The “A&P” Chapter 22 Bankruptcy Saga: A Canary in the Coal Mine

On July 20, 2015, the Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Company, made history by filing what we in the restructuring industry like to call “Chapter 22 Bankruptcy.” Read more to see how this case unfolded and what it means for struggling grocers and retail stores.

If you are already familiar with the Life Partners Holdings debacle, you may think that the term “Life Partners” should stand for Brian Pardo and his partners in crime who ran that notorious company serving life sentences (instead of just paying massive fines and having some of their assets seized). Such criminals’ loss of liberty may have satisfied justice in a way, but the investors in this Ponzi-like scheme really need to get their money back, or at least as much as possible. With the November 1, 2016 plan confirmation in the […]

If you have not done so already, you’ll want to read Part 1 and Part 2 of this series first, before delving into this final Part 3. So, now that we know that this “shale revolution” has at least been a short-term game changer, it’s time to get into some more specifics of how unconventional oil sources should impact our long-term perspective. On that point, let’s first turn to Mathilde Mathieu, Oliver Sartor, and Thomas Spencer, research analysts at the think tank Vox CEPR’s Policy Portal, whose recent article “Economic analysis of the US unconventional oil […]

If you have not yet read Part 1 of this series, you’ll want to go back and do so before tackling this Part 2. And if you’ve read Part 1, you’ll recall that we took an in-depth look at why conventional oil production follows a bell curve (known as “Hubbert’s Curve”), and where on that curve we find ourselves today—which happens to be, either at or very near the peak. Continuing with our A. Whitney Brown-style “The Big Picture” approach, we need to now talk about unconventional oil sources, which […]

Back in the mid-to-late ‘80s, when Dennis Miller had a massive mullet (and his stand-up performances were much more likely to be attended by you and your friends than your distant aunt and uncle who worked on the ’72 Nixon campaign), his “Weekend Update” features on Saturday Night Live were often enriched by little segments featuring writer and comedian A. Whitney Brown, who, with just the right amounts of sarcasm, compassion, wit, and insight, would give us “The Big Picture.” In these editorials, Brown shared his perceptions about the topics of […]