Senator Elizabeth Warren has posted some prepared remarks Senator Discusses Ways Congress Can Improve U.S. Business Bankruptcy System.

It is an interesting discussion about structuring bankruptcy laws. There is one slightly sour note in those remarks.

The business world is littered with companies that were thought to be invincible — right up until the killer moment: Worldcom and accounting fraud, Blockbuster and disruptive new companies; PanAm and terrorism. Toys ‘R’ Us, Payless Shoes, Radio Shack and Gymboree were all once bright stars-stars that all fell in 2017.

She misses an opportunity to single out special cases like Toys ‘R’ Us. This bankruptcy did not occur because the original company had a bad business plan. The only disaster that befell the company was the attack by vulture capitalists who took the company private. These vulture capitalists used other people’s money (money from investors in their vulture capital business) to take Toys ‘R’ Us private. They then stripped the assets out of the company to pay huge salaries and fees to themselves. They also loaded up the company in debt to pay themselves even more salaries and fees. When the company ran out of assets to keep itself in business, they abandoned the company to bankruptcy court. The businesses that were owed money by Toys ‘R’ Us, the people who lent money to Toys ‘R’ Us, and the people whose pensions, jobs, and health insurance depended on Toys ‘R’ Us, were all left holding an empty bag. The vulture capitalists walked away fat and happy. Elizabeth Warren makes no mention of holding the vulture capitalists accountable for what they did.