- Cape Rolling Out Bloomfield Road Art Trail (8/21/19)1
- Donors Pledge Almost Two Grand To Replace SEMO's Possibly Sentient ‘Gum Tree' (8/16/18)
- SEMO and The Will To (Become A Consultant) – Part 2 (6/14/18)
- SEMO and The Will To Do (You Really Want To See That Legal Notice?) – Part 1 (6/4/18)
- Judge, Jury... Trashman (6/1/18)
- Diary of Cape Girardeau Road Deconstruction (5/11/18)
- Trying To Save A Tree From City “Improvements” (4/30/18)2
TWENTY-ONE BILLION DOLLARS IN DEBT:
Charter Likely To Declare Bankruptcy
Charter Communications -- the fourth largest provider of bundled cable, internet and phone service in the nation including much of Cape Girardeau County -- missed a $73 million interest payment on January 15 and will likely declare bankruptcy, according to news reports.
$73,000,000 in interest.
And I thought I had a high interest rate credit card.
If they're paying that kind of interest, I wonder what their rate goes to since they didn't pay their minimum?
I did some more research on this subject and found that Charter actually didn't default on their credit card as I first suspected. They actually defaulted on paying the interest on some of the approximately $21 billion in junk bonds they have issued over the last 10 years.
$21,000,000,000 in junk bonds.
Charter has been the biggest issuer of high-risk, high yield bonds -- that's the more politically correct, but way less accurate name for junk bonds -- over the last decade.
I expect any day that Charter will announce they're changing their name to "Charter Communications and Trust" so they might qualify for some of the federal bailout money.
Charter Communications and Trust would be an accurate name.
I have always trusted Charter to raise my monthly fees even though I haven't altered the service package I get at home in 15 years.
I guess if the porn industry can ask for a piece of the bailout pie -- that's no joke, by the way -- then why not a poor cable company who provides access to Skin-A-Max to the families of 5.5 million working class Joes?
Sounds like a logical argument that would just tug at the heart and purse strings of Joe Congressman, wouldn't you agree?
5,500,000 Charter Communication subscribers.
I really can't fathom how Charter expects -- or ever expected -- to repay $21 billion dollars in debt with 5.5 million subscribers. That works out to be over $3800 of debt per customer.
Who knew I was so valuable?
And considering that a lot of each subscriber's monthly fee goes to paying Charter employees and maintaining Charter's infrastructure and paying the various cable networks for the right to resell their content to Charter customers, I doubt there's much left over for paying off interest or paying down principal on $21 billion in junk bonds.
All of these gigantic figures make my monthly payment of $57 look pretty paltry.
That's why, in an effort to find solidarity with these enormous numbers that illustrate the financial health of my cable company, I'm going to pay my next cable bill in pennies.
5703 to be exact.
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