Strategic Bankruptcy: How Corporations and Creditors Use Chapter 11 to Their Advantage

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Summary: Corporate bankruptcy can be a STRATEGY!
Review: I wanted to learn more about the asbestos problem and the bankruptcy filing of John-Mansville since I knew someone who had lung problems from asbestos. I heard about this book and got it. This is the first thing that I have read that really helped me to understand what happened when Mansville, the biggest asbestos company went bankrupt. The book is clear and explains complicated bankruptcy cases to the lay person. Now, I finally understand why people with asbestosis ended up going through years of delay in BANKRUPTCY court of all places! What is most amazing is how people who get asbestos end up being treated like "unsecured creditors" as if they lent their life to the corporation like a bank loan! Truly amazing.

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Summary: Of course the lawyer doesn't like it
Review: I'm wrinting this reveiw because the anonymous one is far too hard with this book. In fact, it's a good inroduction about the problems about Chapter 11 and the perverses uses sometimes made of it. Clearly, it's not a "scientific", neutral book, but a political one... Readers must be aware, and must read it with a critical point of view.

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Summary: Don't Bother
Review: The author should have stuck with sociology or at least taken an accounting class before writing this book. Overall, the book is what you would expect from a sociologist writing about business.

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Summary: The politics of corporate bankruptcy: top-rate
Review: This book is not about the financial aspects of bankruptcy and it is not about how to turn around companies. It is about the politics of major corporate bankruptcies. It is clearly written and well documented. It is amazing how prescient the book is given what has happened at WorldCom and at Enron. For anyone that is interested in politics and the ways that Chapter 11 can be used as a strategy, this book is the best. If you want to understand why some huge companies might actually CHOOSE bankruptcy and gain some advantages by doing so, check out this book.

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Summary: Excellent to understand corporate strategies
Review: This entire book could have been written in one chapter or less. Unfortunately the author uses repetition to drive home a point which could have been easily deduced from reading the title of the book. Each example is portrayed as a deviously crafted plot by either management, the banks or both to deliberately enter into the 'safe haven' of the Bankruptcy Courts. No regard was given to the high probability that each of the companies would not have survived as a going concern. In fact the author offers up economically impractical solutions that each company could have implemented to avoid bankruptcy. On the plus side, the middle three chapters offer a good historic overview of the Texaco, John Manville and Continental filings.

Rating:
Summary: Corporate bankruptcy can be a STRATEGY!
Review: This is without a doubt, the most uninsightful book I've ever laid eyes on. The book reads like a freshman term paper written in short order. It is clear the book was written without objectivity and any depth in understanding of finance. The book was also originally published in 1992 (or sooner). Save your money.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent to understand corporate strategies
Review: This was a very clear and cleverly written overview of the ways in which corporations and commercial creditors use bankruptcy in new ways-- as strategies to gain things they desire. The author makes a very convincing argument that bankruptcy does not mean that you are broke anymore. In fact, if you hear about a company declaring bankruptcy, there is a good chance that there is some strategy behind it. After reading this book, you will never look at business bankruptcy the same way again.