The North Carolina Bankruptcy Information Blog

You may have read on the blog, or elsewhere, that many are calling our current economy a “middle class recession.” This is because the numbers are way up on bankruptcies filed by those who make more than $60,000 per year, up 6.9 percent from 2008. Bankruptcies on the whole are up 36.5 percent from this time last year.

So why does it matter how much money a person makes when filing bankruptcy? Well, because bankruptcy is often considered an escape route for the financially unreliable or worse yet, “something poor people do.” It’s just not true.

Today, bankruptcies are increasing among people in the real estate profession, namely developers and agents.…

It happened.

After months of speculation, one of the largest companies in the world, General Motors, filed for bankruptcy. A giant bow was just tied around the recession and the gift of ownership in a grossly mismanaged industrial icon was granted to the American taxpayer, putting the final touches on a nicely enveloped national economic crisis.

In a Manhattan bankruptcy court, the company that brought the world the 57 Chevy Bel Air, Corvette and Pontiac GTO—icons of the car world—filed for Chapter 11 protection. Of course, General Motors also gave us the Hummer, Cavalier and Pontiac Aztec.

Chapter 11 is a form of bankruptcy that allows a business to re-organize, operationally and financially, and then “emerge” retooled and better prepared to serve customers.…