As We Forgive Our Debtors Bankruptcy and Consumer Credit in America

Bankruptcy in America is a booming business. Hundreds of thousands of ordinary Americans each year have joined giant corporations, like Johns Manville and Continental Airlines, and once-wealthy individuals, like John Connally, in filing for bankruptcy. Is this dramatic growth a result of mushrooming debt, or does it reflect a moral decline that permits the middle class to evade their debts?;This book addresses these questions with the data gathered in a large empirical study of consumer bankruptcy. The authors of this multi-disciplinary study describe the law and the statistics combining a thorough statistical description of the social and economic positions of consumer bankrupts with human portraits of the debtors and creditors whose journey has ended in bankruptcy court.;In addition to an overall picture of bankruptcy, this book devotes several chapters to hidden subgroups in bankruptcy. One focuses on single women and one-income families, another on homeowners, and other chapters discuss the role of medical debts and the financial pressures on small businesses. The book also provides a detailed analysis of the position of various types of creditors whose debtors go bankrupt.