Counterparty Risk Trips Up MF Global

The New York Times DealBook blog just put out a fine piece on the collapse of MF Global: A Romance with Risk That Brought on a Panic by Azam Ahmed, Ben Protess, and Susanne Craig (December 11, 2012). It’s the most comprehensive summary of the events that led to...

Margin Call

There have been movies about finance before: Wall Street and Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps, for instance. There are films about the financial crisis as well: HBO’s Too Big to Fail. But the best movie about finance has to be Margin Call, just out in theaters...

Early Warning Signs at Borders Part 2

It may be disappointing, but it can’t be surprising that Borders Group went bankrupt this week. It was clear some time ago the company was heading deep into distress. What made it so clear? The six classic early warning signs of financial distress. We covered...

Early Warning Signs at Borders Part 1

We blogged about Borders Group back on January 4. Even though the company has a new financing commitment, it continues to have problems paying suppliers. It looks like Borders is still circling the drain. Borders’ survival is questionable, but for us the more...

Borders circles the drain

The Wall Street Journal reported yesterday that Borders Group Inc. was halting payments to some suppliers, and that one publisher had stopped shipping books to Borders.  The end is near.  As we discussed in an earlier post, if trade creditors lose faith in a company,...