>I wonder what the mix between personal and business would be.
They don't do the math for you in the release, but you they give numbers for non-business by type, so if you add them together you can get total non-biz, and subtract that from the total total to get biz. 390,062 personal, 10,332 business. At an annual rate, we could do 1.5 million personal bankruptcies this year
Personal filings were up 20% for the first half of the year, business up 9%. For 00Q2 to 01Q2, the figures were +23% and +12% resp.
The personal rate, at 5.62 per 1,000 people, is a record by a comfortable margin. Last quarter, the fig was 5.15; a year ago, 4.62. After a 98Q2 peak of 5.36, the rate headed down through 00Q3, and then started heading up. In the worst year of the last credit trauma, 1992, it was just 3.53.
It wouldn't surprise me if lots of people were filing now in anticipation of a tightening of the bankruptcy code later this year.
I've said this before and I'll say it again - any USer with a lot of credit card debt should seriously consider filing for bankruptcy now, before the law is changed. The bad consequences are surprisingly mild, and the process surprisingly easy. Since Justin could return any moment and accuse me of practicing law without a license, I should also say - individual circs may vary, consult a lawyer before doing anything.
Doug