Bailing out

Here's a shocker: A new study shows that the leading source of personal bankruptcies in recent years is caused by...overspending. If that's the case, we're living in a bankrupt country.

A professor in the graduate school of management at the University of California-Davis said that while illness and unemployment were the previous primary reasons for filing bankruptcy, Americans just like to spend and spend and spend. No, duh.

Now the government is bailing out mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, which own or back about half the nation's mortgage debt, with a plan to inject up to $100 billion
in each of the government-chartered mortgage financiers. That helped the stock market on Monday, which saw stocks rise nearly 300 points. Nothing like gov'mint money to warm a banker's steel heart.

Back to the bankruptcy study, though. The study, which calls for bankruptcy law reform to prevent Americans from just running up debt, says such debt caused half of all recent bankruptcies, while being out of work caused 13 percent of filings and medical calamities, 5 percent.

The study also notes bankrupt households have bigger mortgages, bigger car loans and bigger credit card balances --- and earn half as much money --- than those who are solvent. Sounds like beside an obesity problem in the nation, we have a spending problem. But, then, so does the government.