For those who missed it, University of Illinois law prof Robert Lawless at Credit Slips posted a nice colourful update to YoY changes in US (personal – I presume) Bankruptcy Filings, state-by-state, along with a table rank-ordering the data. As one might expect, a year into crunchy credit coincidental to @$125 oil, vaulting coal prices, and 50% rises in many softs, the credit-sensitive states are ignominiously on top, with energy and ag states at the bottom. Using my own powers of visual agglomeration, there appears (make what you will of it) to be a decided red-state/blue-state schism to the changes.

Compare (or contrast) this to Business Bankruptcies posted and discussed in the Big Picture a few days ago. While there is some reasonable overlap, Lawless’ pictograph is more indicative of housing distress, and his discussion perhaps more reflective of the actual flashpoints across the country.