talkin bout My Generation

Looking into the future, next month’s May 2007 issue of the American Bankruptcy Institute Journal [ABIJ] will contain an article titled Aging and Bankruptcy: The Baby Boomers Meet Up at Bankruptcy Court.

I am a baby boomer, albeit it at age 52 I arrived late to the party. Nonetheless, I have to ask, What put my generation into this predicament? One need only look to My Generation for insight. Not my fellow boomers, but the 1965 album, of the same name and time period, by The Who. That first album by the rock messiahs of my past featured prophetic song titles that should help us understand these troubling times.

ABIJ authors, John Golmant and Tom Ulrich, conclude “Americans over the age of 55 are filing for bankruptcy at a faster rate than the general population.” They blame medical expenses and home mortgages as primary causes. Today, the sub prime housing lending market brings us Congressional hearings, government agency finger pointing and major mortgage brokers themselves in bankruptcy. Ah, the song, A Legal Matter, is apropos. Were you surprised when the Los Angeles housing bubble burst under pressure of no document loans? Not if you remembered the song, La-La-La Lies. And when the Orange County Register Q and A interview with bankrupt sub prime lender New Century Financial’s founders, Bob Cole and Ed Gotschall, turned into less A and more “we cannot comment”, “defer to management” and “you will have to ask the company”, you shook off the Alzheimer’s and recognized the connection between those responses and the song I Can’t Explain.

Golmant and Ulrich predict “this trend of rising bankruptcies among older Americans is likely to continue for the foreseeable future.” Sadly we recall in 1987 Pete Townsend told Rolling Stone magazine My Generation was about trying to find a place in society. With 22.7 % of today’s bankruptcy filers my age and older, I hope I do not resemble that remark. Being the-glass-is-half-full person that I am, I am compelled to hope things will get better for the next generation. Like the song says, The Kids Are Alright.