In article <c0gljt$81v$1@pencil.math.missouri.edu>, Jane Sandringham says...

Re: Dow Jones Nears 11,000!  Clinton Recession Is Over!  Thanks
President Bush!

hanoijanekerry@yahoo.ca (Hanoi Jane Kerry) wrote in message news:<4638d76a.0402111334.4a54d628@posting.google.com>...

http://finance.yahoo.com/q/bc?s=^DJI&t=1y&l=on&z=m&q=l&c=

Thanks President Bush.  You make all Americans proud.

Consumer debt (credit cards, auto loans and other non-mortgage
financing) has more than doubled to $2 trillion, according to the
Federal Reserve. On average, each American household owes $19,000.

At $735 billion, the nation's credit card debt breaks down to $7,000
per household. But four in 10 card holders pay off their balances
monthly, so the household debt of the other 60 percent with balances
is $12,000.

Annual personal bankruptcies have doubled to 1.6 million.

Debt payments have risen to a record high of 14 percent of personal
income.

The savings rate has dropped to just 2 percent of after-tax income,
leaving no money for emergencies, not to mention retirement.

Jan. 30, 2004 
Out of pocket
2003 brought record bankruptcies in Minnesota, spike in foreclosures
BY MIKE HUGHLETT
Pioneer Press
Chalk up 2003 as a year filled with financial misery for thousands of
Minnesotans: Bankruptcies in the state rose to record highs while home
foreclosures jumped significantly in the Twin Cities.

The rising tide of distress came against a backdrop of stagnant job
markets and a mountain of consumer debt.

Last year, 20,885 bankruptcies were filed in Minnesota, a 7.6 percent
increase from the year before, according to recently released data

>from the U.S. Bankruptcy Court's Minnesota District.

Nationally, bankruptcy filings increased 5.5 percent to 1.62 million,
which also appears to be a record, according to Lundquist Consulting,
a California firm that tracks insolvencies. While a fraction of those
bankruptcies were from businesses, consumers accounted for the bulk of
them.

Like bankruptcies, mortgage foreclosures are a sign of a household's
inability to make its revenue cover its expenses, particularly debt
payments. And foreclosures were up throughout the east metro, rising 8
percent in Ramsey County alone last year to 380. Over in Hennepin
County, they were up 15 percent to 1,058.

The increased financial woes are rooted partly in burgeoning consumer
debt, say bankruptcy lawyers and mortgage counselors.

Household debt service burdens, while down from late-2001 peaks, are
still near 20-year highs, according to the Federal Reserve. Meanwhile,
the American Bankers Association reports that credit card
delinquencies hit a record high during 2003's third quarter

The shaky job market just makes matters worse, undercutting sources of
income needed to make debt payments.

"It really is the economy,'' said Robert Everhart, a Twin Cities
bankruptcy attorney. "I've seen a lot of long-term unemployment or
underemployment."

Layoffs remained high last year in Minnesota. Initial unemployment
claims in 2003 rose 2 percent over 2002, according to the Minnesota
Department of Employment and Economic Development.

Meanwhile, the number of people who exhausted their unemployment
benefits before finding a new job also remained high. Unemployment
exhaustions totaled 68,030 in 2003, down less than 1 percent from
2002, state data shows.

Many unemployed people who did find jobs  at least the ones who ended
up in bankruptcy  aren't getting paid as much as they used to,
attorneys say.

"I don't know how many people I've met with who had jobs that paid
$40,000 to $60,000 a year and now they are down to $20,000 to
$40,000," said Robert Hoglund, a Twin Cities bankruptcy attorney.

Hoglund also saw an increase last year in bankruptcies anchored in
mounting medical debts. Always a major cause of bankruptcy, medical
bills may be becoming a bigger financial problem as health care
coverage is cut back.

With costs rising, more people are going without health insurance. For
instance, a March 2003 survey by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
showed that 45 percent of all employees had health care coverage, down

>from 52 percent just three years earlier.

Terri Connolly of Princeton knows the harm that can come from reduced
coverage.

She had counted on the state to cover costs for her severely ill
daughter that weren't covered by insurance through her employer.
Connolly, a single mom and a real estate closer, has a 10-year-old
with spina bifida, a spinal cord defect.

The Minnesota Children With Special Health Needs program covered costs
for such items as pull-ups and catheters for her daughter's bowel and
bladder control problems. The program was aimed at helping working
families who couldn't qualify for low-income programs, serving over
1,000 kids.

The Legislature eliminated it last year to ease the state's budget
crisis, saving $1.2 million. Connolly is now saddled with higher
medical expenses and a $9,000 bill that she said she thought would be
paid by the state, but wasn't covered before the program lapsed.

She just filed for bankruptcy.
http://www.twincities.com/mld/pioneerpress/7829636.htm

>From an article by Kevin DeMeritt on WorldNetDaily:

"The average credit card holder carries about $8,500 in debt and pays
about $1,000 a year in interest charges.

"In the second quarter of 2003, monthly payments were eating up 13.3
percent of disposable income, according to the Federal Reserve.

"By last November, consumer credit was nearly $2 trillion. 

"Credit card delinquencies climbed to a record 4.09 percent of all
accounts during the third quarter of last year, according to the
American Bankers Association.

"In the year ending Sept. 30, 1.66 million bankruptcies were filed 
up 7.4 percent from 2002.

"Roughly 2.4 million jobs have been lost since early 2001."

Jan. 30, 2004 
Record number of bankruptcies reported in 2003 in Minnesota
Associated Press
ST. PAUL - There was a record number of bankruptcies in Minnesota in
2003 as debtors struggled with a stagnant job market and mountains of
consumer debt.
Last year, 20,885 bankruptcies were filed in Minnesota, a 7.6 percent
increase from the year before, according to recent data from the U.S.
Bankruptcy Court's Minnesota District.
Nationally, bankruptcy filings increased 5.5 percent to 1.62 million,
which also appears to be a record, according to Lundquist Consulting,
a California firm that tracks insolvencies. While a fraction of those
bankruptcies were from businesses, consumers accounted for the bulk of
them.
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/breaking_news/7835949.htm

Rising debt draws millions to refuge of bankruptcy
Maryland ranks high in filings despite healthy economy, low
joblessness; 'Middle class is being squeezed'
By Bill Atkinson
Sun Staff
February 8, 2004
A record 1.6 million people filed for personal bankruptcy in the 12
months that ended Sept. 30. That was 7.8 percent more than in the
previous year, according to the American Bankruptcy Institute, a
research organization in Virginia.
http://www.baltimoresun.com/business/bal-te.bz.bankrupt08feb08,0,4849823.story?coll=bal-business-headlines

February 8, 2004
Fourth quarter economic indicators down from last year
By PAT KINNEY, Assistant City Editor
Bankruptcies keep breaking new ground. The 217 fourth-quarter
bankruptcies were the fourth highest in a quarter since the Courier
began tracking those figures in 1989, surpassed only by 236 in the
third quarter of 2003, and 222 in the second quarter of 2002.
Employment, car registrations and airline passenger boardings were
down from the previous year. Car registrations, particularly for new
vehicles, are generally seen as a sign of disposable income. A drop in
auto sales, coupled with the reported increase in deposits, would tend
to indicate a tight, savings-oriented local economy.