Bankrupt In America

Author : Mary Eschelbach Hansen,Bradley A. Hansen
Publisher : University of Chicago Press
Page : 237 pages
File Size : 41,5 Mb
Release : 2020-02-05
Category : Business & Economics
ISBN : 9780226679730

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Bankrupt in America by Mary Eschelbach Hansen,Bradley A. Hansen Pdf

In 2005, more than two million Americans—six out of every 1,000 people—filed for bankruptcy. Though personal bankruptcy rates have since stabilized, bankruptcy remains an important tool for the relief of financially distressed households. In Bankrupt in America, Mary and Brad Hansen offer a vital perspective on the history of bankruptcy in America, beginning with the first lasting federal bankruptcy law enacted in 1898. Interweaving careful legal history and rigorous economic analysis, Bankrupt in America is the first work to trace how bankruptcy was transformed from an intermittently used constitutional provision, to an indispensable tool for business, to a central element of the social safety net for ordinary Americans. To do this, the authors track federal bankruptcy law, as well as related state and federal laws, examining the interaction between changes in the laws and changes in how people in each state used the bankruptcy law. In this thorough investigation, Hansen and Hansen reach novel conclusions about the causes and consequences of bankruptcy, adding nuance to the discussion of the relationship between bankruptcy rates and economic performance.

Author : Edward I. Altman
Publisher : Unknown
Page : 230 pages
File Size : 47,7 Mb
Release : 1971
Category : Bankruptcy
ISBN : UOM:35128000318756

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Corporate Bankruptcy in America by Edward I. Altman Pdf

Author : Mary Eschelbach Hansen,Bradley A. Hansen
Publisher : Markets and Governments in Economic History
Page : 237 pages
File Size : 52,7 Mb
Release : 2020
Category : Bankruptcy
ISBN : 9780226679563

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Bankrupt in America by Mary Eschelbach Hansen,Bradley A. Hansen Pdf

"In Bankrupt in America, Mary and Brad Hansen show that examination of how Americans have used bankruptcy law and the history of the law itself offers important perspective on the history of bankruptcy in America. Using new statistical and documentary evidence, they illustrate the cycles of interaction between bankruptcy law's use and its own evolution. The authors first offer a broad overview of the laws at various levels governing the collection of debt and position their research in the literature on bankruptcy. They establish the need for a framework that integrates various lines of thought, and introduce of the methods of their approach, which incorporates new institutional economics and cliometrics, that is, the incorporation of econometric data analysis. They then illustrate the general path to bankruptcy by discussing the series of decisions that creditors and debtors make at every stage and how various formal and informal institutions influence these decisions. The core of the book will comprise a generally chronological narrative from 1898, when the first major federal bankruptcy law was enacted to an end point of 2005. Hansen and Hansen reach novel conclusions about causes and consequences of bankruptcy and raise nuances in the relationship between bankruptcy rates and economic growth. For instance, while higher bankruptcy rates are usually considered a negative, the authors show that higher bankruptcy may actually signal economic growth if it is due to an expansion of credit markets. Further, the authors contribute to our understanding of what drives differences in bankruptcy rates among states by illustrating the influence of the broader legal framework. Ultimately, this work find that long-run growth in personal bankruptcy is the result of growth in credit and that the study of legal governance provides useful viewpoints from which to draw out patterns in bankruptcy"--

Author : David A. Skeel Jr.
Publisher : Princeton University Press
Page : 296 pages
File Size : 54,8 Mb
Release : 2014-04-24
Category : Business & Economics
ISBN : 9781400828500

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Debt's Dominion by David A. Skeel Jr. Pdf

Bankruptcy in America, in stark contrast to its status in most other countries, typically signifies not a debtor's last gasp but an opportunity to catch one's breath and recoup. Why has the nation's legal system evolved to allow both corporate and individual debtors greater control over their fate than imaginable elsewhere? Masterfully probing the political dynamics behind this question, David Skeel here provides the first complete account of the remarkable journey American bankruptcy law has taken from its beginnings in 1800, when Congress lifted the country's first bankruptcy code right out of English law, to the present day. Skeel shows that the confluence of three forces that emerged over many years--an organized creditor lobby, pro-debtor ideological currents, and an increasingly powerful bankruptcy bar--explains the distinctive contours of American bankruptcy law. Their interplay, he argues in clear, inviting prose, has seen efforts to legislate bankruptcy become a compelling battle royale between bankers and lawyers--one in which the bankers recently seem to have gained the upper hand. Skeel demonstrates, for example, that a fiercely divided bankruptcy commission and the 1994 Republican takeover of Congress have yielded the recent, ideologically charged battles over consumer bankruptcy. The uniqueness of American bankruptcy has often been noted, but it has never been explained. As different as twenty-first century America is from the horse-and-buggy era origins of our bankruptcy laws, Skeel shows that the same political factors continue to shape our unique response to financial distress.

Author : Peter J. Coleman
Publisher : Beard Books
Page : 322 pages
File Size : 51,5 Mb
Release : 1999
Category : Business & Economics
ISBN : 9781893122147

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Debtors and Creditors in America by Peter J. Coleman Pdf

Americans now depend more heavily upon credit than any other society on Earth, or any other time in history. Borrowing has become a way of life for millions of families, and it is hard to imagine a time when charge accounts did not exist. Nonetheless, it would be a mistake to assume that, because a wallet filled with plastic instead of cash is a relatively new phenomenon, Americans have not been borrowers and lenders since the colonization of the New World. Author Peter J. Coleman proves otherwise. In one Form or another -- notes of hand, book credit, commercial paper, mortgages, land contracts -- settlers borrowed to pay their passage from Europe, to buy and clear land, to build and operate mills, to purchase slaves, and to gamble and drink. Debtors' prison awaited those who could not pay their debts, and a pauper's grave received the unfortunate who lacked the private means to feed and clothe himself in prison. While the debtors' prisons described in this book no longer exist, the author maintains that our credit-oriented society has yet to devise cheap, efficient, equitable, and humane methods of enforcing contracts for debt.

Author : Bruce H. Mann
Publisher : Harvard University Press
Page : 372 pages
File Size : 48,8 Mb
Release : 2009-04-15
Category : History
ISBN : 9780674265783

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Republic of Debtors by Bruce H. Mann Pdf

Debt was an inescapable fact of life in early America. At the beginning of the eighteenth century, its sinfulness was preached by ministers and the right to imprison debtors was unquestioned. By 1800, imprisonment for debt was under attack and insolvency was no longer seen as a moral failure, merely an economic setback. In Republic of Debtors, Bruce H. Mann illuminates this crucial transformation in early American society. From the wealthy merchant to the backwoods farmer, Mann tells the personal stories of men and women struggling to repay their debts and stay ahead of their creditors. He opens a window onto a society undergoing such fundamental changes as the growth of a commercial economy, the emergence of a consumer marketplace, and a revolution for independence. In addressing debt Americans debated complicated questions of commerce and agriculture, nationalism and federalism, dependence and independence, slavery and freedom. And when numerous prominent men—including the richest man in America and a justice of the Supreme Court—found themselves imprisoned for debt or forced to become fugitives from creditors, their fate altered the political dimensions of debtor relief, leading to the highly controversial Bankruptcy Act of 1800. Whether a society forgives its debtors is not just a question of law or economics; it goes to the heart of what a society values. In chronicling attitudes toward debt and bankruptcy in early America, Mann explores the very character of American society.

Author : Teresa A. Sullivan,Elizabeth Warren,Jay Lawrence Westbrook
Publisher : Beard Books
Page : 392 pages
File Size : 40,5 Mb
Release : 1999
Category : Business & Economics
ISBN : 1893122158

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As We Forgive Our Debtors by Teresa A. Sullivan,Elizabeth Warren,Jay Lawrence Westbrook Pdf

Bankruptcy in America is a booming business, with hundreds of thousands of ordinary Americans filing for bankruptcy each year. 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? As We Forgive Our Debtors addresses these questions with hard empirical data drawn from bankruptcy court filings. The authors of this multidisciplinary study describe the law and the statistics in clear, nontechnical language, combining a thorough statistical description of the social and economic position of consumer bankrupts with human portraits of the debtors and creditors whose journeys have ended in bankruptcy court. Book jacket.

Author : Peter Ferrara
Publisher : Harper Collins
Page : 431 pages
File Size : 50,6 Mb
Release : 2011-06-14
Category : Business & Economics
ISBN : 9780062092199

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America's Ticking Bankruptcy Bomb by Peter Ferrara Pdf

In America’s Ticking Bankruptcy Bomb, conservative policy expert Peter Ferrara explores the issue that will be THE hot-button topic from now until the 2012 presidential election: the looming bankruptcy of the federal government of the United States of America. Providing indisputable evidence that the American welfare state, aggressively expanded by Barack Obama and the Democrats in Congress, is on the verge of rapid and total collapse, Ferrara offers concrete proposals for reforming entitlement programs along free market lines that will shift responsibility from centralized bureaucracies to individual Americans. For every concerned citizen, America’s Ticking Bankruptcy Bomb is a must-read—a blueprint for avoiding the impending catastrophe before it’s too late.

Author : Sebastian Edwards
Publisher : Princeton University Press
Page : 288 pages
File Size : 41,6 Mb
Release : 2019-09-10
Category : Business & Economics
ISBN : 9780691196046

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American Default by Sebastian Edwards Pdf

The untold story of how FDR did the unthinkable to save the American economy.

Author : Thomas Cooper
Publisher : Unknown
Page : 574 pages
File Size : 47,7 Mb
Release : 1801
Category : Bankruptcy
ISBN : NYPL:33433024522744

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The Bankrupt Law of America by Thomas Cooper Pdf

Author : Harry E. Figgie,Gerald J. Swanson
Publisher : Little Brown
Page : 234 pages
File Size : 40,5 Mb
Release : 1992
Category : Debts, Public
ISBN : 0316282057

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Bankruptcy 1995 by Harry E. Figgie,Gerald J. Swanson Pdf

Explains how serious the federal fiscal situation is, how the crisis happened, what will happen in the near future, and what can be done about it.

Author : Katherine Porter
Publisher : Stanford University Press
Page : 322 pages
File Size : 49,6 Mb
Release : 2012-01-11
Category : Social Science
ISBN : 9780804780582

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Broke by Katherine Porter Pdf

About 1.5 million households filed bankruptcy in the last year, making bankruptcy as common as college graduation and divorce. The recession has pushed more and more families into financial collapse—with unemployment, declines in retirement wealth, and falling house values destabilizing the American middle class. Broke explores the consequences of this unprecedented growth in consumer debt and shows how excessive borrowing undermines the prosperity of middle class America. While the recession that began in mid-2007 has widened the scope of the financial pain caused by overindebtedness, the problem predated that large-scale economic meltdown. And by all indicators, consumer debt will be a defining feature of middle-class families for years to come. The staples of middle-class life—going to college, buying a house, starting a small business—carry with them more financial risk than ever before, requiring more borrowing and new riskier forms of borrowing. This book reveals the people behind the statistics, looking closely at how people get to the point of serious financial distress, the hardships of dealing with overwhelming debt, and the difficulty of righting one's financial life. In telling the stories of financial failures, this book exposes an all-too-real part of middle-class life that is often lost in the success stories that dominate the American economic narrative. Authored by experts in several disciplines, including economics, law, political science, psychology, and sociology, Broke presents analyses from an original, proprietary data set of unprecedented scope and detail, the 2007 Consumer Bankruptcy Project. Topics include class status, home ownership, educational attainment, impacts of self-employment, gender differences, economic security, and the emotional costs of bankruptcy. The book makes judicious use of illustrations to present key findings and concludes with a discussion of the implications of the data for contemporary policy debates.

Author : Joseph Nathan Cohen
Publisher : Bloomsbury Publishing USA
Page : 142 pages
File Size : 44,6 Mb
Release : 2017-04-24
Category : Business & Economics
ISBN : 9798216084464

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Financial Crisis in American Households by Joseph Nathan Cohen Pdf

More than one-third of Americans could not sustain a basic livelihood without government assistance. Almost 60 percent of seniors are dependent on the government. Why is this? This book examines how the U.S. economy's failure to deliver high-quality, universally accessible basic necessities is creating acute financial insecurity among the American middle class. Over the past 30 years, America's middle class has grown more financially insecure. How much of this pressing problem is due to Americans' failure to restrain their spending versus their upwards spiraling—and increasingly necessary—expenditures on health care, education, and housing? And how can Americans choose between financial security and paying for essentials on a day-to-day basis? This book answers these tough questions and many more in its evaluation of a complex and contentious issue: how basic expenses of life in the 21st century are bankrupting American families. The book begins with a snapshot of U.S. household finances, an assessment of financial insecurity's prevalence across the nation, and a description of how American households have declined into their present precarious economic situation over the last three decades. The author's analysis then looks at how European countries pursue policies that make these essentials highly accessible and postulates that the socialization of these essentials in other countries has helped to solidify household finances and maintain living standards. The work uniquely focuses on the plight of the middle class in America to provide relevant, useful information to help as many readers as possible to better understand and improve their own financial situations.

Author : Teresa A. Sullivan,Elizabeth Warren,Jay Lawrence Westbrook
Publisher : Yale University Press
Page : 405 pages
File Size : 48,7 Mb
Release : 2020-02-18
Category : Bankruptcy
ISBN : 9780300251890

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The Fragile Middle Class by Teresa A. Sullivan,Elizabeth Warren,Jay Lawrence Westbrook Pdf

Why have so many middle-class Americans encountered so much financial trouble? In this classic analysis of hard-pressed families, the authors discover that financial stability for many middle-class Americans is all too fragile. The authors consider the changing cultural and economic factors that threaten financial security and what they imply for the future vitality of the middle class. A new preface examines the persistent and new threats that have emerged since the original publication. "[A] fascinating, alarming study. . . . [This] chilling diagnosis of middle-class affliction demonstrates that we all may be only a job loss, medical problem or credit card indulgence away from the downward spiral leading to bankruptcy."--Publishers Weekly "A well-designed and carefully executed study."--Andrew Greeley, University of Chicago "The Fragile Middle Class, a well-written work of social science that is about as gripping as the genre gets, forces us to reevaluate notions about consumerism."--American Prospect

Author : Jerry Robinson
Publisher : New Leaf Publishing Group
Page : 320 pages
File Size : 53,6 Mb
Release : 2012-08-12
Category : Business & Economics
ISBN : 9781614582601

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Bankruptcy of Our Nation (Revised and Expanded) by Jerry Robinson Pdf

"It's no secret that the U.S. national debt is in the tens of trillions. But did you know that America also has future unfunded obligations of over $118 trillion? Unfortunately, America's politicians have no plan to solve our mounting fiscal and monetary crisis. But you don't have to watch this unfold in fear of your financial future. The time for debate is over... It's time to prepare! In this revised and expanded release of Bankruptcy of Our Nation, Jerry Robinson offers you the ultimate financial survival guide. Robinson, an Austrian economist, columnist, and radio host, is featured weekly on Worldnetdaily.com, quoted by USA Today, has appeared on Fox News, and has written columns for Townhall and FinancialSense. Allow him to guide you with details of the 21 income streams you can create now and in retirement Specific ways to inflation-proof your investment portfolio using the P.A.C.E. (Precious Metals, Agriculture, Commodities, and Energy) Method How to create a diversified six-month liquid savings reserve that uses stable foreign currencies and precious metals. And the 5 Levels of Financial Freedom that Jerry has personally used to build true wealth and create complete financial security. You can survive this economic crisis, but you can't wait. It’s time to take action. Let this book show you how to become a better investor and create multiple streams of income."