What's killing Sears? Its own retirees, the CEO says

[PatrickforO]

Source: CNN

What's to blame for the problems at Sears? Amazon? Bad management? CEO and primary shareholder Eddie Lampert has another idea: It's the company's own retirees.

Sears turned in another bleak quarterly earnings report on Thursday, and Lampert complained about the billions of dollars that Sears owes its former employees through pension plans. Lampert said Sears has paid almost $2 billion into pension plans in the past five years, and $4.5 billion since Sears and Kmart merged in 2005 to form Sears Holdings (SHLD). The company pays retirees about $300 million a year, filings show.

If Sears could have put that money into operations, "we would have been in a better position to compete with other large retail companies, many of which don't have large pension plans," Lampert wrote in a blog post. He also faulted the "very difficult" environment for retailers, but he said Sears has been "significantly impacted" by pension obligations.

Read more: https://money.cnn.com/2018/09/14/news/companies/sears-pension-retirees/index.html

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This guy is a total crook. You know what? He owns a hedge fund, and he's personally been buying up Sears shares as they go downhill.

Basically this capitalist slimebag is crushing the hopes of his retirees (they discontinued pensions in '06, but those pesky old people are STILL alive and collecting!), and his employees, and the unfortunate consumers who invested real money in things like Kenmore appliances.

That's right! The criminal Lampert is thinking of personally purchasing Kenmore appliances through his hedge fund.

Essentially, this is what capitalism looks like on the ground. You have a scumbag like Lampert purposely driving a venerable company that used to have a good name to ruin, and then PERSONALLY PROFITING OFF THAT.

I can't even say how angry this makes me, how disgusting this is to me - should be to ANY decent person. I feel dirty even reading about shit like this.

This is why we've got to support workers to the hilt. I'm supporting Elizabeth Warren's Responsible Capitalism Act, because dirtbags like Eddie Lampert wouldn't be able to hurt so many people with their stinking greed.