* [h/t Frodo Baggins]
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The cost of everything is still rising fast, despite the influx of ready cash to taxpayers in the way of rebates going to pay arrears on the mortgage or electric bill. The number of people losing their homes and losing their jobs continues to rise as well. And in a little-publicized indicator no one likes to talk much about these days, the number of Americans declaring bankruptcy is shooting through the roof – up nearly 30% [27.0] in the first quarter of 2008 over the same period in 2007. As Samuel J. Gerdano, Executive Director of the American Bankruptcy Institute says…
“Bankruptcies are rising due to the heavy burden of household debt and growing mortgage problems. We expect this trend to continue through 2008.
So there doesn’t look to be any break in the recession cloud this year, with indicators that it may well descend all the way into depression by election day in November.
I saw an interesting series over at the Popcrunch website entitled Famous People Who Lost It All, which really quite surprised me. The surprise wasn’t the famous people who had it all and died destitute, but the famous people who had it all, lost it all, then got it back. For instance…
I didn’t know that 5-time Academy Award winning producer Francis Ford Coppola had to declare bankruptcy in 1982 after the musical One From The Heart failed. At which point he borrowed money from his mother and went into the winery business and did just fine.
Nor did I know that Walt Disney declared bankruptcy in 1923 after his first company – the Laugh-O-Gram Corporation – went belly-up. So he moved to Hollywood, and the rest is history! Abraham Lincoln declared bankruptcy in 1833 when his business failed. He paid off his obligations and had a rather spectacular political career right up to the moment of his death. Political pamphleteer and revolutionary Thomas Paine came to America due to bankruptcy in England in 1774, and the ‘Great Master’ Rembrandt went bankrupt in 1656.
So it’s not all just heiresses, actors and rock stars that get rich, lose it all, and manage to do quite well for themselves! If you’re in a situation that bankruptcy might help alleviate (because the falling economy isn’t going to turn around), you might find the series at popcrunch heartening.
Links:
Consumer Bankruptcy: The Complete Guide
Bankruptcy Law – Consumer Bankruptcy Information
Major Consumer Bankruptcy Effects of the 2005 Reform Legislation [pdf]
Family Legal Guide: Bankruptcy [pdf]
