“Sears is a prime example of how hedge funds and private equity companies take over retailers, encumber them with debt in order to pay themselves massive windfall profits, and then leave the retailer without adequate operating capital to compete. Part of the strategy is to sell off valuable real estate, the better to enrich the hedge fund, and stick the retail company with costly rental payments to occupy the space that it once owned.” Did Sears die. Or was it killed?

+ “Sears has been dying for many years. It’s been obviously improperly run for many years and it’s a shame.” So said President Trump. (Sidenote: Steven Mnuchin was on the Sears board for those many years…)

+ Either way, “anything that lasts 132 years, as Sears has, deserves a proper eulogy. You don’t live longer than any human in history without getting a few things right.” Sears Is Not a Failure.

+ Jason Kottke has an interesting roundup of articles explaining How the Sears Catalog Undermined White Supremacy in the Jim Crow South.