Bankruptcy Reader

Northwest Airlines recently asked the court overseeing its bankruptcy reorganization to block a possible strike by its flight attendants. Airline authorities feared that the Association of Flight Attendants (AFA) might call for a strike or job action against it. Problems arose when the airline terminated its contract with the AFA and imposed new terms. In response, the union threatened to strike as early as August 15.

Northwest, which filed for bankruptcy protection last September, stated that a strike by the AFA could threaten the continued viability of Northwest’s reorganization. This would also cause disruption to Northwest’s customers, the airline claimed. Problems between Northwest and the union began around the time the airline filed for bankruptcy on the grounds that it needed $1.4 billion in total labor savings. Nytimes.com reports:

Judge Gropper said in June that Northwest could void the contract if the two sides failed to reach a deal the members would ratify. The flight attendants’ vote on Monday rejecting the tentative deal was the second defeat of an agreement that union leaders had negotiated.

Read more: U.S. Bankruptcy Court Asked to Block a Northwest Strike

And you thought that it was only people who had no control over their money that went bankrupt. Well, those types do exist but there is one more category of people that has begun to declare bankruptcy — those who’ve broken up with their partners. According to recent research, in Scotland, the average age of people going bankrupt has risen to 40 because of couples splitting up. While until recently the average age of people splitting up was around 30, now there seems to be a shift in debt trends.

While much of the debt among people in their early 40s can be attributed to credit card abuse, some of it is associated with the financial pressures imposed by failed relationships. Experts believe that the division of assets among separating couples may have contributed to the debt crisis. Now, it would be interesting to see if this phenomenon repeats itself in America or not. Oh, and by the way if you don’t know where Scotland is, you probably should be looking up a map.

Okay guys, I know that Yukos has nothing to do with us and I’m sure quite a few people are going “Yukos who??” But you guys just have to bear with me once more as I take out my angst against the inequities of the world. I know if you aren’t doing too well (well I know that was an understatement…Yukos has been on its deathbed for quite some time now) bankruptcy is one of the options you must seriously consider. So, the company, whose heyday came under founder Mikhail Khodorkovsky, is now onto its last hiccups. In Russia, state energy giants are already preparing to swoop on the company’s assets. There appears to be little chance of saving the group now, after a Russian court-appointed administrator told a creditors meeting last week that Yukos should be declared bankrupt.

Did you know that in the late 90s, Yukos was so powerful that it virtually huge stretches of western Siberia and even had plans to build its own oil pipeline to China? All this changed in 2003, when Yukos was hit with massive back tax bills and a vast judicial inquiry. Most critics believed that this was a Kremlin-orchestrated campaign to neutralize Khodorkovsky as he could have been a strong potential political opponent. The state also wanted to wrest back state control of key energy assets.

The court decision that came today was a foregone conclusion. Bankruptcy –despite record-high world market prices and despite the fact that the company is still extracting around half a million barrels of oil per day. And company executives are tired of crying out that their financial problems are not as bad as they are claimed to be.

Oh, and before I forget, Mikhail Khodorkovsky, once Russia’s richest man, is now serving an eight-year prison sentence for financial crimes in a Siberian prison camp. That’s what comes of doing business in a country like Russia.

Bankruptcy attorneys claim that a recent 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals decision that gets tough on debtors who file for Chapter 7 bankruptcy protection may have some unintended consequences. A recent judgment may actually encourage unemployed debtors who file for Chapter 7 to stay unemployed until the bankruptcy is final. Let me be frank guys, I still need some info on this one, so just take this piece of news as the introductory part of a bigger article where I explain the decision and its ramifications. Law.com reports:

The opinion "will tell someone who’s lost a job before a bankruptcy, ‘don’t get a job before bankruptcy is over,’ " says Behrooz Vida, a partner in Bedford’s Venable & Vida who represents the Cortezes. "It’s just so contradictory. That’s the problem."

Read more: 5th Circuit: Employment Status Change Nixes Chapter 7 Bankruptcy