Happy Days Are Here Again: U.S. Bankruptcies See Dramatic Spike
So...maybe we can start singing "Put On A Happy Face" after all.
In yet another sign that so-called economic recovery is humming along quite swimmingly, at least according to certain individuals in the Washington, D.C. area not all that long ago, bankruptcies in the United States have reached a level that is just slightly higher than someone who got a contact buzz at a Phish concert. Jonathan Stempel of Reuters reported on Tuesday that "bankruptcy filings have reached the highest level since 2005" according to federal government data. In the words of Ron Burgundy: "Great Odin's raven!"
In all seriousness, this report is nothing to sneeze at, peeps. Now that we can combine egregiously increased bankruptcies with the fact that the economy is already performing worse than Michael Lohan at "Take Your Daughter to Work Day," what might seem like a bad long-term outlook for the country just seems to be getting worse. According to Stempel's report, there were just over 422,000 separate bankruptcy filings in the second quarter of this year, which is a roughly 9 percent increase from the first quarter and an 11 percent increase from the second quarter of 2009. I don't give a damn how anyone slices it, those are some painful stats.
Yeah, but that's "only" 9 percent. It can't actually get worse than that...right? "Why, yes. Yes it does," said Mr. Hewitt with a pep in his step and a song in his heart.
Those quarterly numbers eerily pale in comparison when you start looking at bankruptcies over a full 12 month period. Stempel continued: "For the year ended June 30, there were 1.57 million bankruptcies, up 20 percent from 1.31 million a year earlier. Consumer bankruptcies rose 21 percent to 1.51 million, and business bankruptcies rose 9 percent to 59,608." You did read that correctly, little troopers. Filings overall were up 20 percent, which in a masochistic way, doesn't even seem quite as bad when you start examining state numbers, such as in Maryland. In a Washington Examiner report, also released Tuesday, by Emily Babay, while filings were up in the year that ended June 30 in Washington, D.C. and the Eastern District of Virginia by 26 percent and 15.4 percent respectively, the "Old Line State" of Maryland saw a staggering 36 percent increase in filings in the same period, due in part to a large number of home foreclosures...not that I need to beat a dead horse and go into the housing bubble's role in our current economic situation.
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