I really need to start a new category for the blog: bankruptcies. It really is a shame these companies are closing their doors in the midst of the long awaited 2nd half 2008 recovery. I mean... it really is a shame these companies are closing their doors as we are looking forward to the 1st half 2009 recovery. However, I don't know what we even have to recovery from since the economy is fine, not in a recession or even close, and its just a few stumbles in an otherwise sound system (source: GWB)

So we'll add these 2 names to our growing list - and trust me a lot of mom and pop type places in strip mall complexes i.e. non chains - are going to be drowning and they won't be getting any press so they'll just go quietly in the still of the night. Because the small business sector is BOOMING if you read the unemployment reports that come out every month (a new chapter of fiction this Friday) - they're adding jobs like mad if you listen to the government report, right OfficeMax?

• Adjusted earnings beat Wall Street estimates, but executives cited a "difficult sales environment" that hurt results.
• Small business owners have cut back on spending in the weak U.S. economy, hurting results throughout the office supply sector.

Hmmm that doesn't quite jive with the birth/death model in which the Bureau of Labor Statistics somehow finds hundreds of thousands of "small business" jobs that no one else can find. But I digress - the point is if you think its bad at the retailers and restaurants who at least have some size and scale just imagine what its like at the 1 off mom and pop places.

I've ignored most of the smaller airlines which already went belly up to focus on retailers and restaurants. Ironically I expect these latter 2 groups to have a huge run sometime in the next 6-9 months as the Kool Aid of the economic recovery flows hard and fast. Remember, gas at $3.25 makes all the other problems disappear into the ether - the hedge fund computers say so.