Personal bankruptcies (click here) in the United States have had a dynamic history over the past 100 years. Bankruptcy filings in the first half of the 20th century averaged 0.15 per 1,000 people and grew at an average annual rate of 2.4 percent. Bankruptcies began to increase during the 1960s and have grown dramatically since 1980. Between 1980 and 2004, bankruptcies grew at an annual average rate of 7.6 percent a year. As of 2004, the filing rate was 5.3 per 1,000 people, more than four times the 1980 rate and nearly 80 times the 1920 rate.
These statistics, however, disguise the fact that personal bankruptcy filings are not equal across the country. For example, at the state level, Tennessee had the highest rate of personal bankruptcy filings in the nation in 2004, with more than 10 filings per 1,000 people (nearly twice the U.S. rate) whereas Massachusetts ranked last with 2.8 filings per 1,000 people. States in the Eighth Federal Reserve District had an average filing rate of 7.7 per 1,000 people in 2004, which is greater than the U.S. average, but the growth in bankruptcy filings in Eighth District states between 1980 and 2004 averaged 7.2 percent a year, slightly below the U.S. average growth of 7.6 percent a year....
And then came 2008 and enormous unemployment.
The employment report out on Friday just goes to show that the American economy is still struggling to create jobs for average Americans. In fact 85,000 more jobs were lost in December but that isn’t the biggest data point out of the report. The civilian labor force shrunk by a stunning 661,000 and that is really the only reason the unemployment rate is still at 10 percent. This economy that is still very much in a jobs recession has pushed more and more Americans into the ultimate economic distress equivalent of a SOS. Bankruptcies are soaring and in 2009 1.41 million Americans filed for personal bankruptcies, a jump of 32 percent from 2008.
And then came 2008 and enormous unemployment.
The employment report out on Friday just goes to show that the American economy is still struggling to create jobs for average Americans. In fact 85,000 more jobs were lost in December but that isn’t the biggest data point out of the report. The civilian labor force shrunk by a stunning 661,000 and that is really the only reason the unemployment rate is still at 10 percent. This economy that is still very much in a jobs recession has pushed more and more Americans into the ultimate economic distress equivalent of a SOS. Bankruptcies are soaring and in 2009 1.41 million Americans filed for personal bankruptcies, a jump of 32 percent from 2008.
This must put the recent stock market rally into perspective. The average American is still trying to negotiate the new economic landscape while the select few are able to increase their wealth at the expense of the many.
