58,000 commercial bankruptcies filed nationwide through November of this year exceed the year-end totals of every year

58,000 commercial bankruptcies filed nationwide through November of this year exceed the year-end totals of every year since Congress overhauled the bankruptcy laws in 2005, according to Automated Access to Court Electronic Records, an Oklahoma City bankruptcy data company.The 11-month figure is also 35 percent more than the nearly 43,000 business petitions filed in all of last year, the company's data show.
The combination of massive job losses, stagnant consumer spending, tighter credit and the subprime mortgage crisis have hammered businesses coast to coast.Victims include Lehman Brothers and Washington Mutual, the two largest corporate bankruptcies in U.S. history.Thousands of smaller companies also have been forced to liquidate or restructure through bankruptcy.They include car dealerships such as Ernie Haire Ford of Tampa, Fla., home remodeling firms such as Accurate Kitchens of Clifton, N.J., and natural gas marketers such as Catalyst Energy of Atlanta.When the recession began last December, businesses nationwide were filing an average of 206 bankruptcy petitions a day. That average has increased steadily since June, reaching 318 per day in November.