Strategic Bankruptcy: How Corporations and Creditors Use Chapter 11 to Their Advantage Paperback - 1999

The word bankruptcy comes from banca rupta, or broken bench, which referred to the Italian custom in medieval outdoor markets of smashing the benches and stalls of merchants who did not pay their bills (see Tremain 1938).

"Delaney has set himself a task fit for a hero. . . . With the skills of a sociologist and the patience of a scholar, he offers a perspective on corporate restructuring that is bound to change our thinking for years to come."--John D. Ayer, University of California, Davis, and former U.S. Bankruptcy Judge

"A fine honed assessment of how companies have come to turn the classic event of corporate failure into a strategy for success. . . . A riveting account of one of the corporate arsenal's newest and most ironic weapons."--Michael Useem, University of Pennsylvania

"A potent antidote for the idea that bankruptcy is just a form of housekeeping performed by efficient markets. . . . Delaney brings into sharp relief the strategic and political determinants of corporate bankruptcy that we must understand to have a clear picture of business in the 90s."--Mark Granovetter, SUNY, Stonybrook

"An engaging and powerful analysis of the changing uses of corporate bankruptcy. . . . For anyone who neded convincing that statutes and cases aren't all there is to law, this book should provide ample evidence. Delaney creates a compelling portrait of the inner workings of corporate America and shows how a legal tool designed to shield troubled companies has become a multi-purpose weapon in battles over corporate power."--Kim Lane Scheppele, University of Michigan