The other day, one of the talking heads on The Today Show gave some brilliant personal finance advice. If you’re unable to pay your bills and thinking about bankruptcy, she said, call a bankruptcy judge and ask for advice.

I howled at that one.

Like those folks sitting on the federal bench have time.

They’ve seen the number of cases being filed soar. The judges – and the clerks and everyone else in the Southern District bankruptcy court - can handle the surge, I’m sure. They went through worse times in 2005, when the bankruptcy law changed and everyone rushed to the courthouse to beat it.

But the debtors today are in true distress.

And bankruptcy isn’t going to help everyone.

Just ask Judge A. Jay Cristol of the Miami court.

Clearly exasperated with the court’s inability, under current law, to alter the terms of a mortgage on someone’s primary residence, Judge Kristol told me, “The banks are rich and stupid and greedy.”

It’s open to debate whether banks that refuse to renegotiate with troubled borrowers are acting in what might be their own best interest. They’d rather drive another home into foreclosure? With the more than a million homes already there?

But many may have their hands tied, as do the judges. They may have agreements with loan servicing firms that they can’t change. They can’t force the servicers to change loan terms.

As long as this situation continues, “There are going to be a lot of empty homes, a lot of losses and a lot of people on the street,” Judge Cristol said.