Boy, that bankruptcy bill’s coming back to bite them in the ass, isn’t it? As Brendan says, which would they rather have - someone who files for bankruptcy over $5000 in credit card debt, or someone who simply walks away from their mortgage?
Foreclosure filings soared 75% in 2007 from a year earlier as credit trouble and falling home values fell on homeowners, a foreclosure-listing service said.
There were 2.2 million foreclosure filings last year. More than 1% of all U.S. households were in some stage of foreclosure during the year, up from 0.58% in 2006, RealtyTrac said.
did you see FDL yesterday? Schumer and Stabenow say they’re going to fix the bankruptcy bill.
Better late than never I guess, but still, I wonder how many of their investments tanked before they put 2 and 2 together…
Thanks for the link to Brendan’s. Nice stuff over there. Schumer and Stabenow are going to “fix” the ‘ruptcy bill? This should be good. Sorry if I’m not sanguine.
Although it’s a good thing that the Democrats may finally get around to fixing their blunder from 2005, I should point out that the two things (the 2005 BARF Act and the foreclosure crisis) aren’t really related, except in the sense that people have been fed the line that it is more difficult to file bankruptcy. The 2005 BARF Act made it slightly more difficult for middle class consumers to file under Chapter 7, and receive a simple discharge of their credit card debts. But for consumers who are falling behind on mortgage payments, particularly ARM’s, a Chapter 7 isn’t going to help a great deal anyway. To save their home, those consumers have to file under Chapter 13, which the new law favors, where they must repay their mortgage arrears over a 3-5 year period. The problem that needs to be fixed with the bankruptcy code concerning ARM’s predate the 2005 BARF Act, and the Dems in Congress (led by Reps. Sanchez and Miller) are already acting in that regard.