bankruptcy

If you're a fan of frequent flier miles, and the carrier you fly most goes bust, what should you do? Stick with the airline, or make a change? Are your points still worth anything? Don't worry, American Airlines loyalists -- the answers aren't as grim as you might fear.

Recently, we've bidden farewell to Borders, Circuit City and Linens 'n Things. Here are five more once-thriving chains that are probably doomed thanks to lousy management or just being in the wrong business at the wrong time.

Shares of Sears Holdings fell 27% Tuesday on news that the retailer would close as many as 120 poorly performing Sears and Kmart stores -- an unusually harsh response to a cost-cutting measure. Clearly, investors are concerned that the problems run much deeper -- and they're right to worry.

Flying during the holidays is a harrowing experience at best, and on Tuesday, American Airlines' customers got another thing to worry about when it filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. As the airline prepares to massively restructure itself, will its customers be left at the gate?

If you're very sick and not very wealthy in America, your best move may be to flee the country -- because you'd be better off in any other first world nation. Otherwise, expect to pay through the nose and possibly wind up deep in debt, according to a new report from The Commonwealth Fund.

Wall Street trader Jared Dillian was an outsider whose hard work won him entry to the storied investment bank Lehman Brothers. But as his gripping and admirably candid memoir, Street Freak, shows, even when you walk among the financial giants, you hit the ground hard when you fall.

President Obama recently announced a plan to provide relief to student loan borrowers, but for the millions already in default on such loans, that help comes too late. Failure to repay those loans can wreck your finances permanently. Casey Zimmerman Thompson is a cautionary tale: More than two decades ago, she borrowed just $7,100.

While creditors continue to fight over the crumbs of Lehman Brothers, one tiny piece of the investment bank just demonstrated close to a 66,000% return on investment -- as a collectors item: A 50-cent share in the bank was sold at auction Saturday for 24,000 euros -- about $33,000.

The 63 restaurants Friendly's closed on Wednesday resulted in about 1,260 layoffs -- more than 12% of the company's 10,300 person workforce. Everyone from managers to dishwashers were told Tuesday evening that the following day would be their last at Friendly's.

A breast cancer diagnosis can be like an earthquake in the life of the patient and her family, but the medical community is there to help guide them. What's often hard to find is a monetary lifeline for those in danger of getting washed away by the financial tidal wave that can follow.