This is what happened to both companies despite the bailout. Obama took control of both companies, using the bailout as an excuse to replace the leadership with his own people, and both went into the bankruptcy that the bailout was intended to prevent. Then Obama nationalized both companies by bypassing the regular bankruptcy procedures.

Somehow, the government went from believing that the bailout would work, to managing both companies into bankruptcy, to taking over ownership of both companies.

Yeah, they have been struggling for a long time and likely wouldn’t have survived if things were normal.

They have been carrying a lot of debt for years, now. They, like Sears, did not transition well from catalog to internet sales, instead hoping people will walk into stores rather than shop from home. They expanded physical stores, when they should have been building an a bigger and more robust online presence.

In ten years, their stocks have gone from a little less that $40 a share down to 2 bits.

Anecdotally, my friends wife has been a long time employee there. They are a a difficult company to work for, because money is tight. They all feel (at her store) like it is a matter of time until they go they way of K-Mart and Sears.

Who knows. Maybe if they re-structure now, rather than wait too long, they can keep their head above water.

Sears emerged from bankruptcy, but have less than 200 Stores. Kmart less than 100.

Trying times creates adversity. The weaker companies will fold up and vanish. The surviving companies will come out better positioned to grow.

It is why in the “great recession” I thought that bailing out GM and Chrysler was a bad idea. It was a house of cards that should have collapsed.

In fact, I can post it here now. If you want to try out Linux, all you really need is a spare laptop or desktop, one or two years old, that you aren’t using any more, and to then follow the instructions provided here on Behind the Black by reader James Stephens for Getting and Installing Linux, first posted in 2016 and still totally up-to-date:

• Part 1: An Introduction
• Part 2: Obtaining and installing a Linux Distribution
• Part 3: UEFI and booting Linux on Win 8.1 & 10 machines
• Part 4: The Software Manager
• Part 5: Running Windows programs on Linux: An overview of WINE and Virtual Machine
• Part 6: Installing Windows using VirtualBox

James Stephens: Nice to hear from you again. I hope all is well.

I should repost your Linux series that your wrote for BtB sometime. I myself have used it now twice to get some old laptops up and running.

Here I was deep in the bosom of Texas not so red as some might imagine but always pragmatic and humane. Here too have little tin plated dictators taken hold, with the best of intentions I’m sure.