White Civil Rights : The Website for Europeans and Americans Wherever They May Live

Simmons survived the Great Depression and two world wars, but couldn’t survive Obama’s first term

by James Buchanan

The liberal media continues to try to convince us that we’re in a “recovery”. Strange. Shouldn’t a recovery be obvious –with unemployed people suddenly getting jobs? Well apparently this is a “jobless recovery” and we just have to take their word that things are getting “better”.

Well two curious things just happened and neither goes along with a recovery. The Georgian Bank of Atlanta just went bankrupt, making it the 95th bank to fail this year, and the famous Simmons Mattress Company, which has been around since 1876 is going bankrupt.

A recent news article reports “Simmons Co., the maker of Beautyrest mattresses, said Friday that it plans to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, a move that will put new owners in charge of the bedding unit and significantly lower the company’s debt. Sales have slumped for mattress makers as consumers pull back on their spending during the recession, especially on big-ticket items like mattresses. The plan, which will not affect the company’s operations, is expected to reduce its total debt from about $1 billion to $450 million. It must receive bankruptcy court approval.”

The Simmons company has been making mattresses for 133 years, which raises another question: How is it possible for a company that has been around for several generations to go bankrupt? A company that old should own all the real estate under their factories. Owning the ground under your feet is a huge advantage for any kind of business.

The US economy started to go bad in 2006 when the housing bubble began to pop. Any businessman with an ounce of sense should have cut back on production, quit building up inventory and laid off some workers. Another logical step would be to concentrate production on the cheapest affordable mattresses. Admittedly profits would be way down and some unfortunate ex-workers would be hurting, but the business should have avoided bankruptcy with very little effort. Apparently Simmons continued to introduce new luxury mattress models even as the economy was starting to go south.

All the talk about a “recovery” by the liberal media failed to rescue this iconic American company which survived the Great Depression and two world wars, but couldn’t survive Obama’s first term.