In Wednesday’s Business Week, Ben Steverman’s anaylsis of the possiblities of upcoming bankruptcy activity indicates that filings, rather than slowing as the economy gains its footing again, will instead swell with the failure of numerous entrepreneurial and high-debt companies. His opinion is that this will be due largely to the continuing spin-down in consumer demand and tight credit markets.

I don’t know if Mr. Steverman is right, but the fact is his article concerns me. Granted, I could just look forward to another busy sixteen to eighteen months. After all, business failures contribute to the activity in my practice. But the part of me that is hopeful about our financial system and small business in general wonders if another long and sustained decline in employment and the lost wages, profits and taxes that those jobs represent will cause our government to borrow even more against our country’s future and add inflationary pressure to the other effects of the recession from which we suffer.

On the other hand, maybe the doom and gloom that Business Week predicts will be made less credible by the recovery of financial standing by large businesses which have slashed debt and costs as a survival strategy. How are you feeling about your business’s prospects over the next year or so?