The Oregonian
SALEM â The COVID-19 pandemic has brought unprecedented hardship to many Oregonians. And yet the number of Oregon bankruptcies fell by more than 25% last year, according to the American Bankruptcy Institute, to the lowest point in many years.
Itâs not just Oregon â the national data reflects a similar decline. In Oregon and around the country, consumer and business bankruptcies were down sharply despite the coronavirus recession.
That counterintuitive result reflects a number of factors, according to bankruptcy attorneys: Federal relief payments insulated many people and many businesses from the worst in the early days of the pandemic. Eviction moratoriums mean that tenants havenât been obliged to pay the rent, at least not yet, while foreclosure moratoriums reduced the pressure on homeowners. Deferrals in student loan payments gave people time to cover the costs of their education.
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January 18, 2021 9:00 AM Liz Weston
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NerdWallet
Welcome to NerdWallet’s Smart Money podcast, where we answer your real-world money questions.
Then we pivot to talking about the history of debt and debt forgiveness, along with how to pay it off.
Check out this episode on any of these platforms:
Our take
Consumer credit has been around for thousands of years and the idea of debt forgiveness is nearly as old. In ancient times, Sumerian and Babylonian kings would declare debt amnesties to quell social unrest.
Debt forgiveness is in the news again because President-elect Joe Biden supports erasing $10,000 for each federal student loan borrower as part of additional coronavirus relief. Some borrowers had hoped he would forgive the debt quickly by executive order, but his transition team has said forgiveness would happen only through congressional action.
Oregon Insight: Despite pandemic, bankruptcies are down sharply
Updated Jan 17, 2021;
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Your favorite restaurant has gone out of business. Storefronts downtown are boarded up. More than 115,000 Oregonians are unemployed.
The COVID-19 pandemic has brought unprecedented hardship to many Oregonians. And yet the number of Oregon bankruptcies fell by more than 25% last year, according to the American Bankruptcy Institute, to the lowest point in many years.
It’s not just Oregon – the national data reflects a similar decline. In Oregon and around the country, consumer and business bankruptcies were down sharply despite the coronavirus recession.
That counterintuitive result reflects a number of factors, according to bankruptcy attorneys: