As I still recover from Thanksgiving, I thought I’d take the time to explain some of the history of Peoplestring.

Peoplestring started out first as Bigstring.

From the wiki page:

BigString was formed to develop technology that would allow the user of email services to have comprehensive control, security and privacy relating to the email generated by the user. BigString Interactive, incorporated in the State of New Jersey, was formed by BigString in early 2006 to develop technology relating to interactive web portals.  PeopleString, incorporated in the State of Delaware, was formed by BigString in early 2009 to develop technology relating to social networks.

The wiki page actually has some good FAQs.

There’s also has a clip of Darin Myman’s appearance on “The Big Idea with Donny Deutsch.” Mainly he discusses the benefits of their email technology. Basically, the company perfected the ability to track, recall and self destruct email. Myman notes that accounts are free. However, if you want to use it with Outlook, it costs $29.99/year.

No doubt some of the email features are useful. And you have to give these guys credit for coming up with some pretty innovative ideas, especially the one about paying users with 70% of their revenue. But if it will catch on remains to be seen.

It’s interesting to note that Bigstring has just gone public (BSGC.OB). It’s a penny stock, currently at around 3 cents a share (funny, same amount you make as soon as you sign up). I’m sure they’ll draw criticism for paying Myman and other heads upwards of $120K a year, even though they have been operating at several million dollar losses for four years now. In fact, a number of people on Scam.com have been questioning the ability of the company to continue to operate. My experience tells me that penny stock companies usually go bankrupt.

Despite all that, perhaps it just could work. Again, I don’t think there’s huge harm in trying it, as long as you don’t spend any money. Perhaps it is a spam address harvesting scheme, but I took some precautions by using my junk email account. My home mailbox, on the other hand, may still be victimized.

TOTAL PEOPLESTRING EARNINGS TO DATE: $1.53

Just realized today is the actual anniversary of when I found out about the Onion News Network, probably one of the most hilarious sites ever. They make hilarious videos about some pretty off the wall stuff, while pretending to be a news station.

I came across them on youtube when I saw a video titled “Dying child bankrupts make a wish foundation”, and I watched the video, completely oblivious to the fact that this wasn’t a real event. I showed my mother, grandmother, father, and anyone who would listen until I went to show my friends a few days later. He said “Thats from the onion news network larry”… OoOoOoOoOoOoOh, needless to say I felt a little ditsy haha. Well anyways, here is the video, and you can see why I got pretty upset about it!

CHILD BANKRUPTS MAKE A WISH FOUNDATION

My Flag Flies Everyday

What comes after a trillion? A trillion is one followed by twelve zeros. A smart ass would say a trillion and one comes after a trillion. What I’m asking is what do we call “one” followed by fifteen zeros? Since we base all of our money numbers on ones followed by zeros, it follows that for every thousand of a  number we call it by a special name. For instance start with one followed by three zeros or a thousand, then a thousand thousands, etc. It’s easier to say one, one thousand, one million, one billion, one trillion, etc. What do we call a thousand trillions?

Maybe it is easier to see it this way:

1=one

1000=thousand

1,000,000=million

1,000,000,000=billion

1,000,000,000,000= trillion

Why do we care? Because the Federal Deficit is headed toward that number. It was just a few years ago that a deficit of 500 million was huge, then it progressed to four hundred billion in the GWB era, now it has leapt to twelve trillion almost overnight. Comparatively,  ninety percent of the population will never have a million dollars in their retirement account.

The number one followed by fifteen  zeros is called a quadrillion. I hope we never get to use that number in reference to our deficit. If we do, I’m sure a loaf of bread will cost a thousand dollars.

1,000,000,000,000,000=quadrillion

        12,000,000,000,000=current deficit

Try visiting the National Debt Clock to watch how fast the debt is climbing. Take particular notice of the Gross Domestic Product compared to the debt. They are the same. I see that as “our country is broke.”  I don’t mean that the country is broken, I mean that we are near bankruptcy.

Answer this. Where will we get the money to pay for the new health care reform bill being shoved up our ass?

Another shining example of how punting on property can be bad for your health – even for highly paid “experts”. And of course, totally missed by Moody’s and S&P, but who was quick to rush in after the announcement to put a few more bullets into the still warm corpse of Dubai World, and pushing other government-linked entities’ rating into junk status.

From WSJ “Dubai World seeks debt standstill”

This debt-laden city-state said Wednesday it would restructure its largest corporate entity, Dubai World, a conglomerate spanning real estate and ports, and announced a six-month standstill on the group’s debt.

The surprise move quickly sapped investor confidence in Dubai ’s ability to pay down its large debt load, sharply increasing the price of insuring against a default. It also represents the most significant fallout so far in the city-state’s yearlong economic crisis, triggered by a collapse in its once-booming real-estate sector late last year.

In response to the news, both Moody’s Investors Service and Standard & Poor’s heavily downgraded the debt of various Dubai government-related entities with interests in property, utilities, commercial operations and commodities trading. In Moody’s case, the downgrade meant that the affected agencies lost their investment grade status.

It sounds like Sheikh Mohammed, the ruler of Dubai, may be just a wee bit pissed at Sultan Ahmed bin Sulayem, Dubai World’s longtime chairman, going by the government’s direct participation in the restructuring. One wonders if the Deloitte’s restructuring might actually reveal some real muck on the board – e.g. harem luxury yatchs christened “Tits III”, or private jets complete with pole dancing stewardesses.

The government of Dubai said it appointed Deloitte LLP to spearhead the restructuring effort, naming an executive at the consultancy as the group’s “chief restructuring officer.” The move appeared to sideline, at least for the time being, the company’s current management team, which had launched an internal corporate restructuring earlier this year.

Government officials, company executives and company representatives weren’t available for comment Wednesday. Sultan Ahmed bin Sulayem, Dubai World’s longtime chairman and a top lieutenant to Dubai’s hereditary ruler, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, didn’t respond to an email request for comment.

A spokeswoman for the Dubai government’s Department of Finance, which issued the statement, said Sulayem and the rest of the current management team would remain in place and would be working with Deloitte. [Comment: Not for long]

Dubai World executives have “actually been trying to restructure themselves for awhile, and the Dubai government decided it needed to take a more proactive role,” the spokeswoman said late Wednesday.

The government said its Financial Support Fund, a fund set up to manage Dubai’s debt earlier this year, would start to assess and evaluate the extent of the restructuring required. As part of that assessment, it said officials intend to ask lenders for a debt “standstill” and request they extend debt maturities until at least May 30.

Dubai said the corporation’s portfolio includes “strategically important businesses” and said “the restructuring will be designed to address financial obligations and improve business efficiency for the future.”

Most immediately, the standstill will affect a $3.5 billion bond that Dubai World’s real-estate subsidiary, Nakheel, was scheduled to repay next month. The bond was seen as a crucial test of Dubai ’s ability to pay its debts, amid a real-estate market crash that has ricocheted across the emirate’s once-booming economy. Dubai World this spring signaled a restructuring of the bond was an option, but hasn’t provided details since.

The cost of insuring Dubai debt, which had fallen sharply amid signs of a global economic recovery, shot higher after the announcement, rising by more than a third by late Wednesday, to $429,700 to insure a $10 million loan for five years, according to CMA, a credit-information specialist.

The announcement came just hours after Dubai said separately that it raised $5 billion from two local banks, the second installment of what officials had said would be a $20 billion borrowing program. The bond program was unveiled in February, with the federal government of the United Arab Emirates snapping up the entire first tranche.

The bonds were effectively a federal bailout by the U.A.E., led by oil-rich Abu Dhabi, the country’s capital. Abu Dhabi and Dubai are the biggest of seven semiautonomous emirates that make up the U.A.E.

Since then, Dubai officials have suggested they would seek international investors to fund the remaining $10 billion. Dubai says it is using the funds to pay down international debt and unpaid bills to contractors.

Wednesday’s $5 billion funding announcement initially cheered analysts and investors. While the issue’s two lenders were both Abu Dhabi-controlled banks, the deal suggested to many that Dubai was able to go to sources besides the federal government for cash. An earlier, unrelated debt issue by Dubai in October was also oversubscribed.

This reminds me: I might want to watch the ongoing bond issues from Temasek.

Indian Point Village, MO- RS Express Enterprises, INC.™ leadership executives stated today that they will make a major announcement on December 1, 2009 in regards to the future of the production company. Communications have been evident in the recent weeks through social media sights that the company is pursing projects in radio and television. The New Rob & Don Show!® is a radio program targeted to be nationally syndicated within the next several months. Program executives plan to use humor of the on air talent to display funny life experiences with the duo having a substantial age gap to get thousands to work every morning. In addition, Rob & MiMi on tour! On the bus!® will take a look at the music business in a edgy, innovative programming that will bring television to a new levels. Elaine Bultemeyer a spokesperson for the company stated today, “The announcement on December 1, 2009 really has nothing to do with the two new projects the company has taken on. However, the company is announcing incredible plans for the organization to gear up for future projects.” Bultemeyer commented, the announcement would come via press release, social media sights, email and Internet. For more information about the company contact Elaine Bultemeyer.

Rob & MiMi on tour! On the bus!®

RS Express Enterprises, Inc.™ is an entertainment production company. We produced the Inaugural Ball for President Bush and Vice President Chaney. Produced military shows, award shows, mega parades, music festivals, music videos, photo shoots, television and benefit concerts around the world.

One of our goals is to “Accelerate Your Journey To Home Ownership.”  This requires attention and discipline when it comes to monitoring your current credit score.  This in turn helps improve your chances of getting qualified with traditional mortgage lenders out there.

An important part of the rent-to-own program for our clients is to be aware of your own financial situation and how to improve it in order to become an equity building home owner sooner, rather than later.  A major part of your ability to qualify for a home will be your credit report and credit score.  You can pull the report yourself from many sources but we recommend Equifax Score Power which includes much of the information lenders and mortgage brokers need.

Here are some 3 quick things you can do right now to improve your credit score:

1. Pay Them! Obvious, right?  Repetition is also the mother of learning which is why we state this first.  Lenders need to see you can use credit responsibly.  The best time to begin rebuilding your good credit history is now!  We recommend three credit cards.  You MUST pay them on time every single month.  Also, make sure you keep balances low.  Once you increase the balance of your revolving debt it begins lowering your credit score dramatically. Get balances below 30 percent and you will see massive improvements in your credit score.
2. Keep Old Accounts Active. Your credit score is calculated using an algorithm based on information on your credit report compared to millions of others.  It likes long histories of wise credit use.  So if there is a credit card you have had for years, do not close it.  At the same time, make sure you are actually using it and paying it off every month. Active accounts are weighted more.  Sometimes with no activity on the account, credit card companies will not update it on your report.
3. Dispute Errors. People are not robots.  Sometimes mistakes happen or are overlooked leaving your credit score 20-30 points lower, or worse than it should be.  Look over your report carefully for any accounts that have been paid but are still showing a balance, a late payment that should not be there or any other errors that show up.  Deleting errors will help you big time!

There you have it.  Three quick steps you can take right now to begin dramatically improving your credit score.  A huge part of our client’s success with rent-to-own is that it gives them added responsibility and the long-term vision necessary in order to begin taking steps to manage and improve their finances.  These are just baby steps.  After all, we must all walk before we can run!

Start with tiny habits, implement and integrate them into your life.  Only then will you see results.  The results will motivate you to take it to the next level and you will soon realize that you can take on more and more habits that will lead you on the path to achieving your dreams of home ownership.

To your financial education,

Oliver Manalese
RentBusting Specialist

December 1, 2005 my career was on top of the world. I was working with some of the biggest celebrities, in the country music industry, and had just finished the first national homecoming for Vietnam veterans that gained world exposure and turned out to be a history channel documentary. My mother’s health was still good enough to travel and a few months earlier my parents were my guest at Operation Homecoming USA and rubbing elbows with all of the Joint Chief of Staff to the President of the United States. In January 2005, I had directed and produced the Inaugural Ball for the President and First Lady.

I was just finishing a grueling tour- Nashville, Branson, Chicago, Davenport, Branson, Nashville, and on to Loveland to surprise my mom and dad for Thanksgiving all over a nine day stretch. God was already preparing me for the guest I hated for many years prior to December 2005. I look back on the tour and God let me see all the people that meant a lot to me and were close to my heart. My busy family, that never has much time for me when I travel, had all the time in the world. I remember thinking as I headed back to Branson after a great holiday how fortunate we were to spend time together.  Everything was great as I parted back home knowing I needed rest before my military USO tour that would start five days before Christmas.

Amarillo, TX 2:00am it was evident to me that the uninvited guest had arrived not knowing hours from that moment my life would change forever.  My temperature was 104 degrees and my focus was on home because I knew that something was crippling me on the inside. All by myself I traveled across Oklahoma praying to God that he would let me make it home, as God spoke to me through the radio- through song. I passed out in a rest stop bathroom. When I came to a man would not help me telling his son I had too much to drink. They thought I was drunk.

The only way I was able to make it to the hospital from that trip was through my faith in God. I knew I was extremely sick.  I really was in so much pain my doctor was amazed I lived through the journey home. Prayer, scripture, and God’s voice got me home nothing else.  All the teaching from my past kept running through my head along with memories from my childhood.  If you really believe in God and really need his help he will see you through was clear to me that day. Even when you know there is a storm ahead, he will carry you to the storm and will help you to face your Uninvited Guest. When God is preparing you for a storm in your life who do you call out to? Who do you trust? Do you pull over to the side of the road and die or do you keep your eye focused on the solution and keep driving? Do you let the others who ignore your cry for help convince you to give up? The attitude that you choose and your faith will see you through!

Nicholas Cage is forced to sell two New Orleans homes for $4.6 million – about 2/3 appraised value… are you kidding me – What happened to his money?

Arthur and Tony Rooney, owners of a string of bars in Belfast which went in receivership in October, are declared bankrupt…. From BBC News. Full story

This site may contain information about: newyork city. The blog is also related to: largest cities.

News and Observer reporter Sarah Ovaska in the article “Hog farmers reels buyers go bankrupt” reports that Clinton-based Coharie and three smaller North Carolina pork producers recently declared bankruptcy, causing scores of grain and hog farmers to lose once-stable contracts to raise hogs.

‘‘Sec. 2711. No lifetime or annual limits.
‘‘Sec. 2712. Prohibition on rescissions.

There is one fact that all insurance companies face, not only one, but two.

Limits and exclusions.

But how could you expect a group of people that know no limits to spending, that are spending us into ruin, know the value of limits.

Without limits there is no ceiling for which the rates can be set or controlled. If you cannot control the limits, then you cannot control the cost. If you can’t control the cost, the cost is not affordable.

This is a fact that has been lost on Congress.

This bill is designed to:

1. Bankrupt ALL commercial insurance companies.
2. By means of elimination of free enterprise, force everyone onto the government option.

I also find it odd that they believe one should be able to buy auto insurance after an accident and the insurance company is liable for the accident.

Sec. 1101. Immediate access to insurance for uninsured individuals with a preexisting
condition

That is exactly what immediate access to insurance is. You break a leg and file for insurance, and the insurance foots the bill. Something for nothing. You cannot control the cost.

THIS IS NOT AFFORDABLE HEALTH CARE FOR ALL AMERICANS, JUST FOR THE FREE LOADER OF AMERICA. THE REST OF US PAY OUT THE ASS AND OUR PROVIDERS GO BELLY UP.

Socialism is just a fancy word for slavery.

That is not just the view from here,

Duane

Story from Yahoo News.

Excerpt:

A Nova Scotia court has ruled that a former university student does not have to pay back tens of thousands of dollars he borrowed from a bank.
Alfredo Abdo won his case in bankruptcy court this week, with the court concluding that the Royal Bank of Canada was at least partly responsible for what happened.

“I question whether advancing all that money at one time was prudent banking on the part of RBC,” registrar Richard Cregan said in a written decision.

Abdo was a promising engineering student at Dalhousie University in September 2004. He had good grades, a scholarship and lived at home with this family.

In his second year, at the age of 19, he borrowed $20,000 from RBC though a student line of credit. He made bad investments online, according to court documents, and he accepted an offer from the bank for another loan of $30,000 to solve his problem.

Abdo started having dizzy spells. Finding his engineering program very stressful, he switched to commerce. But he dropped out of university in his third year.

The dizziness and social anxiety never went away, Abdo said, and therefore he couldn’t work or pay back the bank loans. He filed for bankruptcy last November.

The Canadian court probably thinks that they are compassionate, good people sticking it to the corporations. But actually what they’ve done is caused the banks to think a second time about making loans to borderline cases, so that the poorest students will now be refused student loans. If the courts refuse to enforce contracts signed by both parties, then the banks just won’t enter in to those contracts.

Down in New Zealand, they have the same problem.

Excerpt:

Thousands of people with student loans are defaulting on payments, leaving the Government to chase hundreds of millions of dollars.

More than one in five borrowers – or 114,000 people – have overdue payments and thousands of students are leaving tertiary education with no qualification and big bills.

The Education Ministry’s student loan scheme annual report shows that $306 million in payments is overdue, a $100m increase from a year ago.

The substantial growth includes a big rise in the level of payments owed by people now living overseas, more than doubling to $114m.

New Zealand University Students Association co-president Sophia Blair said it was not surprising that students with loans were heading overseas and letting the bills mount. “You can earn higher wages [overseas].”

[...]Total student loan debt had reached $10.2 billion and is predicted to grow by an average of $875m a year to more than $20b by 2022.

The report also showed about 39 per cent of students who left tertiary education with a loan did so without achieving a qualification.

About 8000 students with loans who left study in 2005 had nothing to show for it by 2007.

New Zealand, if I understand correctly is a fairly left-wing country, which probably subsidizes tuition and taxes income. So, students would be incentivized to game the system by taking out loans backed by the government, and then leaving to work abroad in more capitalist economies. Socialism encourages people to game the system and avoid taking responsibility for their own decisions.

UPDATE: New Zealand blogger Madeleine Flanagan wrote to me in an e-mail:

It’s old news, it has been the same way for years and years and that story comes out every year but as always it is interesting.

Your assessment is pretty spot on. In New Zealand student loans are pretty much available to anyone who applies for one. Acceptance at University or an alternative tertiary institution is not difficult, especially once you are over 20 as the institutions want your money – they get more funding the more students they have. Student loans are interest free and you do not have to begin repayments until you finish study. The state funds something like 75% of the tuition fees directly anyway so the loan is only for 25% of the actual cost. There are benefits available for living costs and if you don’t qualify for them you can borrow living costs and have them added to your student loan. So it is set up to make it easy to get into debt.

Being a fairly left-wing country there is a lot of regulation in the market place so of course you can pretty much always earn more overseas and once overseas the state cannot garnish your wages to get your student loan repayment.

The system has some fairly bad holes in it. For example, people who are being funded for Uni by they employer, like I was pre-accident, to study can take the cash for tuition fees from their employer, invest it and then take out an interest free student loan to pay their tuition fees. At the completion of study they then pay off the loan with the invested funds and pocket the interest – compliments of the taxpayer. Only students with cash coming from somewhere can do that as your student loan gets paid straight to the education provider apparently a lot of students with wealthy parents do this too.

As if this situation were not bad enough, organizations like New Zealand University Students Association (NZUSA), quoted below whinging about the level of pay rates in New Zealand , typically also whinge that education is not “free” anymore like it used to be when the politicians went to Uni! They argue that being educated to tertiary level benefits society so therefore society should pay for all of it (and have much higher wages).

New Zealand is crazy.

Madeleine and her husband Matt write at MandM blog.

A License Required for your house

Thinking about selling your house – A look at H.R. 2454 (Cap and trade bill) This is unbelievable!

Only the beginning from this administration! Home owners take note & tell your friends and relatives who are home owners!

Beginning 1 year after enactment of the Cap and Trade Act, you won’t be able to sell your home unless you retrofit it to comply with the energy and water efficiency standards of this Act. H.R. 2454, the “Cap & Trade” bill passed by the House of Representatives, if also passed by the Senate, will be the largest tax increase any of us has ever experienced.

The Congressional Budget Office (supposedly non-partisan) estimates that in just a few years the average cost to every family of four will be $6,800 per year.

* No one is excluded.
Well except for the Elite… McCotter on House Floor: Cap and Tax Legislation is Insane, Hurts the Economy…
But wait. This awful bill (that no one in Congress has actually read) has many more surprises in it. Probably the worst one is this:

* A year from now you won’t be able to sell your house. Yes, you read that right.

The caveat is (there always is a caveat) that if you have enough money to make required major upgrades to your home, then you can sell it. But, if not, then forget it. Even pre-fabricated homes (“mobile homes”) are included.

* In effect, this bill prevents you from selling your home without the permission of the EPA administrator.
* To get this permission, you will have to have the energy efficiency of your home measured.
* Then the government will tell you what your new energy efficiency requirement is and you will be forced to make modifications to your home under the retrofit provisions of this Act to comply with the new energy and water efficiency requirements.
* Then you will have to get your home measured again and get a license (called a “label” in the Act) that must be posted on your property to show what your efficiency rating is; sort of like the Energy Star efficiency rating label on your refrigerator or air conditioner.
* If you don’t get a high enough rating, you can’t sell. And, the EPA administrator is authorized to raise the standards every year, even above the automatic energy efficiency increases built into the Act.

http://www.nachi.org/forum/f14/cap-and-trade-license-required-your-home-44750/

What is going on? Why are we allowing them to Bankrupt us??? What happened to Common Sense???

When I was in college (waaay back when, LOL), I called my mom and asked for her chicken and rice recipe. It’s not a particularly unique recipe, I’ve since found it online in several variations. It is, however, the ultimate comfort food for me. The aroma of the sauteed onions and celery in the browned-chicken drippings, the moist rice…yum.  So, since I’ve been sick with both the flu and strep this week, and since Wednesday is usually “my” day for cooking, I decided that I needed the comfort. I’m mostly over the strep, the flu seems to have abated to “just” exhaustion, yes…it’s time. I pull out my dog-eared recipe card and begin. And once again I realize that the final product, while edible, won’t be just right. Why? Because it wasn’t made in the pan.

THE pan.

The chicken-and-rice pan.

The one used in our house since the dawn of time – or in this case – my childhood. The pan, as far as I know, resides with my mom in Florida. It, like many of us so many years later, is somewhat the worse for wear. The handle is mostly gone, the sides are dinged, the cover, if it’s even still in the vicinity of the actual pan no longer has a handle. But…that’s THE pan. The right pan. With that pan I can make some pretty amazing chicken and rice.

Without it…eh.

So-so.

I am nearing the end of my first semester in the doctoral program. The “real” work has finally kicked in and, as challenging as it is, I am enjoying it. My main struggle this semester has been (aside from the recent death of my father, the continuing struggle with melanoma, hand/ligament surgery, strep throat, and now the flu) has been the looming prospect of no teaching jobs for the upcoming spring 2010 term.This despite pretty outstanding, if I do say so myself, teaching evals and observations.

Zip.

Zero.

Nada.

Every place at which I have either taught in the past or applied for the future has no classes to offer. The State of California is going bankrupt and taking its higher education institutions along for the ride. It’s gotten so bad that I’m applying in Phoenix and in northern California, figuring I can fly and/or drive home for doctoral classes/weekends if needs be.

To get me out of my funk, several good friends have pointed out to me that I am missing a golden opportunity. I have a good many writing projects in the works; a solid screenplay pitch that’s already gotten good feedback, a manuscript under review by a well-known publisher, several other stories and/or script ideas just begging to be written. Those projects have been sitting dormant because of my normally busy schedule. Perhaps it’s time to dust them off?

So, with their words in mind, I am concentrating again upon my writing (in addition to, of course, the doctoral work, which has priority). I have been stressing and worrying, fussing over my CV, subjecting myself to painful self-examination and hyper-critique, wondering why I can’t land a permanent teaching gig. And then the “apostrophe” hit (Spielberg’s Hook reference, look it up.) I have decided that perhaps the problem with my CV and my applications is the same problem that I am having with the chicken and rice.

I just need to find the right pan.

Tonight: so-so chicken and rice and completing my SLO paper.

During the health care debate, Obama made one of the strangest analogies when he compared government-run health care to the United States Postal Service. This analogy was made after the fact that the USPS was bankrupt and losing money hand-over-fist. More bad news for Obama’s analogy.

The Post Office continues to lose money and now they are looking to cut services. In order to save money, the USPS is thinking about ending Saturday deliveries. The government-run Postal Service lost $3.8 billion in 2009 and wants to propose dropping Saturday mail delivery to Congress in 2010.

Was Obama’s analogy a warning to how government-run health care will be? Will it bankrupts our nation and cause services to be rationed or possible cut? The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services have already answered that question.

There is potentially good news on the horizon for the hundreds of thousands of people struggling with debt in England and Wales.

The Government has announced their intention to change the way in which an individual can apply for a bankruptcy. Under new proposals it will soon be possible to file an application for a bankruptcy electronically.

An individual wishing to declare themselves bankrupt will be able to do so online, avoiding the stress of a visit to the local County Court completely, according to government proposals.

Studies have shown that in some parts of England and Wales debtors faced delays in making an application for bankruptcy of up to three months.

When the Government introduced the Enterprise Act which shortened the term of a bankruptcy to just twelve months they set the country on a path which has removed the old fashioned stigma of Bankruptcy. This announcement can only further support the view that Bankruptcy is now a socially acceptable solution to overwhelming debts.

The minister for business Ian Lucas is reported as saying “…. once a person has decided that it (bankruptcy) is the only viable solution for their debt problems, these proposed changes will make it easier for them to proceed into bankruptcy,……many people delay making a petition for bankruptcy because they do not want to appear in court – meaning they can sink further into debt. We want to reduce that delay, while also freeing up valuable court time and resources to deal with other aspects of insolvency.”

The conclusion has to be made that the Court Service and presumably the Insolvency Service are under such huge strain from the increasing volume of people filing for bankruptcy that the system will fail unless it is further streamlined.

Previously published figures show that personal insolvencies are rising sharply, increasing 18% in Q3 of 2009 compared with the Q3 of 2008. These figures appear to be setting a trend for the coming months.

There are a number of reasons why insolvency  figures are rising but as a result of Government proposals to raise minimum payment thresholds on credit cards, expected higher interest rates, increasing utility costs and higher tax burdens, the predicted 140,000 people who will apply for Bankruptcy or an IVA (individual voluntary arrangement) for this year may well be outstripped by next year’s figures.

On the face of it the ability to make an online application is good news for anyone considering bankruptcy as a solution to their debt problem. However it should still be borne in mind that applying for a bankruptcy is a process regulated by law and  is full of technical issues which should be examined carefully and dealt with correctly.

Appearing in person at the local County Court to file the necessary paperwork is often a stressful situation and removing this burden with further encourage debtors to address the situation by declaring themselves bankruptcy.

Not sure whether bankruptcy is the right option for you? A local bankruptcy attorney can answer your questions and explain the bankruptcy process to you. Schedule your free, no-obligation call right now! Chapter 7 bankruptcy and Chapter 13 bankruptcy offer different forms of protection. If you’re facing a financial crisis, a local bankruptcy attorney can help you determine whether Chapter 7 bankruptcy or Chapter 13 bankruptcy might be the right answer for you.

http://www.bankruptcyquestions.org/request-free-bankruptcy-case-evaluation-right-now/

Not sure whether bankruptcy is the right option for you? A local bankruptcy attorney can answer your questions and explain the bankruptcy process to you. Schedule your free, no-obligation call right now! Chapter 7 bankruptcy and Chapter 13 bankruptcy offer different forms of protection. If you’re facing a financial crisis, a local bankruptcy attorney can help you determine whether Chapter 7 bankruptcy or Chapter 13 bankruptcy might be the right answer for you.

http://www.bankruptcyquestions.org/request-free-bankruptcy-case-evaluation-right-now/