Why US bankruptcies have reached a 5-year high

America saw 1.53 million personal bankruptcy filings in 2010: a five-year high. The last time bankruptcies happened so frequently was in 2004, when consumers were trying to preempt strict laws that would steer them away from the financial option last resort. Why is the 2005 law failing to slow the rate of bankruptcies?

Maureen Thompson is legislative director of the National Association of Consumer Bankruptcy Attorneys. She says that the Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act of 2005 was built on a faulty premise that could never really prevent Americans in dire need: Americans like Takeaway listener Amy Collins, a single mother of two who filed for bankruptcy in June.