After poring over NY State data, the NY Times suggests that "courtrooms are now seeing the delayed result of the country’s economic collapse... New York’s judges are wading into these types of cases by the tens of thousands, according to the new statistics, cases involving not only bad debts and soured deals, but also filings that are indirect but still jarring measures of economic stresses, like charges of violence in families torn apart by lost jobs and homes in jeopardy." Chief judge Jonathan Lippman said, "Society’s problems come to us. We are the emergency room for society.” And another judge, who has seen many credit cases, said of the future, "I would describe it as a train wreck and I think it’s going to get worse for the next couple of years.” more ›

Hilarious: After not doing anything about Bernard Madoff when warned about him years ago, the Securities and Exchange Commission has reportedly agreed to a civil case settlement with Ponzi schemester Madoff. The AP reports the agreement "could eventually force [Madoff] to pay a civil fine and return money raised from investors." Money raised from investors—wait, the money that no one can seem to find? (Fine, they found $950 million of an estimated tens of billions.) Don't worry, there's still that criminal case against Madoff. The AP adds, "The partial judgment must be approved by the judge overseeing the Madoff case in federal court in Manhattan." more ›