Blame all around for biggest U.S. municipal bankruptcy

Reuters ^ | Thu Nov 10, 2011 6:10pm EST | Matthew Bigg and Melinda Dickinson

[1010RD]

(Reuters) - From corrupt and incompetent local officials to Wall Street's credit crisis and toxic bonds, there was plenty of blame to go around on Thursday, a day after Alabama's Jefferson County declared the biggest municipal bankruptcy in U.S. history.

The county, once a leading industrial hub in the U.S. Deep South, filed for bankruptcy court protection after failing to reach final agreement on terms of a preliminary deal with creditors led by JPMorgan Chase & Co in September to settle $3.14 billion in sewer-system debt. [Read the whole story]

[blueunicorn6]

There are too many “golden sewer” stories for this to be by chance. Dems/enviros have seen this as an opening to make a lot of money for themselves.

[Carry_Okie]

Yikes! Great catch and in keeping with the theme.

In a project like this, the EPA had to be there.

When Perry said he’d eliminate the EPA my heart leaped with joy.

He was either lying to get elected or a total idiot (which despite his debate performances, I doubt). There are thousands (literally) of Federal court consent decrees ordering the government to "comply" with what the corrupt bureaucracy wants to do anyway, whether pursuant to the Clean Water Act, the Endangered Specious Act, the ADA... ALL with underlying treaties to give them teeth. NONE of this spending is discretionary. ALL of it is corporate and bureaucratic welfare. He could "eliminate" the EPA, but he would have to reconstitute it in some other form. In either case, it's bull.

Their overreach is destroying our economy.

You bet it is. I've been trying to tell FReepers what it's going to take to beat this system for TEN YEARS and most still think this is a matter of ideology. Instead they listen to the bogus promises of "leaders" and get all warm and fuzzy. It's crap. This is going to be a very long legal and technical battle that must be won or we will be trapped (literally) in an urban prison with the country ripe for the taking (as intended).

[battletank]

“When Perry said he’d eliminate the EPA my heart leaped with joy.”

Except he didn’t. As he struggled for an eternity to name his third department he wanted to close, someone else suggested EPA....then Perry said it....and then retracted saying that that wasn’t the right department. He finally later said it was “Energy” department he was trying to think of.

[CWW]

I live in Montgomery and have lived in Birmingham. I can tell you this was the result of a corrupt Democrat City government and their cronies in the lobbying and financial world. Many of the named players (Mayor Larry Langford, Bond Financier Bill Blount and lobbyist Al Lapierre) are all BIG Dems and they are all now in prison. Birmingham has been run be corrupt Dems for several decades now, and they have pilfered and run it into the ground. It's laughable that they are trying to blame it on Gov. Bentley (who has only been in office since January) simply because he wouldn't agree to make the rest of the state pay for Birmingham's criminality. Talk about chutzpah!

[Buckeye McFrog]

Here in Pittsburgh the problem is even worse. The few breathing Republicans we have here have been totally co-opted, since most of them make their money somehow in the muni bond market.

[del4hope]

And while Larry is getting 3 squares a day, a roof over his head, running water, heat and AC at Club Feb, the property owners of Jefferson County are where until 2023?

[1010RD]

We need to make it toxic for these totalitarians to touch OPM

That's tough. The incentives are there and so is human nature. The electorate wants to believe in something for nothing.

The only solution I see is to undo government education. That said I cannot see it happening quickly. Utah rejected vouchers just a few years ago.

We need to approach government education like we do abortion or gun control. Show the damage it does. Why is there so much un/underemployment? Bad educational outcomes - poor K-12, dumb useless degrees exacerbated by government loans and high tuition. You're poor, young person, because of government.

That's the only way.

[wita]

OWS sure is in need of ed jew k shun. If they had any brains, we would see them camped out at the capitol in DC and in every state capitol, and lobbying for spending cuts left right and center. Like that is ever going to happen.

Some used to think the “Wall” would never come down. So things could change, if other “things” get bad enough.

[Paladin2]

"Here's how Jefferson County borrowed billions to repair and build sewers, then changed that debt from simple interest to complex financial derivatives that blew up in the Great Recession and plunged the county into default. "

Derivatives? There's a good idea for governance.

[1010RD]

Great analogy.

[PGalt]

We need to approach government education like we do abortion or gun control. Show the damage it does.

Very good idea in a very good thread.

Thanks to every poster.

BTTT!

[PGalt]

That's tough.

(revisiting thread)Education & defunding. Can we/any candidate/Congress say/do the funding of NPR has stopped? (They can continue the propaganda.) We, the people are NOT funding it. Just this one thing miniscule thing to get the ball rolling...and then to Planned Parenthood, and then to..., and then to, and, etc., etc.

Yes, you have Carry_Okie. Thanks for your post(s).

[Carry_Okie]

Can we/any candidate/Congress say/do the funding of NPR has stopped?

It's up to Congress to defund NPR. Although one might be hard pressed to find Constitutional authority to have funded it in the first place, I seriously doubt the SCOTUS would take such a case.

[Carry_Okie]

Oh, and you are quite welcome.