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...leaner operation. The other three plan to liquidate altogether, a trend that is on the rise as a result of the lack of potential buyers for troubled assets and a tightening of credit offerings by banks. "The days of restructuring are gone," says Howard Davidowitz, chairman of Davidowitz & Associates Inc., a national retail-consulting and investment-banking firm. "No one will give you the financing." (See pictures of the global financial crisis...
...owing to weakening sales, down 10% for the quarter. In early November, Standard & Poor's lowered its corporate credit rating of Dillard's to B+ from BB-, citing the "deepening spending pull-back by consumers." Adding to the drama, hedge-fund investors Barington Capital Group LP and Clinton Group Inc. called for William Dillard II, the chain's CEO, to step down amid declining revenue and a stock price that has lost more than 70% of its value. The good news: "They aren't leveraged like other stores are," says Beemer. "But if you look at mall-based apparel stores...
...historical rationale for giving government employees better benefits was that they didn't get paid as well," says Jim Edholm, president of Better Benefits Insurance Inc., a benefit-consulting firm based in Andover, Mass. "That has long since lost its validity. Those employed by government agencies tend now to have richer total compensation packages than those in virtually any private industry...
...Japan's charm offensive is taking shape on several fronts. Cash-flush Japanese banks, which have only just emerged from their own decade-long debt crisis, are infusing money into distressed companies such as Morgan Stanley. Japan Inc. is going on another of its famous investment sprees abroad, opening factories and representative offices across Africa and Asia. In October, the country's central bank even offered part of its nearly $1 trillion in reserves to financially strapped nations like Iceland. In November, Japan also expressed willingness to lend up to $100 billion to the International Monetary Fund...
...much as Japan is exerting its influence abroad, the country needs to welcome the world to its shores, too. Back in the 1980s, during Japan Inc.'s first global foray, many of its mergers and acquisitions languished because overseas employees chafed under the strictures of Japanese management. In the same way, unless Japan relaxes its rigid immigration policies, cultivating foreign Japanophiles will be a waste of time. Indeed, in moving beyond Japan's insular past, Prime Minister Aso might do well to take inspiration from a cuddly cat. Hello Kitty, it turns out, may not be ethnically Japanese. Her surname...