The 20 Biggest Bankruptcies In US History, Charted

We're halfway into 2019 and so far this year we've already seen a spate of bankruptcies, mostly from businesses in the retail industry, including Gymboree, Charlotte Russe and Payless ShoeSource. 

But in the history of bankruptcies, the shuttering of these businesses pale in comparison to some other corporations, such as the collapse of Lehman Brothers in 2008, which, according to this chart below (see here for a full-sized image), is the largest declared bankruptcy of all time:

According to the chart, from lending company TitleMax, investment bank Lehman Brothers had around $691 billion in assets at the time it filed for bankruptcy, making its bankruptcy the biggest in US history. Its downfall is linked to the 2008 financial crisis, as is the bankruptcy of savings and loan bank Washington Mutual, the second-biggest on the list.

It should be noted that the asset values of these companies have not been adjusted for inflation, which means that the list is inevitably dominated by more recent bankruptcies. Only three out of the 20 biggest bankruptcies occurred before 2000, and nine of these bankruptcies happened during the turbulent 2008-2009 period. The financial sector also notably constitutes half of the biggest bankruptcies in US history, with the earliest on the list being the declaration of bankruptcy by the Financial Corporation of America in 1988 because of a savings and loans crisis in the '80s.

[TitleMax via Visual Capitalist]