"Leaner GM emerges from bankruptcy," BBC, July 10, 2009.

[BBC correspondent says, "It's easy to dismiss, even ridicule these changes. But they're more than purely cosmetic." He can say that again. Now the US Government owns 61% of GM. While the World Bank and IMF strain at gnats in Africa and Latin America, it's nice to know Uncle Sam can still swallow elephants. Humanitarian aid isn't just for the poor you know.

Meanwhile the price of oil continued its roller-coaster ride, falling to below $60 on Friday.

The BBC joined the National Post and the CBC in presenting Canada's worst economic performance in 18 years as "fewer jobs lost than expected." Dale Orr said, "...it would have been much better had the jobs been full-time." He was referring to the "better than expected" result: last month Canadians lost 47,500 full-time jobs and gained 40,100 part-tmers. Happy days.

Just a week ago, American job losses were "worse than expected." -jlt]

General Motors (GM) says it has emerged from bankruptcy protection after creating a "new GM" made up of the carmaker's best assets.

GM chief executive Fritz Henderson said it was the beginning of a "new era".

"they still need to put a product out there that everyone is excited about purchasing."

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"Consumer bankruptcies spike in January," Financial Post, March 24, 2009.

OTTAWA — Consumer bankruptcies in Canada spiked sharply in January, the beginning of what credit experts warn could be a wave of bankruptcies this year that are the inevitable result of a rapidly rising unemployment rate.

"We're not even close to the filings we saw in 2004," said Bruce Alger, president of Alger & Associates, a bankruptcy trustee with several offices in Alberta. "We've got a ways to go yet."

More than 10,700 consumers in Canada declared themselves insolvent in January, a jump of 23.1 per cent compared to the same month in 2008. For the 12-month period ending January 31, 2009, 117,704 consumers had declared themselves insolvent, a 16 per cent year-over-year jump.

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"EDC moves to support Nortel following bankruptcy filing," ITProPortal.com, January 14, 2009.

...from ECA-Watch Newsletter

(ITProPortal.com, UK, 14 January 2009) In a statement to AFP, Canadian Industry Minister Tony Clement confirmed that Export Development Canada will provide Nortel with up to 30 million Canadian dollars (£16.5 million) in short term financing and encourage other financial institutions to open channels of communication with Nortel which filed for bankruptcy protection to stave off its international creditors and preserve up to $2.4 billion in cash.

The potential demise of the official Network Infrastructure Partner for the London 2012 Olympic Games could provide a glimmer of hope for other players in the market - Alcatel-Lucent, Cisco, Ericsson, Nokia, Juniper Networks - as they all get ready to fill Nortel's shoes.

The industry minister also stressed that the company was not insolvent but was filing for "Canadian court-supervised restructuring". The Chapter 11 protection comes only a few hours before a deadline for a $107million US interest payment on a $4.5 billion debt contracted by the company.

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"Tribune Co. Taps Lazard,Weighs Filing for Chapter 11," Wall Street Journal, December 8, 2008.

Tribune owns eight major daily newspapers, including the Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune and Baltimore Sun, plus a string of local TV stations.

Tribune Co. is preparing for a possible filing for bankruptcy-court protection as soon as this week, according to people familiar with the matter, in a sign of worsening trouble for the newspaper industry.

In recent days, as Chicago-based Tribune continued talks with lenders to restructure its debt, the newspaper-and-television concern hired investment bank Lazard Ltd. as its financial adviser and law firm Sidley Austin to advise the company on a possible trip through Chapter 11 bankruptcy, people familiar with the matter say.

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