The Real Reasons Towns and Cities are Broke

[GoodWitch58]

The Real Reason America?s Cities and Towns Are Broke | Rolling Stone Politics

he destruction of Jefferson County reveals the basic battle plan of these modern barbarians, the way that banks like JP Morgan and Goldman Sachs have systematically set out to pillage towns and cities from Pittsburgh to Athens. These guys aren't number-crunching whizzes making smart investments; what they do is find suckers in some municipal-finance department, corner them in complex lose-lose deals and flay them alive. In a complete subversion of free-market principles, they take no risk, score deals based on political influence rather than competition, keep consumers in the dark ? and walk away with big money. "It's not high finance," says Taylor, the former bond regulator. "It's low finance." And even if the regulators manage to catch up with them billions of dollars later, the banks just pay a small fine and move on to the next scam. This isn't capitalism. It's nomadic thievery.

an interesting read -- according to some reports, Florida has the highest # of corrupt elected officials...wonder what Taibbi would find if he looked into things here...especially the new Court building in Tallahassee.
Caution: adult language.

 

[scooterbug44]

Holy cow!

EVERYONE NEEDS TO READ THIS ARTICLE!

"In the end, though, all this bribery and graft was just the table-setter for the real disaster. In taking all those bribes and signing on to all those swaps, the commissioners in Jefferson County had ?basically started the clock on a financial time bomb that, sooner or later, had to explode. By continually refinancing to keep the county in its giant McMansion, the commission had managed to push into the future that inevitable day when the real bill would arrive in the mail. But that's where the mortgage analogy ends ? because in one key area, a swap deal differs from a home mortgage. Imagine a mortgage that you have to keep on paying even after you sell your house. That's basically how a swap deal works. And Jefferson County had done 23 of them. At one point, they had more outstanding swaps than New York City. Judgment Day was coming ? just like it was for the Delaware River Port Authority, the Pennsylvania school system, the cities of Detroit, Chicago, Oakland and Los Angeles, the states of Connecticut and Mississippi, the city of Milan and nearly 500 other municipalities in Italy, the country of Greece, and God knows who else. All of these places are now reeling under the weight of similarly elaborate and ill-advised swaps ? and if what happened in Jefferson County is any guide, hoo boy. Because when the **** hit the fan in Birmingham, it really hit the fan."

 

[Rita]

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I remember reading this before. It is very timely ..... again!

Just "the price of doing business." according to one JP Morgan banker. ..:angry:


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[sunspotbaby]

This made me think of an article posted last month about upgrades being required in this area.

'You are going to feel this in your pocketbook' | pocketbook, crestview, feel - News - Northwest Florida Daily News

 

[beachFool]

This made me think of an article posted last month about upgrades being required in this area.

'You are going to feel this in your pocketbook' | pocketbook, crestview, feel - News - Northwest Florida Daily News

If you like the great outdooors of Walton County and NW FL then you should want some reasonable controls on P and N run-off.

Stuff runs downhill, baby.

You can't treat the outdoors like a cesspool and expect to enjoy it for very long.

 

[beachFool]

The Real Reason America?s Cities and Towns Are Broke | Rolling Stone Politics

an interesting read -- according to some reports, Florida has the highest # of corrupt elected officials...wonder what Taibbi would find if he looked into things here...especially the new Court building in Tallahassee.
Caution: adult language.

There is no justification for what these companies are doing.

Just float the bond, pay the interest and go merrily on your way.

Taibbi should talk to Carl Hiassen.

 

[Matt J]

Some of the geniuses against this:

I'll just read about it and continue to enjoy pure well water. I don't even have to pay for flouride. How sweet is that? Yep sweet water but I just saw John Kerry (est. worth $775,000,000 - 3/4 billion) and he's going to take care of us with "CAP and TRADE".

He's a U.N. type guy you know. He's a globalist and I betcha he'd like to capture that remaining $250,000,000 so he can be a billionaire like Soros [ what a fine looking man he is].

Y'all hav-at-it. I'll be surfing in Maui when the last nail is hammered into the coffin. Perhaps I should rejoice because AMERICANS have proven to be a pretty stupid lot.

LOL

Does the EPA, FWC, DCF, and any other Three Initials standing for a section of Govt need to be Shut down, and ran by the House.

The people who wan these "standards" in place should have to raise the money and maintain the equipment. There is still lots more 'bail-out' money left, from what I hear. Make it available to use for cleaning up the planet.