Sears teeters on the edge of bankruptcy

Oct 10, 2018
The company is more than $5.6 billion in debt.
Customers shop at Chicago's last remaining Sears store on May 3, 2018 in Chicago, Illinois.
Scott Olson/Getty Images

Online mattress startups are disrupting the market

Oct 5, 2018
The industry is crowded with internet competition, forcing one retailer into Chapter 11 bankruptcy.
People check out Serta mattresses at the 2015 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.
ROBYN BECK/AFP/Getty Images

A view from the center of the Lehman Brothers collapse

Sep 14, 2018
Tom Russo, former general counsel at Lehman Brothers and AIG, talked to us about how the fall of Lehman Brothers could have been stopped.
Kiyoshi Ota/Getty Images

Brookstone saves airport-based stores from the chopping block. Here’s why.

Aug 2, 2018
Brookstone, the specialty retailer that sells eye masks, massage chairs and other gadgets, filed for bankruptcy protection for the second time Thursday. The company says it’s going to shut down its roughly 100 mall-based stores. They’ve become less of an attraction as more shopping moves online. The company’s 35 airport-based stores are doing much better. […]
A Brookstone store is seen at Rockefeller Center October 29, 2003 in New York City. 
Mario Tama/Getty Images

How companies like Toys R Us get approval to pay executive bonuses during bankruptcy

Apr 10, 2018
Payments, once justified as a way to retain leaders during the crisis, are now tied to performance metrics.
Leon Neal/Getty Images

Puerto Rico austerity plan faces hurdles

Mar 29, 2018
Six months after Hurricane Maria, Puerto Rico’s governor is pushing an austerity plan he hopes will turn things around in the bankrupt U.S. commonwealth. He reckons the plan would allow the bankrupt U.S. commonwealth to pay back half of the principal on its debt — which includes more than $70 billion in bond debt and $50 […]

For public good, not for profit.

What a Chapter 11 retail bankruptcy looks like on the ground

Mar 23, 2018
Multibillion-dollar retailers are enormous machines, with a complex network of suppliers and tens of thousands of workers around the country. Chapter 11 puts them in limbo.
Toys R Us filed for liquidation in a U.S. Bankruptcy court and plans to close 735 stores, leaving 33,000 workers out of jobs. Above, a Toys R Us store in Emeryville, California.
Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

The big money NFL players earn may not last into retirement unless they make a plan

Sep 4, 2017
Around 15 percent of professional football players file for bankruptcy a dozen years after retirement.
The West Lafayette, Indiana Stacked Pickle location is one of a chain of nine such restaurants owned by former NFL player Gary Brackett.
Stan Jastrzebski/ for Marketplace