tailieunhanh - Markets The Credit Rating Agencies - Michelle J. White

This feature explores the operation of individual markets. Patterns of behavior in markets for specififi c goods and services offer lessons about the determinants and effects of supply and demand, market structure, strategic behavior, and government regulation. Suggestions for future columns and comments on past ones should be sent to James R. Hines Jr., c/o Journal of Economic Perspectives, Department of Economics, University of Michigan, 611 Tappan St., Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109-1220. | Journal of Economic Perspectives Volume 21 Number 4 Fall 2007 Pages 175-199 Bankruptcy Reform and Credit Cards Michelle J. White From 1980 to 2004 the number of personal bankruptcy filings in the United States increased more than five-fold from 288 000 to million per year. By 2004 more Americans were filing for bankruptcy each year than were graduating from college getting divorced or being diagnosed with cancer. A number of rich and famous people also filed for bankruptcy which generated enormous publicity raised public awareness of bankruptcy as a way to avoid repaying one s debts and suggested that bankruptcy was no longer subject to social disapproval. Famous bankrupts include former Governor of Texas John Connally corporate raider Paul Bilzerian actor Burt Reynolds actresses Debbie Reynolds and Kim Basinger rapper MC Hammer singer Merle Haggard . baseball commissioner Bowie Kuhn and boxer Mike Tyson according to http www. stars4 lists 2007 . Lenders responded with a major lobbying campaign for bankruptcy reform that lasted nearly a decade and cost more than 100 million. Their efforts were unsuccessful during the 1990s but in 2005 the Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act BAPCPA became law. It made bankruptcy law much less debtor-friendly. Personal bankruptcy filings surged to two million in 2005 as debtors rushed to file under the old law and then fell sharply to 600 000 in 2006. This paper begins with a discussion of why personal bankruptcy rates rose and will argue that the main reason is the growth of revolving debt mainly credit card debt. Indeed from 1980 to 2004 revolving debt per household increased nearly five-fold in real terms rising from to percent of . median family Michelle J. White is Professor of Economics University of California San Diego La Jolla California and Research Associate National Bureau of Economic Research Cambridge Massachusetts. Her e-mail addiess is .