The North Carolina Bankruptcy Information Blog

If you’re unemployed you have a ton to worry about.

Past due bills, mounting debts, going without health insurance, possible repossession of your car or foreclosure of your home, are just some of the not-so-pleasant thoughts plaguing the millions of average Americans facing extended joblessness.

Unfortunately, now there’s one more concern to add to the job market meltdown mix: a new report by the National Employment Law Project has found that employers are continuing to discriminate against unemployed people in their online job ads despite increased scrutiny surrounding the nation’s hiring practices.

According to a new report by The Huffington Post, “The jobs crisis is far from over: As of June, nearly 6.3 million U.S.…

Just when the financial experts said it was safe to call the economy “in recovery,” Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner says many Americans will face hard times for a long time to come.

Geithner reemphasized in an episode of “Meet the Press” that we remain in the midst of a very tough economy in which, for a lot of people, “it’s going to feel very hard, harder than anything they’ve experienced in their lifetime now, for a long time to come.” He also revealed that he believed  President Barack Obama has rescued the United States from a second Great Depression and will continue the hard work of trying to strengthen the economy.  Unfortunately, Geithner also predicted that it would be some time before many people actually feel like the country is recovering.…

You may have been waiting and hoping and wishing and praying that things will soon get back to normal. Maybe you’ve lost your job. Maybe you’re close to losing your home. Maybe you’re even thinking you may lose it all. But you don’t file for bankruptcy. You wait, hope, and believe that economic times can’t be tough forever; and that you can make it through without the help of a bankruptcy lawyer.

Well, maybe you’re right. Maybe times can’t be tough forever. But many are saying things won’t return to pre-recessionary times for a long while, or possibly ever. And for many unemployed workers, their jobs may never come back.…

Facing foreclosure.

Escalating medical costs.

High interest credit crunch.

Rising unemployment.

And that’s just January 2010.

While times are admittedly tough for everyone—with the poor getting poorer and even the recently rich and famous falling on hard times—a truly unique phenomenon of the recent global recession and continual economic downturn is how catastrophic it’s been for our country’s middle class, driving many in the majority further and “further from the American Dream” and, in some cases, “directly into poverty.”

As The Huffington Post reported this week in Laura Bassett’s insightful article “Middle Class No More, Families Struggle to Fight off Homelessness,” those in power are not blind to the desperate bind of average Americans: “President Obama, in his remarks to Senate Democrats on [February 3], pointed out that the middle class was hurting even before the recession.…

Home foreclosures, job losses, massive consumer debt and health care costs have millions on the edge of financial ruin, struggling every single day even as we’re told by some that the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression is “technically over.”

If you’re affected by any of the above and you’re here, you may be considering bankruptcy. But, as we work towards financial freedom, it’s important to also consider, times are indeed tough for some more than others. And in this economic recession, spurred by downturns in our nation’s financial institutions, the most beloved banks in America are now food banks.…