Bankruptcy: Chapters 7s Are on the Rise | Newsweek Business

Summer Staycation
Daniel Gross 6/24/2008 12:00:00 AM
The economic slowdown couldn't have come at a worse time for America's theme parks. An afternoon spent riding roller coasters, driving bumper cars, stuffing your face with fried dough, and waiting in 40-minute lines for water slides is, by definition, a discretionary purchase. Compared with other summertime diversions—movies, sprinklers in the front lawn and public beaches—theme parks are pricey. So it's no surprise that publicly-held amusement park companies like Cedar Fair and Six Flags have been suffering in the past year. The macroeconomic climate has presented a particular challenge to Daniel Snyder, the wunderkind Washington Redskins owner who took over Six Flags in 2005 and is trying to engineer a turnaround.
CULTURE
Baby Bucks
6/19/2008 12:00:00 AM
In a climate where everything from box office hits to traffic stops makes headlines in blogs, newspapers and celebrity weeklies, it comes as no surprise that the more substantial life events of an A-lister — say, the birth of a baby — constitutes news.
PERSONAL FINANCE
Feeling the Squeeze?
Linda Stern 6/13/2008 12:00:00 AM
The new Consumer Price Index (CPI) numbers confirm what you already know: life is getting more expensive by the minute. In May prices rose a larger-than-forecast 0.6 percent, driven by everyday essentials like gas and food. That was the CPI's biggest increase in six months, and it capped off a 12-month period in which prices rose 4.2 percent, up from the 2.9 percent they had risen in the 12 months ending in April. In May fuel oil prices were up 10.4 percent, putting them 64 percent above where they had been a year ago. Milk prices have jumped 10.2 percent over their year-ago level.
Think Before Tapping a 401(K)
Jane Bryant Quinn
When you're up against the wall, there may be a pot of cash you can't resist: the savings in your 401(k) retirement plan. Your good sense tells you to leave such important money on ice. In a crisis, however, your fingers might reach out. What would tapping those savings cost, and can you put the money back?
COVER STORY: INSIDE BUSINESS
Why It’s Worse Than You Think
Daniel Gross
The forgettable first half of 2008 is stumbling to a close. On Friday, the Labor Department reported that American employers axed 49,000 jobs in May, the fifth straight month of job losses—an event that signals a recession sure as the glittery ball dropping on Times Square augurs a New Year. The report, which inspired a 394-point decline in the Dow Jones Industrial Average Friday, was the latest in a run of bad news. Auto sales, the largest retailing sector in the U.S., were off 10.7 percent in May from the year before. And housing? Ugh. Nationwide, according to the Case-Shiller Index, home prices in the first quarter fell 14 percent.
GLOBAL INVESTOR
It’s A Small World After All
Holger Schmieding
Aren't we all supposed to become ever more alike in the age of globalization? Strangely, this doesn't seem to be happening, at least not in a reliable fashion. Although Asia, Europe and the United States are linked ever more tightly together by capital and trade flows, their economic performance early this year diverged wildly. While the German economy expanded at its fastest pace in 12 years and Japan managed to beat the gloomy forecasts, the United States languished in semi-stagnation.