by James Oliphant
Here's another sign that the economy perhaps is bottoming out.
Bankruptcy filings in federal court increased 38 percent in 2007, to more than 850,000 people nationwide, the administrative office of the U.S. courts said Tuesday.
That's significant because the numbers dropped precipitously in 2006 following passage of the Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act, which made it more difficult for individuals to discharge their debts.
After that act was passed by Congress, filings fell 70 percent. Some of that was attributable to some filing before the act became law in October 2005. That year saw some 2 million bankruptcy filings.
Perhaps tellingly, filings involving business debts, as opposed to consumer debts like credit cards, saw the greatest increase. Those spiked 44 percent in 2007.
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Comments
This can't be true!
Bush jr said the economy was fine and John W McCain said that the economy was going great.
"I don't believe we're headed into a recession," he said, "I believe the fundamentals of this economy are strong and I believe they will remain strong."
-JOHN MCCAIN - 1/17/08
The Same Old Politics
McCain and Bush are one in the same on the economy. They've told us the economy is strong, we're just in a rough patch and we're not headed into a recession.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WRV8Q9IBDxk&eurl=http://www.dailykos.com/
Posted by: John E | April 15, 2008 2:16 PM
I wonder how many of these bankruptcies are pull 'em up by your bootstraps republicans who whine about welfare queens and social programs? Someone whould do a survey.
Posted by: Grandblvd03 | April 15, 2008 2:22 PM
70% of Americans disapprove of President Bush's handling of the economy. God forbid that economic theorist John McCain get his hand in the tax payers pockets with his endless WAR and endless flip-flops. The Double Talk Express wants you...to go get killed in Iraq for Dick Cheney and his millionaire cronies.
Don't be fooled.
THE REAL McCAIN!!!
http://bravenewfilms.org/blog/577-escalation
He is an old dope. He cannot even keep Iran and Iraq straight-why? Because he does not understand foreign relations. How would he ever put a cabinet together and lead the free world?
http://bravenewfilms.org/blog/28073-less-jobs-more-wars
http://bravenewfilms.org/blog/575-47-second-flip-flop
John McCain is a joke, a sloppily construed aesthetic of a man that Corporate America has manufactured in hopes that the American public will rally around his facade. Some buy into it (like MJ below) and some don't. The simplest fact of the matter at hand is that personal good is relative (and easily manipulated), but collective good is the equilibrium we seek to realize by electing representatives. A person opting to represent others who brazenly declares that there will be more and more war -regardless of whether or not they are elected themselves- is not seeking the equilibrium of the collective good, but is campaigning to alter your perception of both personal- and collective good.
Posted by: McBush Family Value$ | April 15, 2008 2:24 PM
With the top 20 % of us gaining wealth at 5 times the middle class, I really can't be bothered with people who can't pull themselves up by their boot straps.
This is what we call "Trickle Down Economics". Just be patient, it will come some day!!!
Posted by: Raving Loon | April 15, 2008 3:05 PM