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Right, but the point is how many jobs does Amazon create delivering all those goods to you compared to say a Sears or Walmart? The modern day middlemen are doi

• emodendroket 9y ago
  But if you read the article it describes a lot of businesses which are profitable and could plod along, except they're saddled with tons of debt from leveraged buyouts.
  • deleted 9y ago
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  • Digory 9y ago
    That struck me as bogus. In other words, they're saying the businesses aren't profitable enough to service debt loads that were thought to be sustainable debt loads a few years ago. That still points to lower than expected retail profit. Interest rates have been unusually low for more than a decade, so it's not like a credit spike changed the assumptions.
    • emodendroket 9y ago
      It calls out some of this debt being from 2007, and some cursory checking on my part suggests things were picking up again to a notable degree more recently. http://www.reuters.com/article/us-uslbo/cheap-financing-fuels-u-s-leveraged-buyout-boom-idUSBRE88J1GV20120920 http://www.reuters.com/article/us-uslbo/cheap-financing-fuel... Anyway, at best it contributes to a negative feedback loop.
    • pixl97 9y ago
      >thought to be sustainable debt loads a few years ago. No, the debt was never sustainable. Essentially the banks allowed loans which were gigantic ponzi schemes. Retail: "Our growth will continue forever!" Banks: Hmm, we got bit pretty hard on these home loans and need somewhere else to make money, "Forever growth is like infinite money, I like money!", "Here is 10 billion dollars, just remember to pay us back in 2017".