High Finance Backfires on Alabama County (With a little help from JP Morgan)

New York Times ^ | 12 March 2008 | KYLE WHITMIRE and MARY WILLIAMS WALSH

[LomanBill]

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — In 2002, a banker named Charles E. LeCroy arrived here with a novel pitch to ease taxpayers’ burden. Some Wall Street wizardry, he said, could lighten their load.

...

Six years on, officials here are still struggling to untangle the financial web that Mr. LeCroy and his fellow bankers spun. Jefferson County is teetering on the brink of bankruptcy after a series of exotic bond deals that the bankers concocted went wrong

...

During the last few years, Jefferson County entered into a series of complex transactions, called swaps, worth a staggering $5.4 billion. The accusations and recriminations are flying. Talk of Wall Street tricks — and local corruption — has captivated residents and left many wondering how the county will pay its bills.

...

At the heart of this story are Mr. LeCroy, who arranged many of the transactions; a Montgomery investment banker, William Blount, whose firm, Blount Parrish & Company, earned larger fees than any other adviser on the transactions; and Larry P. Langford, the local official who signed off on the deals.

...

As a managing director at JPMorgan Chase, Mr. LeCroy persuaded the county to convert its debt from fixed interest rates to adjustable rates. He also recommended that the county use interest-rate swaps that he said would protect it if interest rates rose.

...

 

[Toddsterpatriot]

Good for you.

The auction rate preferreds didn’t save them money?

[LomanBill]

>>Good for you.

That’s right, it is.

>>The auction rate preferreds didn’t save them money?

Penny wise, pound foolish.

[Toddsterpatriot]

Penny wise, pound foolish.

For sure.

[LomanBill]

>>The mayor of Birmingham, Larry Langford, is basically a con artist.

 

Hmmm....

 

Langford’s Wheel of Misfortune  - SEC transcript reveals mayor’s financial troubles

 

 “I’m a kind of a clothes person,” Langford said. “I like clothes.”

 

Somehow, I suspect the orange jumpsuit he may soon be wearing won't suit his fine taste.

[WarEagle]

Birmingham has hundreds of neighborhood associations that vote down every new corporate development...which is why Mercedes, Honda, Toyota, Kia/Hyundai and others have all located near, but outside, the city limits.

Tell me about it. NIMBY was invented here, particularly in Homewood and Mountain Brook, in the 1950s, and NOT in California.

The 280 corridor is a real case in point - the NIMBY voters will probably manage to block every solution until Shelby County growth is choked, when the traffic gets so bad nobody wants to deal with it in any form.

[WarEagle]

Those who migrated to Shelby County are no doubt laughing.

Loud and long, and continuously.

I moved back here in 1999, after being gone almost 30 years, to take care of my ailing mother. She lived in Jefferson, in a house too small for the two of us and too inconveniently laid out for her infirmities. So we entered the housing market. I adamantly refused to buy in Jefferson County, and took an enormous amount of flack from her and from the rest of the family, from old and new friends, but I refuse to give one red cent more than absolutely required to fund those bozos.

It's bad enough to pay state taxes so the crooks on Goat Hill can line their pockets - I refuse to compound the idiocy by supporting Langford and Company.

What surprises me is that there is not more outrage. Our idiot voters either don't care or are totally inured to graft and corruption.

[Southack]

Shelby County drivers need access to I-459 *other* than 280...that choke point is about all that is stemming the population hemoraging from JeffCo into Shelby.

[MHGinTN]

I-65 runs from Montgomery to B’ham, right through Shelby County as I recall. Calera, Montevallo and now Jemison are growing with people working in Jefferson County.

[LomanBill]

>>Larry talks smooth.
>>
>>That’s the kindest I can say.

 

Perhaps Larry is caught in the web that is woven by us all, by deferment - if not actively, through the darker side of our natures.  Let us hope he finds a moral compass and uses it to guide his path towards the redemption that has been provided.

[LomanBill]

[What surprises me is that there is not more outrage. Our idiot voters either don't care or are totally inured to graft and corruption.]

 

 

"All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing"

 

[LomanBill]

>>It’s moot, as honor is seldom valued

What is honor but simply following your conscience; and how did it come to this, that so many would so willingly dispose of the only thing they can truly call their own?

It seems to me that it is prerequisite for liberty; and that without it one is no longer an individual, endowed with inalienable rights - but rather reduced to being a part of a collective hive; with no more reason to exist than to worship, serve, and be disposed of by the very thing that enslaves them.