Reuters reports that Bankruptcy filings by American consumers and businesses soared 38 percent in 2007 to a total of 850,912.

This really isn’t a big deal. No really, even though this appears to be another cog in the great wheel of recession, it could be worse.

Firstly, the data is for 2007. Things were flying high in 2006 so it is really no surprise that bankruptcies are up a little, and 38% isn’t 380%. For example: 2005 saw over 2 million bankruptcies, although that did happen to be just before the feds made it harder for people to file. So take that number with the proverbial grain of salt.