More than 126,000 U.S. consumers filed for bankruptcy last month, 34 percent more than in July 2008. No matter how (relatively) well the stock market's doing, personal bankruptcies are still soaring out of control.

Celebrities Stephen Baldwin and Lenny Dykstra (if you can call them celebrities) filed for bankruptcy last month. After you finish browsing this list of other celebrity bankruptcies, just realize that even if you're not bankrupt, you stand to pay higher and higher fees to banks, which are losing money on loans and so are more than ever focusing on new and higher fees to squeeze money out of those members of the public who aren't yet broke.

Who knows how high the bankruptcy rate would be if Congress hadn't made it much tougher back in 2005 for the average person to file for bankruptcy?