Baby Boomer Bankruptcies Going Postal...however Wall Street and Political Boomers continue to do very well

By Eric Morath
Wall Street Journal

Baby Boomer Bankruptcies on the Rise

A growing number of baby boomers are going bust.

A newly released study found that 42% of all individuals filing for bankruptcy were between the ages of 45 and 64 in 2007 and that older Americas are filing for protection from creditors at a much faster rate than younger adults.

“The baby boomers are disproportionately represented in bankruptcy proceedings,” wrote John Golmant and James Woods, who compiled the study that appears in the September issue of the American Bankruptcy Institute’s ABI Journal. Golmant is a statistician and Woods is a social science analyst, both with the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts in Washington.

Bankruptcy filings are increasing fastest among individuals between the ages of 55 and 64, the study found. From 2002 to 2007, the percentage of filers in that category grew 65%.

By comparison, the demographic group that experienced the largest percentage drop in bankruptcy filings was Americans 25 and younger, down 60% in 2007 from 2002.

“This significant demographic uptick in older bankruptcy filers has outstripped the aging of the general population as a whole,” Golmant and Woods wrote.

The authors said the recent housing crisis is at least partly to blame, as falling home prices left baby boomers with little or no home equity. The study noted that persons older than 50 were often targeted during the refinancing boom in the early part of last decade.

High levels of credit card debt and mounting health care bills also contributed to the higher number of filings among older Americans, the study found.

The recent study shows the continuation of trend stretching back to at least 1994. In that year, people between the ages of 55 to 64 accounted for 7% of all individual filings. In 2007, the same group accounted for 15.2% of consumer bankruptcies.

Grandpa

Almost 80 MILLION born between 1946 and 1964 are deemed Baby Boomer. As an "age" member of the Baby Boomers generation, I am saddened and disgusted as to what our generation has NOT CONTRIBUTED to society since the Viet Nam War. We prided ourselves on "not selling out" and of course the infamous "anti-establishment" chant. Fast forward and the "anti-establishment" became pro-establishment, win at any cost, take no prisoners and step on the face of anyone that is a potential obstacle to one's way to the top.

The "step on your face and all about me boomers" include:

1. Ben Bernanke (Federal Reserve Chairman and has made sure that parents of baby boomers receive absolutely no return on the money they spent a lifetime saving),
2. Jamie Dimon (JPMorgan Chase CEO and deemed the golden boy by the Obama administration),
3. Lloyd Blankfein (Goldman Sachs CEO and all around "how much did you sell your mother for" guy while doing God's work),
4. Larry Summers (Successfully lobbied to repeal the Glass-Steagall Act and upon its repeal; "This historic legislation will better enable American companies to compete in the new economy").
5. Tim Geithner (Treasury Secretary and all around inept and manipulative putz),
6. Dick Fuld (ex-CEO of now defunct Lehman Brothers however rec'd $484 million compensation package from 2000 to 2007),
7. John Thain (ex-CEO of Merrill Lynch and $35,000 commode),  
8. Christopher Cox (ex-Chairperson of the SEC and was basically "MIA" during his tenure),
9. Robert Nardelli (ran Home Deport into the dirt and left with a $210 million severance package and then proceeded run Chrysler into the same dirt),
10. Mark Hurd (ex-CEO Hewlett-Packard, Sexual Harassment charges and $25+ million severance parting gift),
11. Richard "the Dick" Grasso (chairman and chief executive of the New York Stock Exchange from 1995 to 2003 and recipient of a a deferred compensation pay package worth almost $140 million),
12. Franklin Delano "Frank" Raines (he and two other Fannie Mae executives agreed to a $31.4 million settlement with the government over their roles in a 2004 accounting scandal),
13. Daniel Mudd (Mudd collected more than $80 million in his 8 years at Fannie Mae and held the position of President and CEO for 3 years until the U.S. Government took over Fannie Mae in September 2008).