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John Penn in Pittsburgh Tribune-Review: Bankruptcies down from 2010
12/22/2011
The number of business and consumer bankruptcies filed in Western Pennsylvania, as well as nationally, fell this year, according to the latest data.
That does not mean the nation's economy has turned around, experts said on Wednesday.
Business bankruptcies across the country fell 18 percent in the nine months ended Sept. 30 to 36,385 from 43,016 a year earlier, according to the American Bankruptcy Institute.
Consumer, or individual, bankruptcies decreased 11 percent during that period to 1.06 million from 1.18 million the year before.
"The fact that bankruptcies are down does not necessarily mean the economy is better. It could mean the economy is merely stable or still very weak," said attorney John Penn, a bankruptcy law partner at Haynes and Boone LLP, Fort Worth, and former president of the American Bankruptcy Institute.
Excerpt from Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, Dec. 22, 2011. To view the full article, click here.