That personal and corporate bankruptcies in the USA have increased by over a quarter is obviously bad news.

Yet those who are filing for bankruptcy can at least take comfort from the fact that, with a million people in the same position, they are not alone.

Bankruptcy is a fact of life in business. The entrepreneur never seeks it, and should do all he can to avoid it, but, if it becomes unavoidable, he should face it like a man.

He must accept responsibility. With a recession putting a million others in the same boat, he has every right to claim circumstances are against him, but, at the same time, he must not try to deny that he made the choices that put him at the mercy of those circumstances.

That might sound harsh but it is in fact a foundation of hope: the man who takes responsibility for past mistakes also takes responsibility for his future. He shows that he understands that both depend, at least in part, on his decisions and his actions.

Bankruptcy involves a difficult moral choice. On the one hand, most entrepreneurs feel a genuine repugnance at the idea of running away from their obligations and leaving creditors unpaid.

At the same time, if there is no realistic chance of improvement, delaying the unpleasant decision to go bankrupt simply increases the amount other people will lose.

What seems like honourable perseverance can turn out to be dishonourable indecision if someone else ends up paying for it.

A truly honest man must have both the honesty to admit the truth when there is no real prospect of anything but getting deeper into debt, and the honesty to act decisively by choosing the option which, as an honest man, he finds repellent.

Honour sometimes demands that we embrace what seems dishonourable.