The median age of bankrupts in 2007 was 43, up from 36.5 in 1991.

FORBES: Credit Card Debt Blamed For Surge In Elder Bankruptcy

Pottow finds that elderly bankrupts themselves point to credit card debt as the problem.

FORBES: Credit Card Debt Blamed For Surge In Elder Bankruptcy

In Germany bankrupts can face a lifetime ban on senior executive positions at big companies.

ECONOMIST: European entrepreneurs

America's leniency towards bankrupts encourages novices to start their own businesses and allows people who have failed to start again.

ECONOMIST: Schumpeter

The default setting on the software treats individual debtors as nonbusiness bankrupts.

FORBES

Under Engish insolvency law, which is less proscriptive than Ireland's new guidelines, "reasonable" day-to-day expenses for bankrupts include holidays, mobile phones and video rentals.

CNN: Ireland picks through debtors' lifestyles

Smaller countries could default on their debts, essentially declaring bankruptcy, stiffing the investors in their bonds, and like all bankrupts trying to start over with crippled access to credit markets.

FORBES: Markets Pass Through Eye Of The Storm

But far worse is how it bankrupts our culture.

FORBES: Sandra Fluke Can Have 2012, Let's Celebrate Non-Coerced Giving In 2013

Cash and loans flowed freely between Daewoo subsidiaries regardless of shareholder interests and so, if any one of the creditors calls in loans and bankrupts a Daewoo company, it could pull the whole lot down.

ECONOMIST: South Korea