coupdegras

© Brooks Elliott

The Federal Trade Commission put an end to the operations of Debt Relief USA Inc. in a proposed resolution of allegations that the credit-card-debt relief business enticed consumers into paying thousands of dollars in upfront fees, but in most cases failed to reduce their debts.
Consumers have received $3.7 million in refunds from Debt Relief USA's bankruptcy proceedings in a separate settlement with the Texas attorney general's office.
Debt Relief USA had made misleading claims that they can help consumers, with their program, to eliminate 40% to 60% of their credit card debt and be out of debt within 1 or 2 years.
Debt Relief USA's principals, James Wojcik and Valerie Leath were banned from marketing financial products and services. And the legal action continues against other two principals.

© Brooks Elliott

The struggling Ohio-based papermaker owned by Cerberus Capital Management LP, NewPage Corp., is in negotiations with its lenders that would keep the company buoyant during possible bankruptcy proceedings.
Usually, struggling companies negotiate bankruptcy loans as a safety measure and then reach deals with creditors to restructure debts outside of court. So it's not necessary that NewPage will file for bankruptcy after talks with creditors.
NewPage would file a prepackaged bankruptcy that had enough support from creditors in advance to get a restructuring plan approved speedily .
It is possible that the bankruptcy filing would be a predetermined deal, which would need to get more creditor support after NewPage filed for bankruptcy protection in order for a reorganization plan to be approved.

© Robert Scarth

Swiss multinational financial services company Credit Suisse AG has decided to cut its euro- area and U.K. economic growth forecasts for the years 2011 and 2012. Credit Suisse has cited "a deteriorating outlook" as the reason for these cuts. Credit Suisse lowered the Gross Domestic Product of the Euro-area to 1.7 percent this year and 1 percent in 2012, as compared to previous predictions of 2.3 percent and 2.5 percent respectively. Similarly the British economic growth forecasts have also been lowered by Credit Suisse to 1 percent in 2011 and 1.5 percent next year, compared to previous forecasts of 1.5 percent and 2.5 percent. Credit Suisse economists Neville Hill and Christel Aranda-Hassel stated in a report that the political uncertainty and financial turbulence of the past couple of months has had a bad impact on economic growth in Europe.