I keep hearing how well the economy is doing.

Okay.

Maybe I’m looking in the wrong places.

For the last 18 months we’ve watched families struggle with the rising cost of groceries, housing, utilities, insurance, vehicles, and gasoline…pretty much that whole pesky living thing. Inflation is still running at 3.4% (up from 2.9% in December 2024), and the latest jobs report actually showed a loss of 23,000 jobs in July. (yes, August shows an improvement. We’ll see if that holds when revised.)

And now we can add another little ray of economic sunshine…

Bankruptcies.

In 2024 there were 494,201 personal bankruptcies. In 2025 that jumped to 549,577. Based on actual filings through June, 2026 is currently running at an annualized pace of about 602,000.

That would be roughly a 22% increase in two years.

Businesses aren’t escaping it either. Business bankruptcies went from 23,107 in 2024 to 24,737 in 2025, and the first half of 2026 puts us on a pace of about 27,700.

Another roughly 20% increase.

Now, does bankruptcy data prove the entire economy is collapsing?

Nope.

But add it to everything else we’ve been looking at for the last 18 – 20 months and it tells me something pretty simple:

The economy continues to suffer…Big Time!

Maybe not for everybody. But apparently for an awful lot of ordinary American families and businesses.

The numbers just keep piling up.