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This week brings bad news for very desperate housewife Teresa Giudice: The bankrupt star's stuff will be auctioned off on August 22 to pay off her $11 million in debt, and it seems her financial missteps are inspiring desperate housewives everywhere.

In Britain, the number of women filing for Chapter 11 has risen almost fivefold in the past decade, with a 28 percent increase in the past year alone.

And, in late 2009, economist Elizabeth Warren pointed out that a million middle-class American women found themselves in bankruptcy court that year, a higher number than will "graduate from college, receive a diagnosis of cancer, or file for divorce."

It turns out, their housewife habit may be to blame: Especially at risk are younger women, age 25–44, who make up almost two-thirds of female bankruptcies. As Graham Horne, deputy chief executive of Britain's Insolvency Service, tells The Independent, "These figures show that more and more young women have levels of debt incurred through trying to maintain lifestyles that are unsustainable."

In other words, real-life housewives emulate the "Real Housewives," who can't quite keep up with the A-list -- and everybody winds up spending themselves into oblivion.

Oh well, we'll always have Paris.