Judge: Stockton, Calif., Can File for Bankruptcy

Well I bet this doesn’t end well. The biggest US city so far goes bankrupt. The Good times comes to and end.

CNBC writes:

A judge accepted the California city of Stockton’s bankruptcy application on Monday, making it the most populous city in the nation to enter bankruptcy.

U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Christopher Klein said the bankruptcy declaration was needed to allow the city to continue to provide basic services.

“It’s apparent to me the city would not be able to perform its obligations to its citizens on fundamental public safety as well as other basic government services without the ability to have the muscle of the contract-impairing power of federal bankruptcy law,” Klein said.

The city of nearly 300,000 people has become emblematic of government excess and the financial calamity that resulted when the nation’s housing bubble burst.

Blighted home that says Detroit is Going Bankrupt: Families Flee

Blighted home that says Detroit is going bankrupt: Families flee leaving whole streets empty and broken because governor has not made enough cuts, as liberal utopia runs out of other people’s money to spend. It’s how all socialism ends, just goes bankrupt.

Mail online writes:

• The city’s budget problems have deepened to such an extent that it could run out of cash in a matter of weeks
• Could be forced into what would be the largest-ever municipal bankruptcy filing in the United States
• Crime rate is rising and jobless rate twice figure for the country as a whole

A vandalized home covered with red spray paint and smashed windows sits vacant in an east side neighborhood of Detroit.

The street used to be a busy hub of families, but its occupants have fled their homes leaving whole blocks empty and dark.

The city’s budget problems have deepened to such an extent that it could run out of cash in a matter of weeks or months and ultimately be forced into what would be the largest-ever Chapter 9 municipal bankruptcy filing in the United States.

Signs of decline are everywhere in Detroit – crime is rising with the murder rate of one per 1,719 people last year, more than 11 times the rate in New York City.

The jobless rate is above 18 percent, more than twice rate for the country as a whole.

Another gun free liberal city shows the way to your future..

GM Bankruptcy, The Right Way

A New York federal judge may rule imminently on a case that could reverse the General Motors (GM) bailout and send the company back into bankruptcy, according to sources close to the case.

At issue is a backroom deal hatched by GM to fulfill the Obama administration’s demand for a quick bankruptcy, draining the automaker of nearly all of its cash on hand and leaving it in worse shape than it was when it collapsed in 2009.

One condition of GM’s bailout was to shore up its overseas subsidiaries. On the eve of entering bankruptcy, the company cut a $367 million “lock-up agreement” with several major hedge funds to prevent GM Canada from failing. The agreement ensured that GM could spin-off its liabilities to “old GM,” while using a multi-billion dollar bailout to create a new company.

All of that could be reversed if bankruptcy Judge Robert Gerber reopens the process and rules in favor of old GM trustees, who are suing the hedge funds at the center of the lockout agreement.

“In this particular situation, there’s $1.3 billion in liabilities, but that’s just what’s officially back on the table if the court rules for old GM,” said a bankruptcy expert close to the negotiations. “If those go back on the table then everything could be back on the table and [new GM] would have to address them.”

Those liabilities, which include old GM’s debt and product liabilities that pre-date bankruptcy, are valued at $30 billion, a sum that would wipe out the company’s $34.6 billion cash reserves.

read more…

Liberal City Going Down — Detroit Bankrupt

State laying groundwork for managed bankruptcy for Detroit

The beauty of Big Government liberalism, the welfare city … once the shining source of the modern industrial age, now just a road scrape. Spent themselves to death, as if the good times would never end.

Ended!!!

From The Detroit News:

Even as the state Treasury prepares to begin another financial review of Detroit’s books, a plan is being solidified in the governor’s office that would guide Michigan’s largest city through what is being called a managed bankruptcy.

The working concept, still evolving, assumes that the state’s financial review would find severe financial distress in Detroit, that Mayor Dave Bing and City Council would be unable to push through overdue restructuring, and that the process would culminate in appointment of an emergency financial manager under Public Act 72.

The case would be filed under Chapter 9 of the federal bankruptcy code, according to two ranking sources familiar with the situation, following efforts to reach prenegotiated settlements with as many key creditors — unions, vendors and pension funds among them — as possible before any filing.

“Clearly, we will always try to do that,” one source familiar with the situation said in an interview Thursday. “You can move on a much more expedited basis if you can demonstrate that your cash is running out” — as Detroit clearly is with each passing week.

How many more will follow?

Fact Check: Obama makes questionable claim on Romney’s auto bailout stance (Obama LIED!!!)

Obama LIED ….

In one of the most contentious exchanges of their final debate, President Obama and Mitt Romney clashed over the federal auto bailout of 2008, with the former accusing the latter of not supporting any forms of government assistance to auto companies.

“You were very clear that you would not provide government assistance to the U.S. auto companies, even if they went through bankruptcy,” Obama said, going on the offensive. “You said that they could get it in the private marketplace. That wasn’t true.”

But Romney rejected the claim — and he’s got the op-ed he wrote to back him up. “Under no circumstances would I do anything other than to help this industry get on its feet,” Romney said, “And the idea that has been suggested that I would liquidate the industry, of course not.”

In a 2008 op-ed entitled “Let Detroit Go Bankrupt,” Romney did in fact call on the government to play a role in responding to the auto crisis but in the form of federal guarantees, not loans.

“The federal government should provide guarantees for post-bankruptcy financing and assure car buyers that their warranties are not at risk,” Romney wrote in The New York Times editorial.

Read more at politics.blogs.foxnews.com …

What wouldn’t have happened according to bankruptcy law the UAW would not have been given control over GM

Mitt was 100% correct.

Taxpayers To Recover $0 On Solyndra

It will come as no surprise to some but the bankruptcy court hearing for Solyndra just threw up all over any hopes that our taxpayer-funded loans to this solar sinkhole will be recovered:

• *SOLYNDRA HAS ABOUT $71 MILLION IN NET DISTRIBUTABLE ASSETS
• *SOLYNDRA LENDERS AHEAD OF GOVERNMENT OWED ABOUT $77 MILLION

So it looks like a $0 recovery for us – US Government: Picking Losers One Sector At A Time.

Hah, We Got Those Non-Union Types Good.

Non-union pensioners got screwed. By the Obama Admin.

20,000 Delphi employees lost 70% of their pensions, so the unions could get theirs. So you thought Obama told the truth? Obama meant everybody who was in the unions.

So much for testifying before Congress meaning anything.

The non-union workers got screwed. Their pension plans were terminated. Can we get you some food stamps?

It has been readily apparent all along that the GM bailout was a bailout for their union cronies. Every step of the way, even in bankruptcy, the unions were given consideration they were not entitled to, ie. Placing union interests before secured creditors.

And how about them creditors, bond holders? Is it any wonder that the federal government still has $42 Billion of GM debt as the company goes through slow motion failure?

Jarrett ignores questions on terminated non-union Delphi pensions [VIDEO]

I wouldn’t want to answer either.

Personally I will never buy GM Cars again, I did buy Chrysler this time.

DRAM supply growth set to decelerate in 2012, says Gartner analyst

With chipmakers slowing down their capacity expansions as well as delaying the transition to newer process technologies due to company mergers and acquisitions, the global bit growth of DRAM in 2012 will decelerate significantly in 2012, according to Brady Wang, an analyst with Gartner.

Worldwide DRAM bit shipments are forecast to grow only 26.9% in 2012, said Wang. Even without considering Elpida Memory’s bankruptcy, the bit growth would still decelerate to 30-35%, Wang indicated.

Elpida’s fall will likely cause the global supply for DRAM memory to decline, Wang pointed out. Meanwhile, the firm’s present bankruptcy proceedings will inevitably put off its partners’ transitions to next-generation node technologies, Wang said.

With supply growth slowing, the DRAM industry may face shortage problems in the second half of 2012, Wang stated. But prices are unlikely to rise significantly as a result of lower costs, Wang added.

As for NAND flash, since the memory’s targeted applications are more diversified, this will boost its market size to outpace that of DRAM memory in 2013, according to Gartner. The NAND flash market is forecast to reach US$35.6 billion in 2013, compared to US$34 billion for the DRAM sector, said the research firm.

Shift in emphasis as desktops head for the exits.

Obama Failed ‘Green Tech’ Company, Abandons $450M Plant

Another failed Obama green energy company, that taxpayers have to clean up after … Mostly by eating the losses.

“Evergreen Solar Inc. said it has failed to find a buyer for its Devens, Mass., plant and plans to walk away from the facility, which was launched with some $50 million in state aid,” the The Wall Street Journal’s reports.

In case you don’t remember, Evergreen Solar Inc. is the Massachusetts-based “green tech” company that filed for bankruptcy last August — even after receiving million in state aid.

Not long after the “green tech” company filed for bankruptcy, it became painfully obvious that no one was interested in buying its million dollar plant. So in a desperate bid to avoid paying $543,000 property taxes, the company begged for permission to abandon the plant.

“Evergreen has a deal with its landlord, Massachusetts Development Finance Agency, to get out of the ground lease for the facility, according to papers filed in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Wilmington, Del,” The Wall Street Journal’s Peg Brickley writes. “The plant was shut down last year and 800 jobs were cut as Evergreen struggled to survive.”

Overall, the plant cost about $450 million to build just five years ago. Oh, and this is probably important to note: “the development authority was one of the Massachusetts state agencies that pitched in to get Evergreen Solar going.”

During the final stages of its planned bankruptcy liquidation, Evergreen cut deals with some of its creditors to “share the pain of its demise.”

“Judge Mary Walrath signed off last week on a stipulation under which secured creditors who expect to be out more than $100 million at the end of the bankruptcy proceedings agreed to allow general unsecured creditors to get at least a penny on the dollar recovery out of Evergreen’s Chapter 11 case,” Brickley writes.

The Journal continues:

If the scenario set out in court filings plays out, Evergreen’s ultimate fate will be similar to that of Solyndra LLC, the California maker of solar-power technology that shut its pricey new plant, filed for bankruptcy and struggled to find a buyer in a market glutted with the departures of failed solar-power-equipment makers.

Because it took more than $500 million in federal loans and one of its major backers was a fund-raiser for President Barack Obama, Solyndra became the focus of a Republican-led congressional investigation aimed at finding a political taint on its financing.

Even though the company sold its technology to a Hong Kong joint venture when it filed for bankruptcy, it failed to raise enough cash to help pay off its mounting debts.

In fact, a claim for payment in the Lehman Bros. bankruptcy case is actually worth more than all the technology that powered Evergreen Solar Inc.

How does that work?

“Bondholders ‘credit bid’ $21.5 million for the Lehman claim, meaning they offered to cancel that much of the debt Evergreen owed them,” the Journal explains.

“Evergreen’s solar-power technology sold for less than $10 million. Others bits and pieces are still being sold, including equipment at the Devens plant. But the plant itself hasn’t sold despite more than a year of marketing.”

Is it too early to say that maybe, just maybe, the market isn’t ready (or interested) in “green technology” just yet?

Another Solar Down: Energy Conversion Devices files for bankruptcy as solar energy lags

Maybe, just maybe, there is no business case for solar. Obama being the great invester he is, should know that,

In the latest setback for the solar energy industry, Auburn Hills-based Energy Conversion Devices said today that it has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy and intends to sell its assets, including its main subsidiary United Solar Ovonic.

“We firmly believe there is a strong and sustainable commercial market for Uni-Solar products,” Julian Hawkins, ECD’s CEO and president, said in a statement. “However our current capital structure and legacy costs are preventing USO from making the investments necessary for the future of the business without restructuring through the bankruptcy process.”

The maker of solar roofing materials, which will continue to operate, employs 750 workers, 60% of them in Michigan. They will remain active employees during the sales process though some have been furloughed, said company spokesman Michael Schostak.

ECD also said it has sold its Ovonic Battery Co. to BASF Corp. for $58 million in cash before transaction fees and other factors. The battery subsidiary’s 35 employees have been hired by BASF.

ECD has retained the investment banking firm Quarton Partners to manage the sale of its assets, which is expected to be completed in 90 days. It has $145 million in cash and short-term investments to enable it to operate through the bankruptcy proceedings and will not need debtor-in-possession financing.

The bankruptcy follows an unsuccessful effort by ECD to find additional capital. In November, the money-losing company suspended manufacturing to cope with high inventory levels and announced the layoffs of 500 employees. Its sales have suffered from cutbacks in solar energy incentives in Europe and a worldwide glut of solar panels. Analysts also said the company’s technology was no longer competitive.