Is the insolvency quote of the year -- "You never want collateral that has to eat or that you have to shovel after" -- who said this? Are they going to sell the art collection of the Detroit Institute of Arts to get this poor city out of its financial woes? The depths to which Detroit is plummeting with its bankruptcy knows no limits. The emissary of Beelzebub is attempting to rescue Air Zimbabwe. A contract signed in blood! Does an airline have a soul? The other bankrupt airline, American Airlines, is raking money in! Talking about travel, Harriet Green, the new boss of Thomas Cook, is turning it around. You'll love this -- she cold called Thomas Cook and told them she was the person who could turn them around. They gave her the job -- and she was right. So much for mousey women. Surprising to hear that even after 5 years since the Lehman collapse the world still doesn't have confidence in the top 50 banks and the finance sector. Amazing! Are they all just a bunch of Enrons? Talking of Lehman, Citigroup is not happy about possibly losing hundreds of millions of dollars of interest in the deal that Lehman is trying to push onto its creditors. Meanwhile creditors of Lehman in Australia must be ecstatic to at last be getting a dividend. The American creditors are well in front of them having long ago received billions. And talking about that -- JP Morgan is trying to settle the $11 billion claim which Washington Mutual has against it for dodgy mortgages. Now why was it that we don't trust banks? Then JP Morgan looks like settling the claims against it by Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae for $5.1 billion. And to boot - it looks like JP Morgan is putting the US government in a tight spot as well -- the government will apparently have to refund part of the settlement! Another 22 people could face criminal charges over the Libor scandal -- I keep forgetting, why don't we have confidence in the banks and the financial sector! Oh yea -- then there's the story of the trustee for Bernie Madoff pursuing claims of $8 billion against banks for feeder funds that profited from Mr Madoff's activities. Now you may ask why the movement of $100 billion from Madoff's account to Norman Levy's account and back again didn't result in the banks reporting money laundering to the US Treasury -- but then again it was only $100 billion. I still can't figure out why people don't trust the financial sector! The spotlight is now on the team behind Bernie Madoff. The claim by the liquidator of Madoff's UK company against his brother, son and former directors was dismissed as unfounded. The surprises of litigation! Brazil -- all these stories about what's happening in Brazil gives a whole new meaning to a Brazilian! Eike Batista of Brazil lost $34.5 billion. Gulp. What more can I say! So Ike's OGX is heading into bankruptcy. Down goes 1. Now another is on the slippery slope. Fashion continues to struggle. A-Wear has gone into insolvency - for the second time in 2 years. Now Collette Dinnigan has closed her boutiques in Australia and the UK. Sad -- such a loss of talent! Such a brilliant show in Paris just a few weeks ago! So sticking to retail more generally, the famous Tesco chain in England performed so miserably in the United States that its only recently opened US chain has gone into bankruptcy! There aren't many names bigger than Diego Maradona in football -- and now the Italian tax collection agency is after him for $62million. Another comeback that will set many a heart racing is the Indian motorcycle. Famous to its fans and well known to the public from the movie "The World's Fastest Indian". And how is Russia going? Did you hear they offered the NZ government a nuclear submarine to help settle their debt for Kiwi dairy products -- ever heard of K-19? Meanwhile Russia is "temporarily" borrowing $7.6 billion from non-state pension funds. Paul Fordyce Pmf Legal Limited Suite 1101, 84 Pitt Street, Sydney. NSW. 2000. Ph: 02 9221 9888 Mob: 0417 067 058 pfordyce@pmflegal.com http://www.pmflegal.com/blog/ Flipboard Magazine INSOLVENCY BANKRUPTCY RECONSTRUCTION TURNAROUND-- get Flipboard App here if you need it to access the magazine: http://flip.it/C3wCV 23 November 2013.

• published: 23 Nov 2013
• views: 3