There’s been a fair amount of news coverage in recent months about the perils of heavy student debt. It’s a serious burden for many college-educated Americans for three major reasons:

first, the price of college has risen significantly in recent years
second, lenders tend of offer student loans freely, which means they can build up fast
third, student [...]

In an exciting decision handed down by the Supreme Court this week, the justices ruled that individuals who file for protection under Chapter 13 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code are entitled to have their repayment plans based on their expected income during the next three- to five-year period, rather than on the six-month period preceding [...]

With personal bankruptcy filings on pace to top 1.6 million in 2010 (perhaps the highest levels since the Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act took effect in 2005), it may come as a surprise that many Americans in dire financial straits are not filing for bankruptcy.
But that’s exactly what the case may be, according [...]

Since the beginning of the Great Recession and the havoc it has wreaked on employment, the stock market and the American economy in general, most people have heard of subprime mortgages, which touched off most of the financial turmoil. But, as this article from the New York Times reports, there’s another subprime crisis still going [...]

The city of Harrisburg, Pa., the state capital, is in the middle of a debt crisis that experts predict may result in the city filing bankruptcy—and it’s not the only one in such a condition.
The problem, according to an article by CNBC, is that the major revenue stream for municipalities—taxes—has been impacted by the recession. [...]

The Supreme Court ruled this week that creditors cannot collect debts that have been marked “paid in full” and discharged by a bankruptcy court, as long as the creditors were given adequate notice of the payment plan in question.
The Bankruptcy Case
The case in question involves a man who was looking to reorganize his debts by [...]

Hard economic times are not limited to American families right now – many states, too, are finding themselves in precarious financial situations. California is notorious for its budget shortfalls, and, according to nbc.com, Illinois has joined the ranks of the nearly bankrupt.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, the problems plaguing state governments aren’t that different from the ones that [...]