Posted on 11/14/2013 5:03:32 PM PST by raptor22
Fiscal Disaster: A major credit rating agency has just given Chicago, with more general obligation debt per capita than Detroit, its second triple-notch downgrade in six months. Its bonds are perilously close to junk status.
Citing skyrocketing pension costs and a lack of meaningful solutions, Fitch Ratings lowered Chicago's debt to A- from AA- last week, making it the second serious downgrade since July.
The move by Fitch follows a triple downgrade of Chicago's bond rating by Moody's Investors in mid-July.
Moody's cited the city's "very large and growing" pension liabilities and "significant" debt service payments, among other factors.
The steady financial decline of the nation's third-largest city prompted us in early August to say Chicago was well on its way to becoming the next Detroit, a bankrupt monument to the perils of Democratic governance, a one-party Democratic town in arguably the bluest of blue states. And Chicago's mayor, former White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel, learned financial discipline at the feet of the master — President Obama.
Like the president, Emanuel could claim he inherited the city's financial mess from his predecessor, but that would require blaming another Democratic mayor, Richard J. Daley.
Interestingly, Democratic governance is a common thread running through America's urban problems.
As the Chicago Tribune noted in its recent report on the problem, "Broken Bonds," Chicago's outstanding debt on general obligation bonds has quadrupled during the past 18 years, reaching $7.2 billion last year.
With interest, that amount nearly doubles. The city has more general obligation debt per capita than any of the 10 largest U.S. cities except New York.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.investors.com ...
“Who the hell do you think you are anyway? Suggestion: proofread your crap, dumbass.”
Such vulgarity should not unwatched go. Off your meds?
I call ‘em like I see ‘em. Sorry if it stings. I’ll try being nicer if you’ll try being smarter.
Grade inflation... its not just for public schools.
“I call ‘em like I see ‘em. Sorry if it stings. I’ll try being nicer if you’ll try being smarter.”
I doubt if you have the ability to be nicer, but give it the old college try. As to smarter, well, your comments speak for themselves, lol.
My argument is that the author is taking the tone of a fear monger—read this to hear about the next really colossal disaster, when he really has no argument concerning the timing (NEXT) or the extent (DETROIT) of the disaster.
Chicago, and many other entities, will eventually crash, but there is a difference between a fender-bender and hitting an underpass support going over 150 mph.
If Detroit were a car-wreck, it would be this car wreck. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EG96U8sX1hg
Failure doesn’t always mean death—some bankruptcies allow reorganization and survival. I’m not urging anyone to buy Chicago bonds, but if you live in Detroit, abandoning everything and starting over somewhere else would seem a no-brainer. In Chicago, you can at least hope to sell what you own for some sort of money, and can have a reasonable expectation of finding organized civilization 30 years from now.
With bad consequences in both cases.
Which conservative will run for Chicago mayor, in 2015? I hope Carl Segvich, Bill Kelly, or Dan Proft will run.
I predict that for the 5th consecutive election (ever since they went to non-partisan elections) that no Republican, let alone a conservative one, will run for Mayor.
And I predict that if Rahm loses, which he probably won’t, it will be to a Black candidate running to his left.
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