North America

Strategic Resource Acquisition said on Thursday it had filed for bankruptcy protection as a plunge in metals prices and tight credit conditions left the zinc miner unable to pay its bills, Reuters reported. Toronto-based SRA said it and its U.S. subsidiary, Mid-Tennessee Zinc Corp, have filed for U.S. Chapter 11 protection, and said it was also seeking protection in Canada under the Companies' Creditors Arrangement Act.

Toronto-based Nortel Networks Corp. filed for bankruptcy protection in Canada and the U.S. on Wednesday, becoming the first major technology company to take that step in this global downturn, the Associated Press reported. The filing came a day before Nortel was due to make a debt payment of $107 million. Facing a sharp drop in orders from phone companies, the telecommunications equipment maker used the bankruptcy filings to buy time to explore restructuring options like selling off assets.

Nortel Networks Corp., North America’s biggest maker of phone equipment, plunged in European trading after the Globe and Mail reported the company will file for bankruptcy protection as early as today. The board met last night to deal with “a financial crisis,” the newspaper reported, citing people working with Nortel and its creditors. Nortel will file in Toronto and an undisclosed U.S. location, the Globe and Mail reported. The company faces a $107 million interest payment tomorrow, the newspaper said. David Silke, a Nortel spokesman in Ireland, didn’t immediately return a call for comment.

The Irish economy, pummeled by the most severe housing bust in Europe, has collapsed, The New York Times reported. Everything, it seems, has grown worse here. The recession started earlier and its bite has been deeper. Housing prices have fallen by as much as 50 percent. Bank shares have plummeted by more than 90 percent. Unemployment is approaching 10 percent. Government policy that chopped taxes in half, sharply reduced import duties and embraced foreign investment gave birth to the Celtic Tiger, perhaps the most open and vibrant economy in Europe.

The Supreme Court (SC) has approved new rules to improve and expedite the court procedures for petitions for rehabilitation or re-organizations of corporations, partnerships and associations in order to help debtors recover from financial difficulties while attempting to ensure fair treatment of creditors, BusinessMirror reported.

Twice in the last three decades, Mexico has demonstrated that one country’s profligacy and mismanagement can spell economic catastrophe beyond its borders. In 1982, the country defaulted on its foreign debt and set off a Latin American debt crisis that led to a decade of anemic growth across the region. In 1994, the peso collapsed and halted capital flows to emerging markets around the world, until the Clinton administration arranged a $50 billion Mexican bailout.

Word that the federal and Ontario governments will provide the struggling auto sector with $4 billion in emergency loans was blasted by opposition critics and was lauded by industry and union spokesmen, the Canadian Press reported. The announcement Saturday by Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty in Toronto came a day after President George W. Bush offered US$17.4 billion in emergency loans to General Motors and Chrysler. Federal Finance Minister Jim Flaherty had promised Canada would offer 20 percent of the U.S.

Ecuador’s default on $3.9 billion of international bonds means it’s only a matter of time before the country drops the U.S. dollar as its currency, Goldman Sachs Group has said, Bloomberg reported. Ecuador’s use of the dollar gives President Rafael Correa no outlet for providing credit to the economy as access to foreign financing dries up and revenue from sales of oil, the nation’s biggest export, tumbles.

A collapse of the Detroit Three automakers would put nearly 600,000 Canadians out of work within five years, most of them in Ontario, as the impact ripples through the entire economy according to a report released Tuesday, the Calgary Herald reported. The study, commissioned by the Ontario Manufacturing Council, warned that a collapse of General Motors Corp., Ford Motor Co. and Chrysler LLC would spread across the country, hitting creditors, suppliers, parts manufacturers and dealerships. The report came as the Canadian and U. S.

For years, the overseas operations of Ford and General Motors helped buoy Detroit when times were tough in the United States. But now, with the administration of President George W. Bush announcing Friday that it would step in to keep General Motors from falling into bankruptcy, and with Ford in serious trouble as well, fears are growing that the U.S. problems of the automakers will drag down their more successful units in Europe, Asia and Latin America, the International Herald Tribune reported.