a meaningful measurement, such as wealth written off versus wealth created, would be more instructive.
Whole America (in fact Europe also) for the second time in his history is virtually in Bankruptcy but they will wait a market crash before announcing it so that people would find an "unexpected" reason for that. In fact this bankruptcy is just the consequence of the first: your debt in 1929 have never been cleaned up and they are cumulated up to present day ! For history remembering this is official declarations in Congress in 1933: Congressman Lemke: "....This nation is bankrupt; every State in this Union is bankrupt; the people of the United States, as a whole, are bankrupt. The public and private debts of this Nation, which are evidenced by bonds, mortgages, notes, or other written instruments about to about $250,000,000,000, and it is estimated that there is about $50,000,000,000 of which there is no record, making in all about $300,000,000,000 of public and private debts. The total physical cash value of all the property in the United States is now estimated at about $70,000,000,000. That is more than it would bring if sold at public auction. In this we do not include debts or the evidence of debts, such as bonds, mortgages, and so fourth. These are not physical property. They will have to be paid out of the physical property. How are we going to pay $300,000,000,000 with only $70,000,000,000?" Congressional Record, March 3, 1934, footnote #10 Congressman McFadden: "I hope that is the case, but I may say to the gentleman that during the sessions of this Economic Conference in London there is another meeting taking place in London. We were advised by reports from London last Sunday of the arrival of George L.Harrison, Governor of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, and we were advised that accompanying him was Mr. Crane, the Deputy Governor, and James P. Warburg, of the Kuhn-Loeb banking family, of New York and Hamburg, Germany, and also Mr. O. M. W. Sprague, recently in the pay of Great Britain as chief economic and financial adviser of Mr. Norman, Governor of the Bank Of England, and now supposed to represent our Treasury. These men landed in England and rushed to the Bank of England for a private conference, taking their luggage with them, before even going to their hotel. We know this conference has been taking place for the past 3 days behind closed doors in the Bank of England with these gentlemen meeting with heads of the Bank of England and the Bank for International Settlements, of Basel, Switzerland, and the head of the Bank France, Mr. Maret. They are discussing war debts; they are discussing stabilization of exchanges and the Federal Reserve System,I may say to the Members of the House. The Federal reserve System, headed by George L. Harrison, is our premier, who is dealing with debts behind the closed doors of the Bank of England; and the United States Treasury is there, represented by O. M. W. Sprague, who until the last 10 days was the representative of the Bank of England, and by Mr. James P. Warburg, who is the son of the principal author of the Federal Reserve Act. Many things are being settled behind the closed doors of the Bank of England by this group. No doubt this group were pleased to hear that yesterday the Congress passed amendments to the Federal Reserve Act and that the President signed the bill which turns over to the Federal Reserve System the complete total financial resources of money and credit in the United States. Apparently the domination and control of the international banking group is being trengthened.... Congressional Record, June 14, 1934
The personal bankruptcies don't have much to do with recession. They are caused by easy credit card availability, divorce, and uninsured medical in no particular order. Same old story. Been that way for years now. Nice steady growth in filings year after year. You can only wet the bed every 6 years and I know some lawyers that are getting to their 3rd time around filing with the same debtors.
Someone wrote a book saying that the reason for all these bankruptcies was 2 income households increasing their fixed expenses to match their income. Its not the DVDs or the dinners at Red Lobster that kills you, its when two $60K earners buy a BMW and a $350K mini-mansion. There is no room for error, no slack in the system.
harry, Google 'BCCI' and 'Jimmy Carter' and quit getting your history by cutting and pasting from those commie conspiracy sites.