“Cracking down on those who “abused the bankruptcy laws,” President Bush said, would therefore “make credit more affordable.” And we’d all be better off.

“The law did slash the number of bankruptcies—they fell by sixty-two per cent between 2004 and 2006.”

“Interest rates and credit-card fees have not fallen as promised.”

“And for debtors life has become significantly harder: many can’t afford bankruptcy—strangely enough, it’s possible to be too poor to pay the filing fees—and many others can’t qualify.”

Surowiecki