Seritage Growth only collected 52% of its rent in May, down from 64% in April. Properties signed but not yet moved in are suing because Seritage hasn't spent the capital to get them up to speed because of lack of money. It's collecting NO rent from its Sears or Kmart stores, and plans on collecting no rent on the 5 it doesn't plan on closing, which obviously means they're none of them are making any money, which is of course an Eddie Scott Lampert specialty. Seritage was bleeding $30M a quarter even before any capital spending, which it needs to get all the c-appy properties it acquires into shape for the fire sale rates it eventually ends up lending or selling everything at. Lands' End is furloughing and laying off everybody. Transform can't pay the bills and loses billions every time Eddie tries to run a company. Seritage is busy trying to issue shares and dump them on the market while short sellers are covering and reaping the profits. ESL and RBS are liquidating everything are are worth a paltry tenth of the glory days. Eddie's cash and assets are a smidgen of the mountain of debt, and Eddie Inc. everything is kaput, over, done as the sharks circle with blood in the water.
Notice everything Eddie has gone radio silent. No mention of go forward plans. Layoffs and closings go unannounced. Liquidations happen quietly. Inventory, rent, taxes, utilities, and other bills go quietly unpaid. There's no money, it's the final curtain call.
Treasury Secretary in waiting Elizabeth Warren can't wait. Turns out the Rand novel protagonist producer was Jeff Bezos all along, and Eddie was always the caricature of the Randian villain who destroys capital, manipulates regulations, loots the wealth of others, and suppresses the productive creativity of others. The Bangadeshi vendors are a classic example among hundreds of how Eddie is a classic Rand villain.
In a free society, the “rights” of any group are derived from the rights of its members through their voluntary, individual choice and contractual agreement Every link of this complex chain of contractual relationships rests on individual rights, individual choices, individual agreements. Every agreement is delimited, specified and subject to certain conditions, that is, dependent upon a mutual trade to mutual benefit.This is true of all legitimate groups or associations in a free society: partnerships, business concerns, professional associations, labor unions (voluntary ones), political parties, etc. It applies also to all agency agreements: the right of one man to act for or represent another or others is derived from the rights of those he represents and is delegated to him by their voluntary choice, for a specific, delimited purpose—as in the case of a lawyer, a business representative, a labor union delegate, etc. A group, as such, has no rights. A man can neither acquire new rights by joining a group nor lose the rights which he does possess. The principle of individual rights is the only moral base of all groups or associations. Any group that does not recognize this principle is not an association, but a gang or a mob. Any doctrine of group activities that does not recognize individual rights is a doctrine of mob rule or legalized lynching. In a free society, men are not forced to deal with one another. They do so only by voluntary agreement and, when a time element is involved, by contract. If a contract is broken by the arbitrary decision of one man, it may cause a disastrous financial injury to the other—and the victim would have no recourse except to seize the offender’s property as compensation.
- Ayn Rand's the Virtue of Selfishness
That's the biggest irony. For all he talks about Rand, the woman herself would have given him a big fat donut in comprehending her philosphy, because he does the opposite of everything she stood for. Judge Drain did say Eddie had the opportunity to avoid becoming a cartoon villain. He failed spectacularly.