Got My Mind on My Lawyer’s Money, My Money on My Lawyer’s Mind

Suge Knight files for Chapter 11.
On the bright side, personal bankruptcy filings are at a 20-year low.

The quarter’s filings fell 73 percent to 102,949 compared with 381,743 in the year-ago period, according to data released Tuesday by Lundquist Consulting Inc., a financial research outfit based in Burlingame, Calif.
That means, on an annualized basis, one in every 261 households filed bankruptcy in the quarter, as opposed to one in every 73 households a year ago.

In other bankruptcy news, Bill Ford rules it out.

Ford Motor Co. Chairman and CEO Bill Ford said Wednesday that bankruptcy isn’t an option for the nation’s No. 2 automaker, which is struggling to return its North American division to profitability.
Ford said the company has strong liquidity — with about $20 billion in cash — and that regions outside North America are performing well. Ford earned $2 billion last year, down 42 percent from a year earlier but still its third consecutive yearly profit.
Nonetheless, Ford’s North American division lost $1.6 billion last year, and the automaker’s debt rating has been slashed to below investment grade. Ford also is steadily losing U.S. market share. The company now has around 18 percent of the U.S. market, down from 26 percent a decade ago.

And finally, GM’s Wagoner: Now is not time to panic.

When asked whether anybody had been disciplined for the new accounting problems, he said, “I’ve never been a big believer in public executions. Having said that, we have a pretty proactive woodshed.”
However, no executives have lost their jobs, GM spokesman Jerry Dubrowski said.

Posted by Eddy Elfenbein on April 5th, 2006 at 3:18 pm

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