Do retirees face a crisis of rising bankruptcies? That’s what pretty much every major news outlet would have you believe. “The boomers going bust: why elderly bankruptcy is rising in America,” headlines a recent long-form article in the Financial Times. “Bankruptcy Booms Among Older Americans,” says the New York Times, while the Washington Post tells us that “Bankruptcy filings surging for seniors.”
“Bankruptcy is hitting more older Americans, pointing to a retirement crisis in the making,” writes Los Angeles Times columnist Michael Hiltzik. And these news stories all point to the same purported causes: declining incomes due to falling Social Security benefits and disappearing traditional pensions, coupled with rising retiree healthcare costs.
