Get laid off in public. Vanguard Airlines suspends operations; posts its system-wide pink slip on its HOME PAGE for you all to see. "Wages and salaries owed you as of today are "prepetition wages" and likely will not be paid for a matter of months, if not longer.... Any Vanguard stock you hold (including stock purchased in the Employee Stock Purchase Plan) is almost certainly worthless and it is likely you will be entitled to claim a capital loss on such stock this year." But not all is gloomy: the CEO "wish[es] you the best in your future career. You will be in our prayers." Aww, shucks.
posted by PrinceValium on Jul 30, 2002 - 29 comments

The Enron Blame Game Get yer programs here, find out who's blaming who in the bankruptcy to end all bankruptcies! Pretty neat interactive diagram from the folks at Slate, no matter your idealogical slant.
posted by owillis on Feb 1, 2002 - 2 comments

Excite turns out the lights. For the last four years Excite's portal page has been my daily stop for news, stocks, showtimes, weather, etc. But they've been turning off services for weeks, and now the whole portal seems to be dead. Are free news portals soon to be quaint memory? [more inside]
posted by y6y6y6 on Nov 29, 2001 - 35 comments

Pre-bankruptcy bonuses at PG&E The corruption in California couldn't be any more obvious to me.
posted by Brilliantcrank on Apr 8, 2001 - 20 comments

The House has passed the bankruptcy reform bill that Clinton vetoed at the end of the last session. I'm mildly optimistic that it won't pass the Senate, given that the Democratic vote in the House was split. But should we be worried at all? At first glance, it doesn't seem like a bad idea. But so many consumer groups are against it, and it seems to benefit credit card companies while hurting individuals, so I'm inclined to think we should leave things as-is. Especially since personal bankruptcies are down and credit card issuers' profits are up. Anyone know more about this?
posted by aaron on Mar 1, 2001 - 7 comments