Boosts in Bankruptcies

By Laura Knoy on Thursday, March 19, 2009.

The Federal Bankruptcy Bill of 2005 caused a sharp drop in the number of bankruptcies, but current economic conditions are causing that number to rise once again. In New Hampshire it’s gone up by 32 percent in the past year. We’ll dig into the numbers and into bankruptcy policy, including a hotly-debated proposal to give judges more say on mortgage-related bankruptcies.

Guests

  • Peter Wright, director of Clinical Programs at Franklin Pierce Law School and a bankruptcy attorney representing borrowers
  • Charlie Gallagher, Laconia bankruptcy lawyer specializing in creditor’s rights
  • David Darman, NHPR's business reporter
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HOUSE BILL 875 - The Food Safety Modernization Act
Richard P - Fri, 03/20/2009 - 05:31

I hope you will (or have) done a show on this bill which appears to ban organic backyard farming.

http://www.opencongress.org/bill/111-h875/show

Food safety a real concern
Marty, Brentwood - Fri, 03/20/2009 - 10:16

Although I'm sympathetic with the organic and home-grown food movement, there well may be new cases of bacterial and other contamination to worry about. I've seen friends buying raw milk and unpasteurized apple juice locally, and haven't heard of problems, but food poisoning often has a delayed effect, and the real cause may be hard to determine. If it were home-made generic drugs, say, or "cottage-industry" goods being made where following labor safety regulations could not easily be checked, wouldn't you want to think about how to regulate them without necessarily banning them?

http://www.makinghomeaffordable.gov/
DEE LAUVE - Fri, 03/20/2009 - 09:10

The guests did not address what the Chapter 7 filing would do for an imminent foreclosure. Once filing Chapter 7 the foreclosure sale on my home was stopped and until the court discharged my debt (or in my case stay waived) the lender could not 'collect the debt' IN my case it was a benefit to have 4 months to recover financially and by the end of January my income was enough to request a "work out home retention plan"
The 'cram down' court based solution would be a LAST effort as there are now so many incentives for lenders to participate in Affordable Home Mortgage Loan Refinances or Modifications.

The newer bankruptcy laws contributed to the current problem
Marty, Brentwood - Fri, 03/20/2009 - 10:31

Modern bankruptcy law was supposed to get us away from older uselessly harsh penalties such as debtors prison. Ordinary people should have a chance at a fresh start in life if they've been unlucky or even unwise. The newer bankruptcy laws, fostered mainly by banks and credit card companies, made prime residency mortgage contracts unchangeable, unlike most other classes of debt. Thus they allowed mortgage lenders to take on more risk, or even to predatorily lure ordinary people into taking on imprudent household debt, because the lenders were now not risking a bankruptcy court's modifying or canceling their contracts! Notice the timing of it: tighten the bankruptcy laws, then promote wildly risky loans in order to collect the fees, and now banks get bailed out while ordinary people have to jump through hoops to live a decent life without perpetual debt!

Maybe the entire bankruptcy code should be returned to how it was when it more evenly balanced corporate lenders and individual borrowers' interests.