The good news is it drives the economy. The bad news is it adds to the household debt burden.
That's still too much. This could arrest the trend of every year setting a new national record.
The idea here is that people are entitled to only the relief that they need but no more. So the bill sets up an elaborate screening mechanism with an arithmetic test to determine the debtor's incomes and their expenses -- after which if they can repay some part of their debts.
Anyone who was thinking of bankruptcy last year went in under the wire.
Credit is a very liberating thing that consumers have access to, but it means they have to be very careful.
Bankruptcy does not have the same impact today that it did a generation ago, and that may well lead to a diminution of the kind of stigma that formerly attached itself to a personal bankruptcy filing.
