From its biblical and constitutional roots, American bankruptcy law has developed to provide important and necessary protection to financially overextended debtors. In the nineteenth-century Congress repeatedly responded to national economic difficulty by passing bankruptcy legislation. In the last quarter of the twentieth-century, Chapter 11 bankruptcies frequently prevented the disappearance of major airlines, curbing massive employment losses and the resulting impact on the national economy. Events of recent years, such as the proliferation of variable rate mortgages, large numbers of layoffs, the rising number of individuals without health insurance, and the rapid decline of the stock market in the fall of 2008, show the unpredictable and tenuous nature of financial health for modern Americans.