Personal bankruptcy filings have been climbing steadily since 2007 when the U.S. tumbled into a deep recession. With unemployment near 10%, bankruptcy filings are on the rise.

For the fiscal year ending Sept. 30, more that 1.5 million non-business bankruptcy filings were processed, according to data released by the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts and reported in CNNMoney. That's a 14% increase from 2009.

Early Thursday morning, Blockbuster (BLOKA) announced that it filed for voluntary Chapter 11 bankruptcy petitions. The move comes after an agreement with bondholders to recapitalize the movie and game rental chain.

According to the company, the filing in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court of the Southern District of New York applies to the company and its domestic subsidiaries, but not to the non-U.S. operations or the group's franchisees. Reportedly, the group has agreed on a deal with bondholders to swap secured notes for equity in a reorganized Blockbuster.

Ambac Financial Group (ABK) took the earnings stage Monday night -- and the stock took a quick dive right out of the gate Tuesday morning, if that gives you any indication about the quarterly results. The bond insurer swung to a loss of $57.6 million in the second quarter, and warned that a bankruptcy filing is likely if it can't come up with a plan to restructure its liabilities within the next year.

The company's official release stated the matter quite plainly: "Ambac has insufficient capital to finance its debt service and operating expense requirements beyond the second quarter of 2011 and may need to seek bankruptcy protection."

A day before it was set to go under the gavel, the sale of Sex.com stalled. The domain name was set to be auction, but an involuntary Chapter 11 filing by three of the company's creditors has put the brakes on the bidding. Escom LLC, which owns Sex.com, his on the hook, it seems, for an eight-figure tab.

The creditors' petition, filed in U.S. Bankruptcy Court shortly after noon yesterday by Washington Technology Associates, iEntertainment, Inc. and AccountingMatters.com LLC, claims that Sex.com owes them $10,092,118.68, according to a report by adult entertainment industry trade publication AVN (NSFW).

Radio station owner Citadel Broadcasting (CTDB) filed for U.S. bankruptcy protection in Manhattan, striking a deal to jettison roughly $1.4 billion in debt. In its Chapter 11 filing, Citadel listed assets of $1.4 billion and debt of $2.5 billion.

The broadcasting company turned to bankruptcy in order to enact a pre-negotiated plan that will convert a $2.1 billion loan into a $62.5 million term loan. This plan has the support of 60% of CTDB's secured lenders. CTDB owns WABC in New York and WLS in Chicago, and the company will operate these stations as usual throughout the bankruptcy. The operation will be funded by $36 million in on-hand cash.

Repros Therapeutics (NASDAQ: RPRX) easily takes the prize for most dismal earnings report of the day. Not only did the drug firm report a wider-than-forecast second-quarter loss, it also warned that bankruptcy is a real possibility unless the company can secure significant additional capital.

Specifically, Repros confessed to a second-quarter net loss of $8.9 million, or 59 cents per share, compared to Wall Street's consensus estimate for a loss of 46 cents per share. The company chalked up its poor results to a 16% annualized increase in clinical development activities for Proellex -- which has been placed on clinical hold by the FDA -- as well as a 60% year-over-year jump in general and administration expenses.

As if there weren't sufficient causes already to refer to CIT Group (NYSE: CIT) as "beleaguered," the list just got longer. This morning, the financial services firm delayed filing its second-quarter report with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), citing the ongoing restructuring of its debt as a mitigating factor.

Specifically, CIT told the regulatory agency that it could not meet Monday's 10-Q deadline "without unreasonable effort and expense," since executives have been spending most of their time lately attending to restructuring needs. The company is expecting a second-quarter loss in excess of $1.5 billion, thanks in large part to a loss totaling $2.1 billion from its discontinued home-lending operations.

Over the weekend, Six Flags Inc. (OTC: SIXF) announced it was filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy (cue sad-trombone noise here). The company was saddled with $2.4 billion in debt and is taking this opportunity for a fresh start. None of the company's 20 parks -- located throughout North America -- will be closed. All Six Flags employees still have jobs, as well, so potential patrons should not feel as though corners are being cut.

Six Flags spokeswoman Sandra Daniels told the press that "This restructuring will have no impact on families who come out to our parks."

Downtrodden General Motors (OTC: GMGMQ) is throwing in the towel on its 2010 hybrid-electric Chevy Malibu, according to a report in The Wall Street Journal (subscription required). Due to weak demand among retail customers, dealers have stopped ordering the car, and the automaker is currently choking on a backlog of the unpopular hybrids.

To drive home the point, the Journal quotes Joe Menegos, the sales manager at a National City, Calif., dealership, as saying, "We could care less" that the hybrid Malibu is being deep-sixed.

US bankruptcies in the first quarter were the highest since 2005. You might ask what happened in 2005 to cause a high bankruptcy rate? In that year there were a rush of bankruptcies ahead of a new bankruptcy law that was designed to curb abuses. The law took effect in October 2005.

Now to the present. Let's look at the numbers:

• There were 330,477 filings in the first quarter, up 10% from the previous quarter and up 35% from a year earlier.
• The Administrative Office of the US Courts reported that consumer filings were up 33%, while business filings were up a whopping 64%

Early this morning, the Associated Press reported that talks between Chrysler's lenders and the Treasury Department had "disintegrated." The parties were trying to lower Chrysler's $6.9 billion in secured debt, a move that many hoped would stave off bankruptcy.

It appears that the hedge funds (roughly 40 of them) that hold roughly 30% of Chrysler's debt are looking for a deal better than the one struck between the banks and the government. The four banks that hold 70% of the automaker's debt agreed to erase that debt for $2 billion -- the hedge funds want more.

Early this morning, mall owner and operator General Growth Properties announced that it filed for bankruptcy protection. The company noted that it couldn't "reach an out-of-course consensus" on how to deal with its debt. Roughly 158 regional shopping centers also filed for bankruptcy protection.

In February, GGP's past due debt totaled $1.18 billion and another $4.1 billion debt could be accelerated. The company expects to pursue a plan of reorganization that should extend mortgage maturities and cut the firms corporate debt. GGP received a commitment for a debtor-in-possession financing facility of roughly $375 million from Pershing Square Capital Management.

It's a rough time to be a shopping center company and, arguably, General Growth Properties (NYSE: GGP) is in the worst shape of the lot. The company faces a whopping $27 billion in maturing debt coming due over the next four years. On Friday, Feb 20, it announced it had defaulted on loans. The Piqqem Sentiment on the company is negative. Shares that traded over $60 per share two years ago are now below 50 cents and are a favorite football of speculators betting that the syndicate of lenders will throw GGP a lifeline rather than eat the bankruptcy costs.

There might be a happy ending to this story, however. The company reports earnings on February 23 and it will certainly be an interesting report -- most likely grim numbers as staggering retailers pass on their shopping plague to the biggest shopping center landlord.

Mall operator General Growth Properties, Inc. (NYSE: GGP) has seen its share price plunge more than 98% during the past year, with the equity recently plummeting into penny-stock territory amid concerns about a possible bankruptcy filing. Maybe I'm just an impatient member of the MTV generation, but it struck me today that these Chapter 11 rumors have been swirling around Wall Street for what seems like ages. Can we get some closure on this soap opera, GGP?

Well, according to a report today in the Wall Street Journal, GGP's deadline to renegotiate a $900 million loan on two luxury malls in Las Vegas came and went Thursday with no resolution. The mall mogul is still in talks with its lenders to negotiate a new deal -- but it's now haggling outside the confines of its forbearance agreement, which means those lenders, led by Deutsche Bank (NYSE: DB), can demand payment at any time.

Midway Games (NYSE: MWY) has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.

The video game company has been battling a massive debt load and poor financial results for the better part of a decade, but what finally sealed the company's fate was Sumner Redstone's sale of his 87% stake in the company to investor Mark Thomas. That change-in-control triggered a clause allowing noteholders to call the company's loans -- which the company expects they will.

"This was a difficult but necessary decision," CEO Matt Booty said in a press release. "We have been focused on realigning our operations and improving our execution, and this filing will relieve the immediate pressure from our creditors and provide us time for an orderly exploration of our strategic alternatives. This Chapter 11 filing is the next logical step in an ongoing process to address our capital structure."