Consumer Bankruptcy Project

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Consumer Bankruptcy Project in the News

 

The main segment on the April 18, 2021, episode of Last Week Tonight with John Oliver focused on consumer bankruptcy. The segment referenced two of our articles relying on CBP data: Portraits of Bankruptcy Filers and Life in the Sweatbox.

 LWT - Snips

 

Reporting on Graying of U.S. Bankruptcy: Fallout from Life in a Risk Society

Bankruptcy BoomsIn this article, we find more than a two-fold increase in the rate at which older Americans (age 65 and over) file for bankruptcy and an almost five-fold increase in the percentage of older persons in the U.S. bankruptcy system. Tara Siegel Bernard, a personal finance reporter for The New York Times, profiled our article in ‘Too Little Too Late’: Bankruptcy Booms Among Older Americans (August 5, 2018). This story was featured on the front page.

Following The New York Times piece's publication, Professor Robert Lawless appeared on C-SPAN to discuss our article. 

 

Professor Deborah Thorne detailed our findings on NPR's All Things Considered, A Study Found Bankruptcy Soared Among Americans 65 and Over (August 6, 2018).

And Professor Pamela Foohey discussed our article with Indiana Public Media, Shrinking Social Net Leaves Seniors Vulnerable (December 7, 2018).

 

CBS News also aired segments on CBS This Morning and CBS Evening News highlighting our article.

 

Also following The New York Times piece's publication, a variety of international, national, and local media outlets reported on our article, including recently the Financial Times in a weekend long-read, The Boomers Going Bust: Why Elderly Bankruptcy is Rising in America (August 8, 2019). Other media coverage, in reverse chronological order:

  • Lucy Lazarony, Why Are So Many People Over 55 Going Bankrupt?, MarketWatch (November 12, 2019)
  • Teresa Ghilarducci, Elderly Bankruptcy Is On The Rise—Here’s Why, Forbes (August 15, 2019)
  • Hillary Hoffower, The Number of Older Americans Filing for Bankruptcy Has Surged By Up To 300% in Recent Years—and Boomers Are No Exception, Business Insider (August 8, 2019)
  • Erika Beras, Seniors Are Still Struggling to Recover After the Financial Crisis, MarketPlace (December 19, 2018)
  • David Lord, Why Are So Many Americans Over 65 Declaring Bankruptcy?, MarketWatch (November 6, 2018)
  • C.K., Why Is Bankruptcy Rising Among Older Americans?, The Economist (September 10, 2018)
  • Matthew LeBlanc, Seniors Filing for Bankruptcy Up, The Journal Gazette (August 26, 2018)
  • Maia Davis, Soaring Bankruptcy Rates Signal a ‘Coming Storm of Broke Elderly,’ Study Finds, ABC News (August 16, 2018)
  • Nicola Gelinas, You Can’t Take It with You: America’s Private-Sector and Public-Sector Debt Crises are Colliding, City Journal (August 16, 2018)
  • Michelle Singletary, Retired and Broke: Bankruptcy Filings Surging for Seniors, The Washington Post (August 13, 2018)
  • Hillary Hoffower, A Growing Number of Americans Over Age 65 Are Filing For Bankruptcy Just To Get By, and It Could Signal a Larger Problem in the US, Business Insider (August 11, 2018)
  • Andrew Soergel, Bankruptcy Soars Among Elderly as Inequality Deepens, U.S. News & World Report (August 8, 2018)
  • Anne Tergesen, Bankruptcy Filings Surge Among Older Americans, Wall Street Journal (August 7, 2018)
  • William E. Gibson, Far More Older Americans Are Going Bankrupt, AARP (August 6, 2018)
  • Michael Hiltzik, Bankruptcy is Hitting More Older Americans, Pointing to a Retirement Crisis in the Making, Los Angeles Times (August 6, 2018)

 

Reporting on Medical Bankruptcy: Still Common Despite the Affordable Care Act  

The CBP survey asks debtors what contributed to their bankruptcy filings and provides debtors with several options, two of which are medical expenses and illness-related work loss. In this peer-reviewed piece, we report that two-thirds of debtors cite at least one of these two medical contributors—equivalent to about 530,000 “medical bankruptcies” per year. On February 16, 2020, Last Week Tonight with John Oliver aired a segment on Medicare for All which featured a discussion of our paper:

Last Week Tonight - AJPH

Our findings also were discussed in stories and columns by several media outlets: 

  • Michael Sainato, 'I Live on the Street Now': How Americans Fall Into Medical Bankruptcy, The Guardian (November 14, 2019)
  • Michael Hiltzik, Column: Medical Bankruptcy is an American Scandal--And That's Not Debatable, Los Angeles Times (September 4, 2019) 
  • Hilary Hoffower, Staggering Medical Bills are the Biggest Driver of Personal Bankruptcies in the US. Here’s What You Need to Know If You’re Thinking About Filing For Bankruptcy, Business Insider (June 25, 2019)
  • Lorie Konish, This is the Real Reason Most Americans File for Bankruptcy, CNBC (February 11, 2019)

 

Reporting on Life in the Sweatbox

The time before a person files bankruptcy is sometimes called the financial “sweatbox.” In this article, we find that people are living longer in the sweatbox before filing bankruptcy than they have in the past. Professor Pamela Foohey spoke with Brian L. Frye, Spears-Gilbert Associate Professor of Law at the University of Kentucky College of Law, about this article on Ipse Dixit, a podcast on legal scholarship.