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bankruptcy
'Trump's Economic Policies Did This': US Business Bankruptcies Surge to 15-Year High
At least 717 US companies filed for bankruptcy through November 2025—the highest figure recorded since the aftermath of the Great Recession.
Dec 29, 2025
Businesses in the United States have filed for bankruptcy this year at a level not seen since 2010 as President Donald Trump's tariff regime has jacked up costs for companies in manufacturing and other major sectors.
Citing data from S&P Global Market Intelligence, the Washington Post reported over the weekend that at least 717 US companies filed for bankruptcy through November 2025, the highest figure recorded since the aftermath of the Great Recession and a 14% increase compared to the same period last year.
"Companies cited inflation and interest rates among the factors contributing to their financial challenges, as well as Trump administration trade policies that have disrupted supply chains and pushed up costs," the Post noted. "But in a shift from previous years, the rise in filings is most apparent among industrials—companies tied to manufacturing, construction, and transportation. The sector has been hit hard by President Donald Trump’s ever-fluid tariff policies—which he’s long insisted would revive American manufacturing."
Recent data shows that the US has lost 49,000 manufacturing jobs since Trump's return to office.
The bankruptcy figures add to the growing pile of evidence showing that Trump's tariffs and broader policy agenda have harmed the US economy—weakening job growth, driving the unemployment rate up to the highest level since the Covid-19 pandemic, and worsening the nation's cost-of-living crisis.
Democrats immediately seized on the new reporting as evidence of Trump's failed stewardship of the US economy, messaging that's likely to be central as the 2026 midterms approach.
Trump's economic policies did this. pic.twitter.com/tRfcNxAyAU
— Sean Casten (@SeanCasten) December 27, 2025
Ken Martin, chair of the Democratic National Committee, said Monday that "when Donald Trump signed his Big Ugly Bill into law, he cemented the Republican Party as the party of billionaires and special interests—not working families, farmers, or small business owners."
"While millions of working families are already being squeezed to afford groceries, utilities, and rent, Trump chose to strip them of their healthcare and food assistance just so he could give his ultrawealthy friends and donors an extra buck," said Martin. "Make no mistake: Trump’s ‘signature achievement’ will be the nail in the coffin for the Republican majority when voters head to the polls next November."
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Democrats Renew Effort to End Private Equity Looting
"Union-busting, pollution, and bankruptcy aren't side effects of the private equity model: They are the model," said one campaigner backing the bill. "It's a smash-and-grab, plain and simple."
Oct 10, 2024
Less than a month away from the U.S. general election, over a dozen congressional Democrats on Thursday renewed their fight to "fundamentally reform the private equity industry" with a bill that Rep. Mark Pocan said "will finally hold these predatory firms accountable and protect workers from being plundered by corporate greed."
"It's long past time for billionaires and big corporations to stop gambling with hardworking Americans' and their communities' assets in service of corporate greed," declared Pocan (D-Wis.), who is leading the Stop Wall Street Looting Act with Congressional Progressive Caucus Chair Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.) and Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.).
"In Wisconsin, we've seen what happens when private equity firms like Sun Capital raid companies for their wealth and leave workers and communities to pick up the pieces," he noted. "When Sun Capital took over Shopko—a Wisconsin-based retail chain that had stood strong for more than 50 years—they drained it dry, buried it in debt, pushed it into bankruptcy, and abandoned roughly 14,000 workers."
"Private equity takeovers are legal looting that make a handful of Wall Street executives very rich while costing thousands of people their jobs, putting valuable companies out of business, and in the case of healthcare, is literally a matter of life and death."
Warren's state is also dealing with fallout from the industry. As The Boston Globe reported Thursday, the legislation is "designed to rein in the growing power of private equity firms and limit the sort of leveraged buyout deals that led to the crisis at Steward Health Care, whose bankruptcy continues to roil communities in Massachusetts and seven other states."
The bill "was reintroduced in part as a response to the unfolding crisis at Steward, which before its bankruptcy was the nation's largest private for-profit hospital system," the newspaper noted. It follows the Senate's unanimous approval of a resolution to hold CEO Dr. Ralph de la Torre in criminal contempt of Congress for his refusal to comply with a subpoena to testify before a committee. Shortly after the vote—the first of its kind since 1971—he resigned.
"Private equity takeovers are legal looting that make a handful of Wall Street executives very rich while costing thousands of people their jobs, putting valuable companies out of business, and in the case of healthcare, is literally a matter of life and death," Warren, a former bankruptcy law professor, said Thursday. "Our bill is designed to close loopholes and end incentives for private equity pillaging—and it will make sure what happened at Steward never happens again."
As a fact sheet from the sponsors details, the bill would make private equity firms responsible for liabilities including debt, legal judgments, and pension-related obligations; limit how much money they can extract from companies; close a loophole they have used to conceal assets from bankruptcy courts; implement various protections for workers and customers; increase transparency; impose guardrails for receiving public funds; and drive real estate investment trusts out of healthcare.
"From healthcare to housing, millions of Americans are seeing private equity take over companies with the promise of improving services, only to strip them for parts and hurt both workers and working families," said Jayapal. "It's time for Congress to take action to protect Americans from the dangers of private equity and corporate greed, and that's exactly what our Stop Wall Street Looting Act will do."
The legislation is backed by Reps. Raúl Grijalva (D-Ariz.), Rick Larsen (D-Wash.), Barbara Lee (D-Calif.), Delia Ramirez (D-Ill.), Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.), Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), and Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-D.C.), along with Sens. Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.), Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Tina Smith (D-Minn.), and Ed Markey (D-Mass.).
The bill is also endorsed by dozens of groups including the American Federation of Teachers, Americans for Financial Reform, Economic Policy Institute, Indivisible, National Employment Law Project, National Nurses United, Public Citizen, Service Employees International Union, Student Borrower Protection Center, Take on Wall Street, United for Respect, and Working Families Party.
"Union-busting, pollution, and bankruptcy aren't side effects of the private equity model: They are the model," said Porter McConnell of Take on Wall Street. "It's a smash-and-grab, plain and simple. That's why we are so pleased to see comprehensive legislation like the Stop Wall Street Looting Act introduced in Congress today. We created the loopholes in the law that allowed the private equity industry to thrive, and we can end them."
United for Respect co-executive directors Bianca Agustin and Terrysa Guerra stressed that "Wall Street private equity firms have proven themselves to be a parasite on workers, our economy, and American retailers by gutting companies for profit and driving mass layoffs. Holding billionaire profiteers accountable for the damage they do to our working families and communities is imperative to addressing growing economic inequality."
"The Stop Wall Street Looting Act will help close loopholes in our laws that for too long have allowed private equity to pillage companies and amass huge profits while workers lose their jobs and are left with nothing," they added. "United for Respect is proud to support this bill—and we need all legislators to join us in protecting workers and putting Wall Street on the hook for the havoc they reap."
While the bill is unlikely to go anywhere in the currently divided Congress, it's a clear statement from the sponsors where they stand, as early voting gets underway to determine the future of the Senate and House of Representatives as well as the next occupant of the White House—Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris or former Republican President Donald Trump.
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Markey, Warren Sound Alarm Over Private Equity Firm's Deal to Buy Doctors Group
"Selling Massachusetts doctors to another private equity firm could be a disaster," said Sen. Elizabeth Warren. "Regulators must scrutinize this deal."
Aug 13, 2024
Both of Massachusetts' Democratic U.S. senators on Tuesday expressed concern about a private equity firm striking a $245 million deal to buy the nationwide physicians network of the for-profit Steward Health Care, which filed for bankruptcy in May.
The network, Stewardship Health, has about 5,000 employees across nine states and serves around 400,000 patients, according to Steward. It is set to be acquired by Rural Healthcare Group, an affiliate of Kinderhook Industries.
"Steward also operates eight hospitals in Massachusetts," The Boston Globe reported Monday. "Last month, it said it will close two of them, Carney Hospital in Dorchester and Nashoba Valley Medical Center in Ayer, by August 31. It's currently in the final stages of negotiations to sell the other six."
Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), a former bankruptcy law professor, noted the planned closures in her social media post urging regulators to review the deal.
"Two Massachusetts hospitals are closing and communities are suffering because of private equity's looting of Steward," she said. "Selling Massachusetts doctors to another private equity firm could be a disaster. We can't make the same mistake again. Regulators must scrutinize this deal."
In March, Steward had confirmed plans for the Optum unit of insurer UnitedHealth to buy the network, but that was never finalized.
"As part of the ongoing Chapter 11 proceedings, following a robust and active bidding process, Steward Health Care is pleased to have reached an agreement with Rural Healthcare Group," Steward Health Care president Mark Rich said in a Monday statement. "Kinderhook has over 20 years of experience investing in mid-sized healthcare businesses that serve the nations' most vulnerable populations."
"Kinderhook's investments are focused on protecting access to high-quality healthcare in communities that are truly underserved," Rich added. "Rural Healthcare Group is a well-respected group of healthcare professionals that specifically focuses on underserved and underinsured areas. We are confident that Stewardship Health will continue its stellar treatment of the patient population as a result of this transaction."
According to the Globe:
In an attachment to an overnight filing with U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Houston, the company listed the purchase price as $245 million in cash.
That price is subject to change, the filing indicated, depending on several factors still to be determined, including whether U.S. Family Plan at Brighton Marine, a Boston health insurance agency, is included in the transaction. The filing listed the buyer as Brady Health Buyer LLC, a company set up by New York-based Kinderhook to purchase Stewardship.
The newspaper noted that "the sale to Rural Healthcare is subject to the approval of U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Christopher Lopez at a Houston hearing scheduled for Friday. It's also subject to regulatory approval in Massachusetts and other states."
As Common Dreams reported last month, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), chair of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP), led the panel in bipartisan votes to authorize a probe into the bankruptcy of Steward Health Care (20-1) and subpoena CEO Ralph de la Torre (16-4).
The same day, Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.), a committee member, and Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.) introduced the Health Over Wealth Act, which would increase the powers of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to monitor and block private equity deals in the healthcare industry.
"Private equity firms buying up healthcare systems are simply bad news for patients, leading to worse health outcomes and higher bills," Jayapal said at the time. "We have a duty to protect patients from greedy corporations that are prioritizing their bottom line over patient care."
In response to news of the doctors group deal, Markey said Tuesday that "private equity did to Steward what it will keep doing to hospitals and physician networks across the U.S.—unless we put guardrails on them. We need to pass my Health Over Wealth Act to get corporate greed out of healthcare for good."
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