Monday, March 19, 2018

You won't hear this from Larry Kudlow.

The Republican Tax Plan may have given Warren Buffet a windfall, but, it didn't do anything for "Toys 'R' Us," which filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. All the American stores are closing in May, but, other countries will continue to have them.


"Toys 'R' Us" registered only 50 percent of its sales during the holiday season of 2017. Evidently, rather than being a seasonal specialty store, the company registers losses all year and makes them up during the US holiday season.

September 28, 2017
By Abha Bhattaral

Within hours of Toys R Us’s bankruptcy filing last week, (click here) the maker of Max Tow Truck and Animal Babies Nursery sounded a financial alarm of its own: Jakks Pacific, the company said, expected to swing to a loss this year as a result of the mega-retailer’s bankruptcy.

Toys R Us owes $14.06 million to Jakks, which last year posted a profit of $1.2 million, making the California-based toy supplier one of more than 100,000 creditors sideswiped by the toy chain’s bankruptcy in the run-up to the all-important holiday season....

A few things happened with "Toys 'R' US;" they never recognized the movement of American parents to local toy stores where questions about quality and materials were easily provided. The CEO simply kept selling regardless of the fact there were monthly shortfalls in costs. He was bringing some cash flow to minimize the shortfall, but, it was never enough. Manufactured toys became really expensive. Disney had it's own stores and what girl didn't want to have a "Frozen" dress in the closet? Amazon was a real competitor in the prices of toys. It was a company frought with problems that were never addressed.

I doubt toy manufacturers will have a huge problem, although they need to measure their loss of sales to "Toys 'R' Us" and decide if Amazon sales are going to pick up the slack.

Governor Brown may want to reach out to toy manufacterers in his state to facilitate a transition to availabe markets as "Toys 'R' Us" is phased out this May.

Then the former "Clear Channel," (click here) with the largest number of radio stations in the USA has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, so they can make the same mistakes all over again. "Clear Channel" thought if it changed it's name to "I Heart Radio" it would save the company. Nope.

March 15, 2018
By Sherisse Pham and Brian Stelter

The two biggest owners of radio stations in America (click here) have both filed for bankruptcy.

iHeartMedia, the operator of 850 stations across the United States, submitted the paperwork on Thursday. Its rival Cumulus, the operator of 445 stations, did the same thing a few months ago.

The two cases are unique, but both companies face similar challenges in a troubled industry. And both companies are trying to restructure their debt.

iHeartMedia (IHRT) has been crippled by piles of debt for many years. It has been struggling to get out from under a massive debt load it took on as part of a leveraged buyout of billboard company Clear Channel Outdoor in 2008.

"The heavy debt burden became unsustainable during the persistent long-term secular decline of the radio broadcasting business," analyst Sharon Bonelli of Fitch Ratings said in an email....

Yes, indeed, Donald Trump has been an inspiration of all Wall Street.

Now, realize as time goes by with Wall Street being deregulated and Trump nealry handing out bankruptcy as a way to gain wealth, this trend will continue.


The USA economy will shrink and there will be job losses. There are already job losses in the Financial Sector. I do not expect those job losses to convert into new jobs. The Financial Sector will end it's departments that kept records and reported to CEOs regarding their alignment with regulation. So, middle management and the clerks will continue to look for work.

In the graph above and below there are job losses increasing in separation. The unemployment rate for this sector is an increasing percentage. The changes are nearly microscopic, but, they exist and will continue to exist as deregulation sets in.

Trump has changed the way jobs are recorded and reported, so there is a new baseline and it is only beginning to show losses to the American workforce.










Donald Trump has turned the "greed machine" loose and it is not going to end anytime soon. Bankruptcy is now on the desk of every CEO in the USA. I think "Toys 'R' Us" is an excellent example of the projection into the future. Wall Street will shrink for greater profits after it gobbled up mergers and takeovers. As a result the vendors of which monies are owed will be lucky to get a dime out of the bankruptcy. There will be more real estate on the market and prices for commercial buildings and warehouses will drop.

So, local economies need to take assessment of their economies and realize Trump's Wall Street is now the worst nightmare in the world. Those small businesses that sell items from vendors need to take stock of their supplies and merchendise and begin to determine if their businesses are growing with continued bankruptcies or not and adjust appropriately for profit.

The local economies will do well if they see this trend, take it seriously and expect an uptick in local commerce as the big conglomerates turn to liquidity in bankruptcies. That was liquidity and vendors in debt to Wall Street should not hesitate to have their invoices paid.

I don't trust any of them, be it government or Wall Street.