Explain "buying debt"

[livinitup0]

[ QUOTE ]
The guy in question is renowned investor Eddie Lampert. He came out pretty well on this "ripoff"

http://money.cnn.com/2006/02/03/news...pert/index.htm

[/ QUOTE ]

If this was retail Kmart credit extensions via credit cards or instore credit then yeah 40% is a joke and this isnt true....however after reading more of the posts, I take it this is a bit different than the OP described?

I had assumed by the way I read the OP he was referring to commercial debt of their credit departments. If this was something more like corporate liens changings hands or higher end protfolios then I can see that. I havent read any of the linked pages but I assume he had some sort of an established financial investment or risk management company?

Its an interesting industry to say the least....but there's a lot of red tape and lawyers the farther away you get from retail debt acquisition.