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it's still hard to understand the motivation, because these husks of companies with large debts (like toys r us) keep ending up defaulting on their loans. so at the least, the people that make those big loans lost. I pay moderate attention to my 401k, but I notice (at least when I look :-)) when I have a giant loss. How can these bond or loan companies afford to lose so much and stay in business?

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Not all of the stakeholders lose. The suppliers, employees and vendors of the company lose.

But the entities that write these loans make their money in different ways and may not actually lose as much as you think, or at all!

> How can these bond or loan companies afford to lose so much and stay in business?

Scale. The same way VCs only count on one or two wins to pay for the rest of the losses.

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