In January I predicted (see Notable Bankruptcies of 2009: Q1) that “major” bankruptcies in 2009 would challenge the 383 mark set in 2001 (the high-water mark after the dotcom bubble). I even suggested that it was possible that we could exceed 400 “major” bankruptcies in 2009.[More...]

In January I predicted (see Notable Bankruptcies of 2009: Q1) that “major” bankruptcies in 2009 would challenge the 383 mark set in 2001 (the high-water mark after the dotcom bubble). I even suggested that it was possible that we could exceed 400 “major” bankruptcies in 2009. According to Bankruptcydata.com, there have been 156 “major” filings thus far in 2009. Assuming that bankruptcies are equally distributed throughout the year, this puts us on pace for 312 bankruptcies. That is tracking well shy of my prediction. In fact, bankruptcies were down significantly from Q1 to Q2, as there were 90 bankruptcies in the first quarter but only 66 in the second. That stylized fact begs the question: Is that a “green shoot”[More...]

In January I predicted (see Notable Bankruptcies of 2008) that “major” bankruptcies in 2009 would challenge the 383 mark set in 2001 (the high-water mark after the dotcom bubble). I even suggested that it was possible that we could exceed 400 “major” bankruptcies in 2009. According to Bankruptcydata.com, there have been 90 “major” filings thus far in 2009. Assuming that bankruptcies are equally distributed throughout the year, this puts us on pace for 360 bankruptcies. I fully expect the filing pace to quicken as the year goes on, and as the economy continues to deteriorate. Below you can find an updated list of what I see as the “noteworthy” bankruptcies of 2009, as reported by <a[More...]

State Bancorp (NASDAQ: STBC) directors may be in for a change-up if one large shareholder gets its way. PL Capital Group owns a large stake in the company and submitted the following letter to the board: As each of you know, the PL Capital Group previously submitted a shareholder proposal respecting the stock ownership guidelines of State Bancorp, Inc. (the Company), for inclusion in the Company’s proxy for the upcoming 2009 Annual Meeting.  In addition to the shareholder proposal, we suggested several other corporate governance improvements that we believe the Board of Directors should adopt, including reducing the size of the board and declassifying the board. On January 27, 2009 we met telephonically with the members of the Nominating and Governance Committee to discuss our proposal and[More...]

A couple of interesting tidbits on the SEC's new short-selling rule:consider the practical consequences of making it impossible to short financials (and don't even get me started about disallowing all shorting): What happens, for example, if you're runni[More...]