Comparison:
- 2020 (COVID crash): ~610 large bankruptcies.
- 2021: ~400.
- 2022: ~450.
- 2023: ~500.
- 2025 YTD: 655 already.
(Reuters) -Large U.S. corporate bankruptcies are on pace to hit their highest level in 15 years, S&P Global data showed on Thursday, underscoring mounting stress across corporate America at a sensitive time for public market investors.
Total bankruptcy filings reached 655 this year through October, compared with 687 for all of 2024. October alone accounted for 68 filings, following 76 in August — the highest monthly count since at least 2020.
While the full impact of U.S. President Donald Trump’s shifting tariff policies remains uncertain, businesses are already feeling the strain from rising input costs. That is further squeezing lower-income consumers who continue to grapple with sticky inflation and a faltering labor market.
We are in a recession in 4 charts: pic.twitter.com/i9tYesMioN
— Maine (@TheMaineWonk) November 23, 2025
The Fed should hike rates 50 basis points in December. Inflation has been running at over 2x their target level (2%) for 5+ years now. The stock market and home prices are at record highs. Stop pursuing policies that will only create more inflation and worsen affordability. https://t.co/m3JMlcR8lP pic.twitter.com/bhfQWh8V3k
— Charlie Bilello (@charliebilello) November 23, 2025
For the record: it’s clear the Fed has TDS.
The evidence is clear: the Fed is asleep at the wheel and NEEDS to cut rates in December, they’re already dangerously late. The FFR should equal r* right now. To be clear the neutral rate r* (2.75%) is declining NOT increasing as some… pic.twitter.com/C9gAMBpRsD
— James E. Thorne (@DrJStrategy) November 23, 2025
Something in the US economy isn’t adding up, and it’s rattling the people charged with wrangling inflation and keeping the labor market intact.
US companies have sharply slowed their hiring this year, hesitant to invest without knowing the full effects of President Donald Trump’s sweeping economic policies. The economy lost jobs in June and August, and the average pace of job gains for the three months ending in September was only around 62,000, according to the Labor Department.
Yet workers’ productivity, a key driver of economic output, remains high. And gross domestic product, which captures all the goods and services produced in the economy, has stayed robust.
That dichotomy of an expanding economy and a softening labor market presents a conundrum for policymakers at the Federal Reserve, complicating their efforts to determine whether the economy needs cooling or boosting.
“The divergence between solid economic growth and weak job creation created a particularly challenging environment for policy decisions,” Fed officials noted in their October meeting, according to minutes released Thursday.