[Worldtraveler once upon a time]

This is the future throughout the world, as living on a "credit card" and making minimum payments, whether as an individual, a group, a company, a state or nation, comes to the same end.

As the title says, "cities face brutal cutbacks." Use Chinese as an adjective, or American or European or third-world, but the math is the same. This is why history is littered with defaults and abrogations of debt, as with write-downs and revolutions. Those who think this is untrue are fools or beneficiaries of the game. Tick tock.

[Truthsearcher]

Yeah but no one is as leveraged as the Chinese government.

In some municipalities, their tax revenue is only enough to cover 25% of their budget.

[PGR88]

You are absolutely correct to see this as a global, marxist/progressive governance phenomenon.

Only central banks and governments can print money to monetize and inflate-away debt (and by default, they all will)

But for local governments, whether its Chicago, Caracas or Hegang, running a progressive, nanny-state, surveillance-state government is expensive, and there is NEVER enough money.

If it becomes bad enough - the central government will print money, create “stimulus” programs to bail them out, and resort to political oppression to keep their marxist cronies in power.

Same in the USA.