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A study from personal finance website WalletHub released Monday found that American credit card debt dropped by a record $83 billion last year, The Hill reported. “While 2020 was a year to forget in most respects, Americans excelled in terms of paying off credit card debt, getting rid of a record $82.9 billion in debt. This is a major accomplishment, considering that consumers have added an average of $54.2 billion in credit card debt per year over the past 10 years,” WalletHub wrote in its analysis. Though credit card debt plunged last year as most of the country went into quarantine amid the coronavirus pandemic, WalletHub notes in its report that the average household debt remains high at $8,089 and the U.S. collectively owes more than $1 trillion to credit card companies. The website compiled its report using data from the Census Bureau, Federal Reserve and TransUnion.

A Times Square hotel and retail property once valued at more than $2 billion is a step closer to foreclosure after a court victory for a group of lenders led by Natixis SA, Bloomberg News reported. The court granted the lenders the right to foreclose on the property, which features the 42-story Times Square Edition hotel designed by Marriott International Inc. and hospitality legend Ian Schrager. The judge also scheduled a hearing to decide how to proceed with a sale. It’s the latest setback for owner Maefield Development, which has been facing foreclosure since 2019, after construction delays and trouble filling the project’s retail space led the lenders behind a $650 million loan to file suit. A foreclosure sale would complete a startling reversal for a property viewed as a marquee development in Times Square. A 2018 appraisal valued the property at $2.4 billion, and a 2019 party to celebrate the rare opening of a luxury hotel in the neighborhood attracted a generation-spanning list of celebrities, from Kendall Jenner to Diana Ross. But Maefield struggled to fill the retail space, and the hotel failed to generate positive cash flow, according to the court ruling, leading lenders to file for foreclosure in December 2019. In the months that followed, the COVID-19 pandemic laid waste to the global hospitality industry, grounding travelers and shuttering hotels. In May, Marriott threatened to strip the Edition brand from the hotel because of cash flow shortfalls, issuing a warning to employees and union officials that the hotel could permanently close in the months to come. Marriott eventually ironed out an agreement with Maefield’s lenders, though the property remains shuttered.

The Senate on Saturday approved a sweeping $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief plan on Saturday, the Washington Post reported. With its massive price tag, and major expansion of federal social safety net programs, the package is set to count among one of the largest rescue measures in U.S. history, reflecting Democrats’ pledges to erase disparities that long predate the deadly pandemic. The bill authorizes $1,400 checks to millions of low- and middle-income Americans, bolsters families by providing new yearly child tax benefits, boosts unemployment payments for workers still out of a job, and invests heavily in the country’s attempt to climb back from a public-health emergency that has devastated families, workers, students and businesses alike. Senate Democrats adopted the measure entirely on party lines, muscling through a marathon, 25-hour debate that forced them to confront dissent from within the party’s own ranks. The House is set to vote on the Senate’s version of the stimulus on Tuesday, teeing up checks and other financial assistance to start to reach Americans as soon as this month.

Tailored Brands Inc. has secured some badly needly additional financing less than three months after it exited bankruptcy, Chain Storage reported. The parent company of Men’s Wearhouse, Jos. A. Bank and Moores, has closed on a $75 million investment by a group of existing shareholders and lenders. The financing consists of $50 million of mandatorily convertible notes and $25 million in additional senior secured debt. According to papers filed in the Southern District of Texas last week, Tailored Brands needed the financing in order to continue operating, reported Women’s Wear Daily. The company “experienced unanticipated declines in its business” in December 2020 and early 2021, which caused it to “severely underperform against the financial projections upon which its chapter 11 plan of reorganization was based,” according to a notice of an emergency bankruptcy court hearing. Men’s Wearhouse, which exited chapter 11 in December, said that the financing will provide the company with additional liquidity “as it continues to advance its strategic plans to ensure it is best positioned to meet the evolving needs of its customers following the COVID-19 pandemic, and demonstrates the continued commitment of its investors to the long-term success of the company.”

The bankruptcy filing of Paper Source Inc. is squeezing small vendors the stationery chain uses to stock its shelves with greeting cards, Bloomberg News reported. Paper Source placed unusually large orders with greeting card suppliers in the months and weeks preceding the bankruptcy, according to interviews with two vendors and an outpouring of online complaints. The bankruptcy filing means that payment for those orders may be delayed and, in some cases, possibly never repaid in full. “If they were worried that we wouldn’t ship to them, they should’ve just paid up front for the product,” said Janie Velencia, owner of The Card Bureau in Washington, D.C. “$15,000 to them, that’s nothing. To a small business like me, that’s payroll, that’s rent.” Paper Source ordered more from The Card Bureau in a 60-day period than it had in all of 2020, according to Velencia. The chain ordered $5,000 worth of merchandise within 20 days of the filing and $10,000 in the weeks before that, she said. Vendors were asked for larger-than-usual orders after the holidays because Paper Source needed to stock 27 new stores it acquired from Papyrus, another stationery chain that went bankrupt last year, Chief Executive Officer Winnie Park said in an emailed statement. Most of the orders will get a higher repayment priority in bankruptcy because of their proximity to the filing, Park said.

Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro will announce details on a settlement agreement reached between the Office of the Attorney General and Chesapeake Energy, WNEP.com reported. Chesapeake Energy filed for bankruptcy in June 2020. The Office of the Attorney General filed a lawsuit against the company a few years ago looking to recover thousands of Pennsylvania landowners' money that were wrongfully deducted from fracking royalty checks.

The 805-room San Jose Fairmont Hotel, Silicon Valley’s largest hotel, has filed for bankruptcy and plans to restructure with a new brand and new management to reopen within 60 to 90 days, the San Francisco Chronicle reported. The temporary closure of the two-tower landmark hotel — which owner FMT SJ LLC said lost at least $18 million in 2020 and is projected to lose at least an additional $20 million this year — underscores the economic damage of the coronavirus pandemic on the hotel and tourism industries. The hotel closed Friday and relocated fewer than 50 guests to other hotels in San Jose and paid for their lodging, hotel spokesman Sam Singer said. All hospitality staff were laid off on Friday, including union members and hotel management, said Singer, who didn’t have the number of layoffs. They were paid through Friday. On Saturday, the only people at the hotel were security guards and engineers, Singer said.

AMC Entertainment Holdings Inc. head Adam Aron saw his compensation more than double to $20.9 million in 2020, even as COVID-19 decimated the movie-theater business, Bloomberg News reported. His pay mostly took the form of almost $15 million in stock awards, along with $5 million from two separate bonus payments and $1.11 million in base salary, the company said in a filing Friday. Aron received a total of $9.67 million for 2019. The company made the compensation decisions to “recognize the extraordinary actions taken by the management team during the COVID-19 pandemic to secure the company’s survival.” AMC, the largest theater chain, warned several times throughout 2020 it was near the brink of insolvency, eventually securing a rescue package at the start of 2021 to help stave off bankruptcy for most of the year. The Leawood, Kansas-based company also furloughed thousands of staff members, including its entire senior leadership team. The shares sank 71% in 2020. AMC’s outlook has improved in 2021, with sliding coronavirus case numbers allowing New York City to reopen its movies theaters this weekend. Shares in the company also surged after Reddit-using traders targeted the company. The stock is up 280% so far this year, closing at $8.05 on Friday in New York.