Perhaps when we “thought” that economy was taking a turn for the better it appears that it actually might be taking a turn for the worse. According to this March press release issued by the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts states that bankruptcy filings in the federal courts rose an alarming 31.9% in 2009. The current bankruptcy numbers are at all time high since 2005.
This press release is just more evidence that our current U.S. economy is in very serious trouble and something drastic needs to be done to fix it before things get worse.
This high number of bankruptcies is just further evidence that the middle class is truly struggling. It is not as if we needed more evidence of this but this is just more fuel for the fire for those advocates that would like to see the government step in and take more decisive action towards fixing our economy.
If we continue down on our current path, things will definitely end up getting worse before they get better. It appears that we are headed or smack dab in the middles of another great depression. With foreclosure soaring, banks imploding and bankruptcy filings rising each and every month a depression like situation will be hard to debate.
- According to current 2010 numbers this trend of increasing bankruptcies does not appear to be slowing down either.
Economists predict that the specific industries that could be hit the hardest in 2010 are retail, commercial real estate and oil and natural gas. With factors such as weak consumer spending, high unemployment and foreclosures still prevalent in today’s economy these are likely to be the causes for more bankruptcies.
While pretty much every section of the US was hit hard by these bankruptcy numbers the Western part of the country was certainly hit the hardest. Arizona had a 77% increase in 2009 while Nevada, Wyoming, California and Utah all recorded at least a 50% increase. This trend can be expected to continue as this region still struggles today.
This is a gloomy report to see the total number of bankruptcies filed in 2009 was up 31.6% from 2008. These numbers are certainly not a vote of confidence for those of us who were hoping that the US economy was starting to get back onto it’s feet and show signs of recovery.
To make things worse initial reports for the year 2010 look very dismal for the people on Main Street. It seems almost certain that we can expect these record number of bankruptcies to continue to soar throughout 2010.
