Bankruptcies Up Again In 2010 For Minnesotans

In addition to medical bills, divorce and chronic overspending -- ever-present bankruptcy catalysts -- the more recent problems of long-term unemployment and homes that are worth less than people paid for them continue to push people to court.

Even December, usually a slow month for bankruptcy attorneys as families try to forget their financial struggles and celebrate the holidays, remained busy for Barbara May. "We're swamped here," the Roseville attorney said. Nationally 1.53 million Americans filed for bankruptcy in 2010 -- 9 percent higher than 2009, when 1.41 million people filed, according to the American Bankruptcy Institute.

The 22,070 Minnesota filers in 2010 represented a 4 percent increase from the previous year and were second only to the record 25,635 Minnesotans who filed in 2005, when people rushed to court to beat a change in bankruptcy law that made it harder and more expensive to file.

May says lower-income families tend to exhaust their resources quickly. But higher income clients -- the salespeople and general contractors and financial professionals -- resort to "draining the well," May's term for spending down all of their assets, including retirement accounts that are protected in bankruptcy.

Then there are housing woes. Bankruptcy attorneys are seeing more families who let their houses go via foreclosure, hoping to right their finances by eliminating their mortgage payment. But the debt collectors come calling for their large second mortgage, and they realize bankruptcy is the only way out. "Those second mortgages are poison," St. Paul bankruptcy attorney Dick Pearson said.

Senator Amy Klobuchar D-Mn Feb 7, 2009, "This bill is about jobs, jobs, and jobs"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=goTYOjh2q9M&feature=related

Ms. KLOBUCHAR. “Another piece of the plan I want to highlight is the emphasis on energy jobs. I just spent the last few months traveling around my state and I can tell you what I've seen. I've seen a little telephone company in Sebeka, Minnesota that decided they needed to add backup power structure because the power was going out for all their customers in the rural areas they serve so they put together a bill pact with wind, small wind, and solar and sold it to the people in their area and they've been selling like hot cakes. The windmills in Pipestone, Minnesota, where it's become so popular that they've opened up a bed & breakfast much like a package deal. You can go and stay overnight, Mr. President, with your wife in this bed & breakfast and look out the window and look at a wind turbine. That's the package.

The point of this is that the people of our state see the value of these new energy jobs, whether it is a little solar panel factory in Starbuck, Minnesota, or a big wind turbine manufacturing factory. They see the value. This energy technology revolution or ET, as we call it, is different than the information technology revolution, IT when I saw the IT revolution, as big as it was and how it changed this country, is that jobs tended to be segmented. Certain areas of the country, they tended to be for people with graduate degrees. The ET revolution will spread across this country, not just graduate-degree jobs but manufacturing jobs, green-helmet jobs, jobs for the people of this country.

As Van Jones has said, who is a guy who has written a book about the green collar economy, when you think about the green economy, don't think about Buck Rogers; think about joe six-pack putting on a green hard hat. Think about Rosie the riveter manufacturing solar panels and wind turbines. This is President Obama's plan -- jobs, jobs, jobs. ”

Ping, for Mn Ping List;

Statement from Walz’s congressional office:

“This legislation will create and save 3 to 4 million jobs, rebuilding America, making us more globally competitive and energy independent, and transforming our economy for long-term growth; give 95% of American workers an immediate tax cut; and invest quickly in the economy – with 75% spent in the first 18 months.

For example, the plan provides $45 million to Minnesota in Byrne grant funding, which would keep police officers on the beat all across the state.

It will also provide about $685 million to the Minnesota Department of Transportation for “shovel-ready” construction projects that can be up and running quickly.

“This recovery plan puts Americans back to work fixing our roads, bridges, and schools,” said Walz. “At the same time it calls into action our entrepreneurs, engineers, mechanics, electricians, and other laborers to transition our country to energy independence and bring the power and opportunity of high-speed internet to all corners of rural America.

What’s exciting is that southern Minnesotans can benefit greatly from this strategy. Experts say more than 90 percent of the jobs created will be in the private sector.”

Senator Amy Klobuchar D-Mn Feb 7, 2009

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=goTYOjh2q9M&feature=related

Ms. KLOBUCHAR. “...Anyone in Minnesota can tell you that when it is 20 below, as it has been the last month, and your battery is dead and you need to get to work, your No. 1 priority is to get a jump-start right away, not stand around talking about it and debating and using the old ideas from the past.

That is what this economic recovery plan is about, a jump-start.”

further proof that Amy is an adult child:
ADULTS plan ahead with maintenance and forethought (like an engine block heater)
instead of hoping on help from a stranger...

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