By most measures the economy is strong. Unemployment is low. The stock market is roaring. Gross domestic product is rising. Under these circumstances, bankruptcy is on few people’s minds.

Corporate bankruptcy tends to be cyclical, and bankruptcy filings trend up and down along with the direction of the macro economy. The last big surge in corporate bankruptcy filings came in the wake of last decade’s financial crisis (and closer to home here in Michigan, the automotive crisis) and “Great Recession.”

Fallbrook Technologies Inc., along with three affiliates and subsidiaries, has filed a petition for relief under Chapter 11 in the Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware (Lead Case No. 18-10384).

The Department of Education (the “Department”) has formally sought comment on the legal standards used to evaluate whether a borrower has established “undue hardship” to discharge his or her student loans in a bankruptcy proceeding. The Department published this request for information in the Federal Register last Wednesday and responses to the request for will be taken through May 22, 2018.

Pinktoe Tarantula Limited, along with two of its affiliates and subsidiaries, has filed a petition for relief under Chapter 11 in the Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware (Lead Case No. 18-10344). The Debtors, doing business as Charlotte Olympia, are a London-based designer of women’s luxury footwear and accessories.

Carbondale Glen Lot L-2, LLC, along with thirteen affiliates and subsidiaries, has filed a petition for relief under Chapter 11 in the Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware. All of the filers are affiliates of the Woodbridge Group of Companies, LLC, whose cases are currently being jointly administered under Lead Case No. 17-12560.

Cryptocurrencies like bitcoin have been touted as everything from a tool that will revolutionize commerce to “the very worst of speculative capitalism.”[1] Less attention has been given to their practical application vis-à-vis commercial and insolvency law.

Toys “R” Us has offered certain of its landlords an unprecedented payment package in exchange for more time to decide which leases it will keep and which it will dispose of in its chapter 11 bankruptcy case. The package includes payment of “additional rent,” including common-area maintenance, insurance, and real estate tax arrearages under rejected leases, amounts that ordinarily would not be paid in full. The deal may serve as a model for the treatment of landlords in future large retail bankruptcy cases.

On February 12, following a four-day trial, the U.S.

Carson Pirie Scott II, Inc., aka Bon-Ton Stores (“Bon-Ton”), which has dual headquarters in Milwaukee, WI and York, PA, filed on Super Bowl Sunday for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in the US Bankruptcy Court, District of Delaware, Docket # 18-10251 (MFW).

Ascent Resources Marcellus Holdings, LLC, along with two of its affiliates and subsidiaries, has filed a petition for relief under Chapter 11 in the Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware (Lead Case No. 18-10265). The Debtors, based in Oklahoma City, OK, operate as an oil and natural gas E&P in the Marcellus Shale basin in the eastern United States.