This has been a bad year for many Americans. The U.S. Courts website reports that bankruptcy filings for its fiscal year 2008 ending on September 30, 2008 exceeded one million.The total new cases of 1,042,993 topped 2007 figures by over 30%. Although I remember lawyers and claimants racing to file before the new Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act of 2005 took effect, the numbers are almost as high today. Of the million-plus filings for 2008, business filings were up 49%, while non-business filings were up 30%. The only bankrptcy code chapter that did not see an increase was Chapter 12, which is for farmers. Multiple tables and additional data can be found at the link above for the Courts' website.