The Year In Bankruptcy: 2015

The world's second-largest economy (China) stumbled; Japan receded; the U.K. showed signs of life; the war-torn Middle East reeled; oil revenue-dependent Russia, Brazil, and Venezuela took body blows; and the European Union exhaled after narrowly avoiding Grexit (and possibly Brexit), only to confront a refugee crisis of alarming (and expensive) proportions, as well as a demonstrated terrorist threat from the self-proclaimed Islamic State.

A Good Year for the U.S.

By comparison, 2015 was a relatively good year for the U.S., with modest growth in the economy (approximately 2 percent), the lowest budget deficit ($439 billion) as a percentage of gross domestic product (2.5 percent) since 2007, persistently low inflation (just over 1 percent), and the lowest unemployment rate (5 percent) in more than seven years. Perhaps the biggest business news of 2015 was that, heralding the end of the post-Great Recession period of easy money, these developments prompted the U.S.