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Podcast: Commonwealth Club of California Podcast
Episode: Melissa Jacoby with Sen. Elizabeth Warren: How Our Bankruptcy System Makes America More Unequal
Description: Bankruptcy is the busiest federal court in America. In theory, bankruptcy in America exists to cancel or restructure debts for people and companies that have way too many debts—a safety valve designed to provide a mechanism for restarting lives and businesses when things go wrong financially.Legal scholar Melissa B. Jacoby argues that bankruptcy has also become an escape hatch for powerful individuals, corporations, and governments, contributing in unseen and poorly understood ways to race, gender, and class inequality in America. When cities go bankrupt, for example, police unions enjoy added leverage while po...