Broadly speaking, the relatively small change in the average employment per firm seen in the data suggests that the downturn has not favoured large firms over small, and also that the employment decline has been driven more by firm closure than by partial lay-offs.
The NAMC would perform several functions to get the ball rolling: raise debt, say government-guaranteed in part, for its financing needs; possibly raise some more to pay off banks at a haircut, likely steep but softened by payment in the form of security receipts against the asset’s cash flows; keep a minority equity stake for the government; and, bring in asset managers such as ARCs and private equity to manage and turn around the assets, individually or as a portfolio.