Possible Bankruptcy for EV Maker Fisker as Industry Hit with Declining Consumer Interest

Fisker electric vehicle on beach with people playing

Electric-vehicle startup Fisker may file for bankruptcy as the declining pace of consumer demand weighs upon the struggling company.

In a March 15 8-K filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, the company warned investors that “Fisker did not make a required interest payment of approximately $8.4 million payable in cash on March 15, 2024 (the “Interest Payment”) with respect to Fisker’s unsecured 2.50% convertible notes” and that “the Company has a 30-day grace period to make the Interest Payment.”

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Massive Chinese Wealth Management Firm Files for Bankruptcy amid Real Estate Crisis

Chinese Homes

Top wealth manager Zhongzhi Enterprise Group declared bankruptcy on Friday after failing to pay its debts due to its heavy investment in the country’s struggling real estate market.

Zhongrong International Trust, a subsidiary of the company, told investors in November 2023 that it had at least $31 billion more in liabilities than in assets, previously having around $108 billion in assets at the end of 2022, according to The Wall Street Journal. The trust held around 11% of its assets in the property sector in 2022, with numerous developers defaulting amid a real estate crisis that began following the COVID-19 pandemic.

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$700 Million in Pandemic-Era Loans Was Not Enough to Save Yellow Corp. Trucking

Trucking company Yellow filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on Sunday after receiving more than $700 million in COVID-19 pandemic program loans from the federal government, according to a press release from Yellow.

The 99-year-old company ceased operations of its more than 12,000 trucks on July 30, ending its less-than-truckload business, a shipping service that does not require a whole truck to be filled and was utilized by companies like Walmart, Amazon and small businesses that did not have enough freight to ship in a full truck. The bankruptcy follows a history of financial trouble, with the company receiving $729.2 million in pandemic-era loans from the Trump administration in 2020, and had a total debt of $1.5 billion, according to The Associated Press.

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Musk Tells Twitter Staff ‘Bankruptcy Isn’t Out of the Question’ as Executives Leave over Privacy Concerns: Report

At an all hands meeting with Twitter employees following the departure of several top executives over user privacy concerns, CEO Elon Musk told employees that he was not sure of the company’s financial prospects, saying that “bankruptcy isn’t out of the question,” according to multiple reports.

At the same meeting, Musk also told employees that if they can “physically make it to an office and you don’t show up, resignation accepted,” Zoë Schiffer, the managing editor of tech newsletter Platformer, alleged in a thread on Twitter Thursday afternoon. The news comes after reports that a variety of high-level executives, including Chief Privacy Officer Damien Kieran, Chief Information Security Officer Lea Kissner — who also confirmed her departure in a Thursday tweet — and Chief Compliance Officer Marianne Fogarty all resigned Thursday in response to concerns that Musk was sacrificing user’s data security for profits, according to The Verge, citing anonymous sources and the company’s internal messages.

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Commentary: Prosecution of Project Veritas Sounds Warning About Two-Tier Justice and Big State Corruption

James O'Keefe

Whatever else can be said about the FBI’s vendetta against James O’Keefe and Project Veritas, his investigative journalism enterprise, it is a useful reminder of two things: 1) that we increasingly live in a two-tier society in which the lower tier can expect the arbitrary intrusion of all the coercive elements of the state, and 2) that the fundamental legitimacy of many important American institutions is draining away rapidly like a full bathtub that is suddenly unplugged.

Scott Johnson at Powerline has an excellent summary of the case thus far.

Last Thursday, the FBI conducted a raid against two former employees of Project Veritas.

A few days later, they conducted a dawn raid against O’Keefe himself. It was the full monty.

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