies used our Website, notably:

JD Supra Cookies. We place our own cookies on your computer to track certain information about you while you are using our Website and Services. For example, we place a session cookie on your computer each time you visit our Website. We use these cookies to allow you to log-in to your subscriber account. In addition, through these cookies we are able to collect information about how you use the Website, including what browser you may be using, your IP address, and the URL address you came from upon visiting our Website and the URL you next visit (even if those URLs are not on our Website). We also utilize email web beacons to monitor whether our emails are being delivered and read. We also use these tools to help deliver reader analytics to our authors to give them insight into their readership and help them to improve their content, so that it is most useful for our users.

Analytics/Performance Cookies. JD Supra also uses the following analytic tools to help us analyze the performance of our Website and Services as well as how visitors use our Website and Services:

Facebook, Twitter and other Social Network Cookies. Our content pages allow you to share content appearing on our Website and Services to your social media accounts through the "Like," "Tweet," or similar buttons displayed on such pages. To accomplish this Service, we embed code that such third party social networks provide and that we do not control. These buttons know that you are logged in to your social network account and therefore such social networks could also know that you are viewing the JD Supra Website.

If you would like to change how a browser uses cookies, including blocking or deleting cookies from the JD Supra Website and Services you can do so by changing the settings in your web browser. To control cookies, most browsers allow you to either accept or reject all cookies, only accept certain types of cookies, or prompt you every time a site wishes to save a cookie. It's also easy to delete cookies that are already saved on your device by a browser.

The processes for controlling and deleting cookies vary depending on which browser you use. To find out how to do so with a particular browser, you can use your browser's "Help" function or alternatively, you can visit http://www.aboutcookies.org which explains, step-by-step, how to control and delete cookies in most browsers.

We may update this cookie policy and our Privacy Policy from time-to-time, particularly as technology changes. You can always check this page for the latest version. We may also notify you of changes to our privacy policy by email.

If you have any questions about how we use cookies and other tracking technologies, please contact us at: privacy@jdsupra.com.

See the original post:

Understanding the New "Fast-Pass" Small Business Bankruptcy Process - JD Supra

Pacific Gas & Electricreached a dealwith California Gov. Gavin Newsom that could allow it to emerge from bankruptcy by a critical June 30 deadline, in exchange for concessions including a revamped board, forgoing shareholder dividends for three years, and measures that could lead to a state takeover if the utility fails to meet key safety and accountability milestones.

The agreement, reached late Friday, is a vital step for PG&E to win approval from state regulators toaccess a$21 billionstate wildfire insurance fund, meant to protect it and other California utilities from future wildfire-driven bankruptcies.A federal bankruptcy judge must still approve the plan.

Newsom hadchallenged PG&Es plansto rely heavily on debt financing to emerge from bankruptcy, even as the utility has concludedsettlements over the past four months topay out $25.5 billion to wildfire victims, insurers and county and local governments damaged by the fires caused by its equipment.

But with the coronavirus pandemic leading Newsom to order an unprecedented stay-at-home order for California residents and close nonessential businesses, and the pandemics global economic impacts driving down share prices of companies including PG&E, Newsom agreed early last week to lift objections totheutilitys$23 billion planto emerge from bankruptcy, which includes $11 billion in debt commitments and $9 billion in new equity, along with $3 billion to be raised by issuing new shares.

Fridays agreement includes several of Newsoms other key demands, such asrequiringPG&E to replace half of its board of directors with California residents and select the new members through an independent executive recruiting firm with Newsoms oversight.

PG&E will also undergo aregional restructuring that will prioritize safety and accountability to its customers. And in a move expected to save roughly $4 billion, the utility will forgo paying dividends to shareholders for three years.

Finally, the deal lays the groundwork for PG&E to be forced to sell the company to the state if it cannot win approval of its plan by the bankruptcy court and the California Public Utilities Commission by June 30, or if it fails to put its financing into place by the end of September.

Last month, along with a record $2.14 billionfine against PG&E,the CPUC issued aproposed decisionthat would impose an oversight process on PG&E, with steps that could allow theCPUC to punish PG&E for wildfire mitigation or safety failures by demanding immediate remedial action, increasing CPUC oversight of PG&Es activitiesor placingit under state receivership. As a final step, the CPUC could revoke PG&E'scertification to operate as a utility in the state.

In a statement, Newsom described the deal as the end of business as usual for PG&E. Through Californias unprecedented intervention in the bankruptcy, we secured a totally transformed board and leadership structure for the company, real accountability tools to ensure safety and reliability and billions more in contributions from shareholders to ensure safety upgrades are achieved.

PG&E filed for bankruptcy in January 2019 under the weight of tens of billions of dollars in liabilities from the deadly wildfires sparked by its equipment in 2017 and 2018, including the November 2018 Camp Fire, the states deadliest to date. In a Monday filingwith the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, PG&E revealed it has agreed with the Butte County District Attorney's officeto plead guilty to 84 countsof involuntary manslaughter for its role in that fire.

Link:

PG&E Reaches Deal With California Governor to Emerge From Bankruptcy - Greentech Media News

Study finds that even though bankruptcy filers pay more for loans, they aren't completely shut out of the market; more than 70% of filers are mortgage-eligible after 5 years

CHARLOTTE, N.C., March 24, 2020 /PRNewswire/ --LendingTree, the nation's leading online loan marketplace, released its study on the costs bankruptcy experienced by individuals who have filed for bankruptcy and the effect on an individual's credit. The report found that consumers who recently filed for bankruptcy aren't completely shut out of the market, though interest rates affect their cost for new credit. In fact, more than half of those who filed for bankruptcy one year before visiting LendingTree had credit scores of 640 and higher.

LendingTree logo (PRNewsfoto/LendingTree)

Key findings

There are plenty of reasons why a person might file for bankruptcy, like insurmountable medical bills or extended unemployment. Consumers might fear using bankruptcy as a tool because they worry that they won't be able to secure a mortgage or another type of loan in the future. But bankruptcy doesn't resign borrowers to low credit scores forever.

LendingTree customer data shows that more than half (56%) of all loan applicants who declared bankruptcy had a score of 640 or above just one year after filing. As the chart below shows, the percentage of consumers in all credit bands over 640 increases over time.

Credit score

Percentage of borrowers after 1 year

Percentage of borrowers after 5 years

640+

55.90%

71.00%

680+

17.20%

41.10%

700+

4.60%

17.10%

740+

1.50%

1.50%

Borrowers who recently filed for bankruptcy pay $25,000+ more for a mortgage

Bankruptcy filers could pay tens of thousands of dollars more over the lifetime of a mortgage loan compared with borrowers without a bankruptcy on their credit report. Two years post-bankruptcy, LendingTree customers paid over $25,000 more in interest than those with no bankruptcies on a $250,000 30-year mortgage. Five years post-bankruptcy, that number is cut in half to about $10,000 more in interest.

Bankruptcy filers will pay thousands more over the life of an auto loan

Less than one year out from filing for bankruptcy, new auto loan applicants pay nearly $3,000 more on a five-year $25,000 auto loan due to higher APRs. After five years, that number drops to about $2,000.

The data suggests that although APRs eventually go down for auto loan borrowers as time passes after their bankruptcy, they'll still pay a premium for loans in the form of higher interest rates for years to come.

Auto loan borrowers included in the study needed scores of 600 and above. LendingTree borrowers with scores from 600-639 did qualify for auto loans, but they paid a premium (typically 10%+ APR).

Offered APRs steady decrease as time passes after bankruptcy

Mortgage Credit Score Range

Less than 1 Yr

After 1 Yr

After 2 Yrs

After 3 Yrs

After 4 Yrs

After 5 Yrs

Never/ Not inthe Last 7 Yrs

640 - 679

N/A

N/A

4.59%

4.41%

4.41%

4.36%

4.41%

680 - 719

N/A

N/A

4.37%

4.25%

4.20%

4.17%

4.15%

720 - 759

N/A

N/A

4.21%

4.04%

3.99%

4.01%

4.01%

760 or higher

N/A

N/A

3.90%

3.94%

3.96%

3.90%

3.97%

Auto Credit Score Range

Less than 1 Yr

After 1 Yr

After 2 Yrs

After 3 Yrs

After 4 Yrs

After 5 Yrs

Never/ Not in the Last 7 Yrs

600 - 639

15.26%

12.68%

12.13%

11.95%

11.54%

13.72%

11.75%

640 - 679

10.76%

9.90%

9.32%

8.59%

10.09%

9.03%

8.65%

680 - 719

7.64%

7.53%

7.22%

7.24%

6.89%

7.69%

Read more here:

LendingTree Study Analyzes the Real Costs of Bankruptcy - Yahoo Finance