Can bankruptcy relieve the crisis of household debt?

Spooner, Joseph

doi:10.2307/j.ctv28m3h1h.10

Cited by 3 publications

(4 citation statements)

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“…5. The scope of these seizures can be limited by bankruptcy laws and other debt-absolving practices (see Peebles, 2013 andSpooner, 2019 for more information on such practices). 6.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Law is flexible, able to be rewritten and reinterpreted to support new strategies of accumulation (Park, 2016;Pistor, 2019). Even bankruptcy law, which can operate as an exception to the usual enforcement of contractual debt obligations, has been subject to the ongoing debate as to whether its primary function should be to promote debt relief or debt collection (Spooner, 2019). Like other laws, the laws governing debt incorporate specific spatial ideas (Bennett and Layard, 2015).…”

Section: Debt Spatiality and Dispossessionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Debtor spaces: Austerity, space, and dispossession in Michigan’s emergency management system

Heil

2021

Environ Plan A

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In recent years, debt has become a major focus of geographic research as debt relations have become increasingly central to today’s financialized capitalist economy. This paper bridges two aspects of the debt literature: (1) the emergent literature on debt spatiality, which argues that space plays an active role in the creation and maintenance of debt relations, and (2) the broader literature examining processes of debt-driven dispossession (e.g., foreclosure, eviction, austerity, etc.). Recent literature in geography, led by Harker’s work on debt spaces, has argued that debt should not only be understood as a temporal relation (a promise of future labor) but a spatial relation as well. This literature has examined the active role of space in creating debt relations but has been less attentive to the ways in which debt is a key mechanism of dispossessive economies. Analyzing Michigan’s emergency management laws, a system of forced, localized austerity, I chronicle how the social production of space is central to dispossessive debt projects. I conclude by offering a new concept, debtor spaces, to characterize the socio-spatial formations which enable practices of debt-based dispossession.

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“…5. The scope of these seizures can be limited by bankruptcy laws and other debt-absolving practices (see Peebles, 2013 andSpooner, 2019 for more information on such practices). 6.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Debt Spatiality and Dispossessionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Debtor spaces: Austerity, space, and dispossession in Michigan’s emergency management system

Heil

2021

Environ Plan A

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“…When invoked by debtors in need, bankruptcy can offer a financial lifeline and a safety net against the risks inherent in a financialised, debt-dependent economy (Spooner, 2017(Spooner, , 2019. Bankruptcy discharges debts of an over-indebted individual, offering a fresh start and a chance to begin a new financial life free from debt burdens.…”

Section: Bankruptcymentioning

confidence: 99%

The Local Austere Creditor

Spooner¹

2021

Oppressed by Debt

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efforts to trace how austerity policies 2 involve the downward and outward transmission of budgetary cuts, until they reach the level of financial hardship for individual households (James, 2020). Several authors have shown that State governments' fiscal retrenchment through austerity has frequently involved the devolution of risk and responsibility, and the downloading of the task of cutting budgets from higher to lower levels of government (Peck, 2012, p. 631). Peck describes a process of "scalar dumping" under which US federal and state governments shift the primary burden of implementing austerity cuts to local authorities and agencies (Peck, 2012, p. 632). Cooper discusses how the neoliberal "remaking" of US state and local finance has involved a "paradoxical ballooning of municipal and personal debt" while limits are placed on central government expenditure (Cooper, 2021). As tax-deprived local authorities increasingly rely on alternative (and regressive) income sources such as user fees and fines, this form of austerity "ends up transferring the fiscal burdens of the state downwards, constituting the income and asset-poor as both permanent defaulters on the public fisc and revenue-generators of last resort"(Cooper, 2021). Gray and Barford illustrate how under UK austerity policies, the greatest proportional cut in public expenditure has fallen on local government, reshaping "the relationship between central and local government in Britain, 2 Blyth describes austerity as 'a form of voluntary deflation in which the economy adjusts through the reduction of wages, prices, and public spending to restore competitiveness, which is (supposedly) best achieved by cutting the state's budget, debts, and deficits.' Similarly, Schui notes that while 'the term austerity is often used to denote public spending cuts in general', its 'main rationale' is 'to restore balance in government finances and regain economy dynamism and competitiveness', by cutting government expenditure (primarily consumption, rather than investment, spending) and lowering labour costs (wages): (Blyth, 2013, p. 2; Schui, 2015, p. 2) "Accepted Manuscript" version of Joseph Spooner, 'The Local Austere Creditor' in Saul Schwartz (ed.

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“…in the late 1980s. 16 It is only since the 1990s, 17 and later in the wake of the global financial crisis, that many Member States have adopted, or reformed, national laws on consumer insolvency, thereby recognising the importance of enabling consumers to be discharged of non-business debts and get a second chance. 18 Rather than simply extending the scope of the existing discharge provisions (for entrepreneurs) to non-entrepreneurs, some jurisdictions have introduced specific parallel regimes for consumers.…”

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confidence: 99%

Natural person ltd.: Towards a unified discharge regime for entrepreneurs and consumers

Vandenbossche

2023

Intl Insolvency Rev

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Personal insolvency proceedings are increasingly fulfilling an economic function, aimed at the rehabilitation of the debtor. The idea of the fresh start and second chance, including an early discharge of residual debts, is an important illustration thereof. Despite the fact that this evolution is noted in all personal insolvency procedures, both with regard to entrepreneurs and consumers, debt discharge used to be easier to justify and more readily granted to entrepreneurs (traders) than to non‐entrepreneurs. Clear examples of the discomfort legislators seem to have with discharging unpaid debts of consumers are the EU Member States that differentiate between commercial and consumer insolvency procedures. In addition, the narrative of promoting entrepreneurship is now driving EU insolvency reforms. That (narrow) focus leads Directive 2019/1023/EU to make the same distinction between insolvent individual entrepreneurs and other natural persons, offering the former a full discharge of debt after a reasonable period of time, while providing no mandatory discharge principles for the latter. This means that not all natural persons are equal when it comes to the possibility of having a second chance, despite compelling evidence that shorter discharge periods lead to more productive individuals. The question therefore arises as to whether EU Member States should run separate discharge systems for entrepreneurs and consumers, and whether this is justified in relation to its purpose. Focusing on natural persons in an insolvency context, this article argues that the objectives of providing a fresh start and second chance, by promoting debt discharge, are as relevant for consumer debtors as they are for entrepreneurs.

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Can bankruptcy relieve the crisis of household debt?

Cited by 3 publications

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Debtor spaces: Austerity, space, and dispossession in Michigan’s emergency management system

Debtor spaces: Austerity, space, and dispossession in Michigan’s emergency management system

The Local Austere Creditor

Natural person ltd.: Towards a unified discharge regime for entrepreneurs and consumers

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