It’s not as if anyone will shed any tears for the McClatchy media empire. But it is worth noting that the process that is now all-but-complete with regards to the media is now taking place in the real estate market:
McClatchy Co. filed for bankruptcy Thursday, a move that will end family control of America’s second largest local news company and hand it to creditors who have expressed support for independent journalism.
The Chapter 11 filing will allow McClatchy to restructure its debts and, it hopes, shed much of its pension obligations. Under a plan outlined in its filing to a federal bankruptcy court, about 60 percent of its debt would be eliminated as the news organization tries to reposition for a digital future.
The likely new owners, if the court accepts the plan, would be led by hedge fund Chatham Asset Management LLC. They would operate McClatchy as a privately held company. More than 7 million shares of both publicly available and protected family-owned stock would be canceled.
The point that all the conservative and proudly “responsible” debtors have stubbornly failed to understand is that without a periodic debt jubilee, either a) the creditors will eventually own everything or b) the entire economic system will collapse. It is a mathematical certainty, given the way that debt pushes the demand curve up.
Cry all you want about how some irresponsible people may have gotten a better deal than you. Of course they will. That’s not the point. The point is whether you want to be doomed to life in a) the ashes or b) as a slave in your own lands or not.
Because those are the options.