Detroit has filed for bankruptcy. The shock! The horror! The population has dropped from a high of 1.8 million people, down to a current level of 700,000 and falling fast. About all that are left are ex-union drones pulling in their Detroit city pensions and free shit parasites. The only businesses left are those that are government dependent. The government pensioners are screaming “make the banks pay”. I am not sure what the banks have had to do with Detroit going broke, but I bet they will be happy to cover the $18 billion in liabilities the city has. Detroit has a liability of $25,000 for each inhabitant of the city, while it has a GDP of $15,000 per inhabitant. There is something of a disconnect there. It is asking all creditors to take an 83% haircut, and they are not amused. But Detroit is NEVER going to come up with the $18 billion, and it seems they have run out of suckers willing to keep loaning them money. I suspect this will be the first of many times when government employees take a pension haircut. The projection is that this will go all the way to the Supreme Court. If that happens, and if they Court rules that the government pensions have to be paid, just how is that going to happen? There is NO MONEY! What a joke.
http://money.cnn.com/2013/07/18/news/economy/detroit-bankruptcy/index.html?hpt=hp_t1
I read that it is going to take several months to determine if Detroit can file Chapter 9 Bankruptcy. What a mess. I guess this is what happens when 47% of your population is illiterate. This is going to get really bad.
Pertinent to Calamity’s comment:
“Detroit’s population fell by 25 percent in the last decade. And of those that stuck around, nearly half of them are functionally illiterate, a new report finds.
According to estimates by The National Institute for Literacy, roughly 47 percent of adults in Detroit, Michigan — 200,000 total — are “functionally illiterate,” meaning they have trouble with reading, speaking, writing and computational skills. Even more surprisingly, the Detroit Regional Workforce finds half of that illiterate population has obtained a high school degree.
The DRWF report places particular focus on the lack of resources available to those hoping to better educate themselves, with fewer than 10 percent of those in need of help actually receiving it. Only 18 percent of the programs surveyed serve English-language learners, despite 10 percent of the adult population of Detroit speaking English “less than very well.”
Additionally, the report finds, one in three workers in the state of Michigan lack the skills or credentials to pursue additional education beyond high school.”
Yep, sure looks like Detroit is likely to turnaround soon.
In 1950, Detroit had a populatio of 1.8 million and was 84% white.
In 1960 it was 1.6 million and 70%, in 1970 it was 1.5 million 55%, in 1980 it was 1.2 million and 34%, in 1990 it was 1 million and 21, and in 2010 it was 700,000 and 10%.
Since 1970, the black population has remained more or less constant at around 600,000 to 700,000, while the white population has dropped from 800,000 to a current level of around 50,000.
In the nineteen forties and fifties blacks began flooding into Detroit, and whites began flooding out, en masse, a few years later. Detroit has been in steady economic collapse ever since.
Detroit is a giant welfare shithole of enormous proportion. Detroit’s median house price is $45k – about a third of that of any other metropolis in the country.
With all due respect to Calamity, it has already gotten really bad. Detroit is a national disgrace.
Calamity says:
“This is going to get really bad.”
I think she means that if cities across the usa begin to fall like dominoes, then it is going to get really bad for us all. bad news aside, gay marriage has been legalized, we may look forward to a reach around as we get our collective anuses polished.
FBS, hetero couples that get married stop having sex. Why do you think gay couples that get married would be any different?
I meant that is going to get worse.
Detroit: 30 SQUARE MILES of squalor. Picture in your mind the shittiest city imaginable. Detroit is worst than that. Unless you’ve actually been there … you’ll never really appreciate exactly how shitty it is.
GNSFWP Zone (Generally Not Safe For White People)
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Bizarro-Stucky says:
“FBS, hetero couples that get married stop having sex. Why do you think gay couples that get married would be any different?”
being hispanic means you will invariably have many friends of the white and black persuasion. my black buddy said, “if there are no women, (in bumfuck, egypt afb) i’m gonna fuck something.”
I appreciate the observation, I have read here that it is all an economic decision couched under romantic pretense. except some peeps who really love each other. when mexicans get drunk, they end up with their arms around each other and they head for the – well, a place where there are quite a few accommodating women.
“This is going to get really bad”
-Clamanity
Almost like a “credit event” in the derivatives market? Don’t worry.
A stone in the pond never hurt the froggies.
What’s going to be a surprise (but not to Mish readers) is when Oakland, LA, Houston, Baltimore, and numerous other cities declare bankruptcy to escape untenable pension and health-care promises.
The Bright Side
Taxpayers should be fed up with ever-escalating property taxes, sales taxes, and fees to pay ridiculous retirement plans for unappreciative public union employees, especially police, fire, and teachers’ unions.
So, look on the bright side.
The Detroit bankruptcy is a good thing, and it will be even better when numerous other cities, bankrupted by public union greed, do exactly the same thing.
If you are desperate for yield and holding questionable municipal bonds, especially long-term municipal bonds, you may wish to reconsider.
Mike “Mish” Shedlock
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com
No, this is what happens when 90% of the population is black!
Llpoh
I made a post with an article, data, even a video, and get 3 comments. You write a little blurb, and you’re loaded up, and then you make a comment on my post accusing me ass kissing. Asshole.
This is, in a microcosm, the end result of socialism, same as throughout history. Democrats ran out of other people’s money. And fuck the unions, now and forever. Teachers, firemen, police, making $125,000 a year, retiring at 50 with $100,000 a year pensions. Fuck em in the ear with a hacksaw.
The socialist state of Illinois owes $100 billion in pensions, and they don’t have it. They keep issuing bonds (debt) every year to pay pensions, and their credit rating is now junk status
The democratic cities and states will all go bankrupt in the next few years. Many already have more people getting money from the government than people with jobs. Public employee unions should outlawed. Unions bankrupt everything they touch, and will bankrupt states and finally the entire government.
Chicago union government drones should take note. Their time is coming.
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Chicago: Chicago’s 2012 pension shortfall jumps nearly 90%, to $36 billion
Pension costs are already unraveling the state’s finances. Now it’s the city of Chicago’s turn… The city’s out-of-control pension liabilities and “accelerating budget pressures associated with those liabilities” has resulted in another credit downgrade by Moody’s Investors Service… The national credit rating agency downgraded the city’s nearly $8 billion in general obligation bonds to A3 from Aa3. This is a triple-notch downgrade…
The rating agency has long critiqued pension funds’ use of overly ambitious investment return targets that allow funds to understate their true pension shortfalls… Based on the new Moody’s methodology, which uses more conservative assumptions, Chicago’s 2012 pension shortfall jumps nearly 90%, to $36 billion…
However, Chicago’s burgeoning liability is not the city’s only problem. The yearly bill to pay for those pensions is set to spike 2.5 times to $1.2 billion in 2015 from $467 million in 2014
I sold all my muni-bond fund investments in 2009. I was four years too early! I guess that’s better than being too late though.
Ya know, all the blacks in Detroit, all 700,000 of ’em, voted for Obama, and Obama has left them high and dry. I can’t think of a better reason to riot and burn down the city. Sound of crickets. I guess there haven’t been any murders by whites defending themselves and their property, since all the whites moved out of Detroit long ago.
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Well Played Detroit!
In a surprising move, Detroit has announced it has filed for bankruptcy. This glorious achievement has also knocked Chicagograd into second place making Detroit the new progressive shining city on the hill.
“Chicagograd is just going to have to work harder to regain first place” stated a press release from Comrade Mayor Rahm’s office, “It is obvious that Detroit has finally eliminated the rethuglikkkan threat from their city”.
This achievement does not come without problems however. A reliable source says that Detroit may have to liquidate some of the people’s assets in order to pay down the debt. This would be totally unacceptable in an era of collectivization. It would be far better to liquidate the assets of the city’s bourgeoisie, the problem is that they are extinct in this area.
It is also understood that Dear Leader Comrade President has no intent on bailing Detroit out. He has been working hard to put the USSA in the same position and has therefore sent a letter of congratulations stating “When the USSA is bankrupt we will all be Detroit!”.
Of course they could always sell the city to the United Auto Workers union.
Couple of points.
On, I’m watching this one very closely, because, as Detroit goes, so goes much of the country over the next few years, imho.
Second, did you notice the way that the banks are set to get 75 cents on the dollar, while the pension funds get screwed to the wall?
“One”
“WPES”
I agree with Karl and Mish – Detroit BK is a good thing.
It will be very interesting in the months and years ahead to watch the Dem strong-holds – cities and states declare BK and write down their fat public pensions.
Illinois, CA, NY, NJ are going to take on the public union pensions first.
Should be interesting…
In 1940 Detroit was the 4th largest city in America. Now it is 18th.
The population of the US has risen 56% since 1970. The population of Detroit has declined by 33%.
I am living on the edge of HISTORY!
Actually, on the edge of a shit hole. LOVE the attention being called upon De’toilet, but hate the continued bullshit touted as facts by the media.
@Stuck, Detroit is nearly 140 square miles, not 30. One-hundred-fucking-forty square miles to police, clean, put out fires, and identify dead bodies. Taking the official number of 700k residents, that is around 5000 “citizens” per mile. Keep in mind that at any time there are thousands and thousands of people within the limits that don’t claim to live there. Car insurance will bankrupt you with a De’toilet address. The casinos are running 24/7 and usually doing a good biz, thousands of potential crime victims there. As for true population, for the understatement of citizens due to the address/insurance/tax (3% income) issues, there are also thousands and thousands of workers and politicians that claim to live in the city (and care, we really care!) while commuting from the nicer, safer, ‘burbs. I personally have two De’toilet teachers, two firemen and an assortment of city workers living within a few blocks of me.
@Llpoh, true that, with one little differing opinion, which happens to be one of my biggest pet peeves, you state, “…Additionally, the report finds, one in three workers in the state of Michigan lack the skills or credentials to pursue additional education beyond high school.”…” as if that is a bad thing.
One is three is about right for those not capable of turning “higher learning” (or higher debt/taxpayer debt as the case truly is) into a profitable venture.
I am so sick of this continued emphasis on reports like that with the obvious implied bias of it being somehow a bad thing.
Last I checked at LEAST 30% of my fellow citizens are too freaking clueless, and mentally impaired, to benefit from college.
We need to ADMIT THE TRUTH, that ditchdiggers and burger-flippers serve a valuable purpose in our society. We need to ADMIT that there are people with IQs that do not entitle them to fill a spot in any school that touts itself as “higher” learning. Hell, we should admit that these people do not NEED, or will EVER use about 75% of what is crammed into them by the public fool system.
What in the hell is wrong us Americans that we are so afraid of the truth about HUMANS? (and not this issue, we will not admit the truth about drug use, drinking, nudity, prostitution and any other number of things that over our thousands of years of existence have NEVER been eradicated by writ and law.
Back to the kids and schooling. We fight tooth and nail to convince ourselves that people born without the ability to comprehend five syllable words should be sent to college.
They should be prepared for their real futures. Taught to navigate basic contracts, taught to balance a check books, taught (and re-taught and re-taught) compound interest and its ability to destroy, how to cook food from scratch, mend their own clothes, fix basic plumbing, do an oil change and avoid getting screwed over by the corporations, government and wolves.
BUT NO! We hold up these studies and click our tongues and say, “something should be done!”
Well, it should, but no amount of schooling is going to help the 30%, nor the 50% in De’toilet (which, if you count actual literacy and competence, in my managerial experience, is a pretty optimistic assumption) is going to change it.
No amount of our labor and assets stolen in taxes, or OUR children’s stolen futures, are going to change the basic facts.
Low IQs will NEVER succeed in thinking jobs.
Shocking, I know! Don’t tell anybody though, we just don’t need that truth getting out.
@Stuck
Ricky boy was too busy making millions sucking government cock through private industry contracts.
He was hired because he was NOT a politician.
Jokes on us. He turned into one toot-sweet and started sucking union and corporate cock immediately.
He is the FUCKING MORON that signed into law the bill that turned dozens and dozens of multi-generational heritage pig farms into felonies with destruction of the pigs and potential jail for the farmers (which has been 100% blocked from ANY local coverage, it isn’t just WDC that has the media in its pockets).
I voted for the POS, over the Democratic POS, but, I’m done with it. The people in this state are overwhelmingly welfare or union and overwhelmingly fucking parasitic morons that are killing the host.
If I had my druthers, I’d be gone, gone, gone.
So it goes.
“this problem has been 60 years in the making”
And how long has the city of Detroit been run by FSA liberal progressive black democrats? I’m guessing 60 years.
The unions will be made whole (see my post) with taxpayer money, as will all the unions, state, local and Federal. Union bosses pay off criminal politicians, taxpayers don’t.
Maybe Jesus can help Detroit
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I feel for the folks still trying to maintain their properties ….
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v6cEyfKpAeA
It must be Funny Friday in Detroit. This shit is HILARIOUS.
This is Detroit Emergency Financial Manager Kevyn Orr. Why is he smiling?
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He was just on teevee and stated emphatically that he is “supremely confident” that Detroit will again be an “economic powerhouse”. OK, the smile makes sense now. Even he can’t help but laugh at his own bullshit.
In the summer of 2010 Oreo and Biden declared a ““Recovery Summer,”
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0610/38654.html
.
Since January 2010, there have been 36 Municipal Bankruptcy Filings;
http://www.governing.com/gov-data/municipal-cities-counties-bankruptcies-and-defaults.html
.
So, I post this as an example of what The End will look like. Even in the face of OVERWHELMING EVIDENCE that the shit has truly hit the fan … your cockfuk leaders will continue to spew hopey-changy bullshit.
@ TeresaE. Nice rants, especially ……
“Low IQs will NEVER succeed in thinking jobs.”
I think you may be on to something there. Heh. (Pssst. Never say that to “progressive” persons. They enjoy trying to stuff 10 lb. turkeys into 5 lb. bags.)
AWD, why do you mock JESUS? Its jerks like you that should pay more in taxes so FAT PEOPLE,BOOMERS,BLACKS and other third world bottom feeders can have a chance at a good life.You are a selfish, greedy little clown that hates poor people. DO NOT BE DECIVED ,GOD IS NOT MOCKED.GAL…6;7……PROVERBS 14;31..HE WHO OPPRESSES THE POOR REPROACHES HIS MAKER….PRO….HE WHO DESPISES HIS NEIGHBOR SINS,BUT HE WHO HAS MERCY ON THE POOR,HE IS HAPPY…PROV 14;21…This is why you are so MISERABLE.
bb
Go fuck yourself. Your self-styled holy roller bullshit gets old quicker than having the clap.
“The meek shall inherit the earth”, you are not meek, and eternal hell fire and damnation awaits you and other false prophet like you.
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A state judge is ordering withdrawal of the bankruptcy petition:
http://www.detroitnews.com/article/20130719/METRO01/307190099/Ingham-County-judge-rules-Detroit-bankruptcy-withdrawn?odyssey=tab|topnews|text|FRONTPAGE
Interesting times.
Oh, yeah, due to a dubious law that probably wasn’t meant to get used much, the local (state) judges in one county have the power to rule on even the largest cases brought against the state government. And that county is somewhat quirky and always Democrat. (Judicial elections are non-partisan, but the process for getting elected is, practically speaking, partisan.)
The biblical concept of “meek” is not the image of current day usage .. a Casper Milquetoast kind of person.
Moses the prophet warrior was considered meek. And, Abraham. And, Jesus. None of these men were “meek and mild”.
“Meek” was the idea of “controlled power under duress”. The idea of a STRONG MAN walking away from a fight even though he knows he can win … like Mr. Miaggi from The Karate Kid.
All this to say that you, bb, are anything but meek. You are a jackass (which has the same meaning today as in Biblical times.)
A meek man is a man poor in spirit. That is a good thing, because it means you can become a vessel for the lord (you are not full of self-will), you can follow God’s will and be filled with God’s spirit. Hence, the meek will inherit the earth (and all of God’s blessings).
bb is simply full of shit, expounding bible verses in an effort to make his diseased soul temporarily feel better. A false prophet, espousing God while condemning and criticizing in the same breath. Using religion to your own ends, a heretic, an imbecile. Repent, bb, before you are consumed with hell fire.
Doctor …..err, Pastor AWD speaketh truth unto power!!
AWD,,I am just playing the DEVILS ADVOCATE….I know you hate mankind ,so it easy.STUCKY ,I am still working on you.
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bb
hope you have some asbestos-lined underwear pal
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Cool posts! AWD – i just has tons of charisma!
There is so much wrong with the total system, it is hard to know where to start. But Detroit may be the start of the awakening. My favorite part of the story is the unions and pension funds screaming for judges to intervene. Like, the judges can bend overand crap out 18 billion dollars.
Detroit has 9000 city workers – and 20,0000 retired workers on pensions. Bwahahahaha! This is the shithole you get when you allow govt employees to retire after 20 years service or whatever, and combne it with a totally corrupt system.
Teresa – I just posted the article, and it was not my comment re the third unprepared for college. I am inagreement with you.
A new recent study echos the ones made inthe 1970’s – that economic success is far more influenced by IQ than by what race you are or whether or not you were born rich. Rich folks are smarter than average, and tend to have smart kids, who then are successful.
If that is so, and poor people tend to be dumb, and breed poor people, what does the future hold for Detroit.
I particularly liked the stuff wher ten percent of Detroit are functinally to stupid to speak English. We saw that at the Zimmerman trial. Unbelievable.
Two posts enter the octagon, only one walks away. I stand smited and defeated. Your charisma was just too much.
As a business magnate, maybe you can tell us what can be done with the unions. The democrats will forever bail them out and make them whole with other people’s money, but what can a “taxation without representation” tax slave do about this situation?
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AWD – bankruptcy is the only answer for govts. Re tax slaves, you are fucked if you cannot devise a way to abandon ship. I have accumulated enough chavos and and dropping the lifeboat as I type this.
I advise all and sundry to simplify and move to low- populous areas as soon as possible.
Detroit cannot pay its debts, states cannot pay their debts, and the US really cannot either. They will devour everything they can before they go down. I only hope personal property rights remain intact. Otherwise there is no hope for anyone to survive financially intact.
We are truly doomed.
I like this scathing commentary: http://commanderzero.com/blog/2013/07/19/detroit/
From a preparedness standpoint, if you want to wargame the ‘upcoming decline of America’ and a dystopic post-TSHTF world you would do pretty well using Detroit as a venue. Minimal public services, high crime, a Third World / Soviet style population base of unemployed fatalistic masses, crumbling infrastructure and burned out buildings….it’s like Fallout 3-D. Seriously, they should drop Bear Grylls down there with nothing but a knife, an EBT, and a pack of Marlboros and give him 30 days until evac. It would be like a cross between Escape From NY and Bat 21.
KaD – Bear would last about 15 seconds. Seriously. The would have him on a spit before his feet hit the ground.
Silly coastal types. Detroit is not Compton nor Camden. It’s more like one big wasteland with freeways running through it. You drop Bear Grylls there and he’s going to find a day searching for water and food. A day in which he might not see any other people up close, unless he wants to.
Not joking either. All that depopulation, arson and decay takes a toll, and many parts of Detroit are basically rural when looked at for population density or structural density.
And that very hour He cured many of infirmities, afflictions, and evil spirits; and to many blind He gave sight. Jesus answered and said to them,
“Go and tell John the things you have seen and heard: that the blind see, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, the poor have the gospel preached to them. And blessed is he who is not offended because of Me.”
Beebs, perhaps you do not know of what spirit you are. Pastor AWD has preached his ministry of self control. He has railed against the evils of gluttony. You cannot see because you do not know your own calling.
As for Pastor Stuck, de Lawd is working on him. Every day he is being perfected and forgiven because as the book you thump and maybe read once in a while says, Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.
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Circuit Inquisitor Protects the Workers of Debtroit
The People’s Circuit Court has referred the matter of the fiscal realignment of the City of Debtroit to the White Fortress after Michigan Oblast’s reactionary governor attempted to allow the city to fall into bankruptcy. Such a bankruptcy would mean that thousands of Debtroit public employees would receive decreased benefits in violation of their social contract with the Party, in which they received increased redistributions of the People’s Wealth in exchange for loyally supporting the Party in elections.
Comrade Judge-Commissar Rosemarie Aquilino declared, “In order to rectify his unauthorized and unconstitutional actions described above, the Governor must (1) direct the Emergency manager to immediately withdraw the Chapter 9 petition filed on July 18, and (2) not authorize any further Chapter 9 filing which threatens to diminish or impair accrued pension benefits.”
In cursive, she added by hand, “A copy of this Order shall be transmitted to President Obama. It is so ordered.” This was translated by a Party member still knowledgeable in cursive writing who has verified the exact wording for us.
Our Glorious Leader, Comrade Party Chairman and Future President Barack Barackovich Obama is likely to issue an Executive Order to put more State funds into Debtroit to preserve its generous and fair pension benefits. Meanwhile, the Party will seek any means necessary to remove Governor Rick Snyder from office so that he will no longer abuse his position and oppress the workers of Debtriot by depriving them of the benefits they negotiated for with their Party.
Workers of Debtroit, you will receive every penny you voted for! The Party will not forget its promises to you in exchange for your loyalty!
If Howard’s intellect is generally indicative of that of doctor’s, wow patients are in trouble.
Shameful display here. This is supposed to be an alternative blog that prizes truth above what’s politically correct.
Silent Observer
Cutting an pasting your own comments? If you had a few more neurons, you might be able to actually come up with something yourself. Dumbfuck.
Glad you all have noticed the judicial blocking of reality. It isn’t the first time a judge in this state has ruled this way for the unions.
Mayor Bing (wisely not running for a 2nd term), tried cutting workers, pay and benes under the “management” plan and in exchange for billions from the state tax coffers, multiple judges ruled that you cannot do that.
The unionists WILL be paid. Which is why De’toilet is now completely bankrupt, not just “in trouble.”
Was talking to a couple friends that still have businesses within De’toilet city limits. Asked them why they continue to stay, pay upwards of 70mil in property taxes – or $70 per $1000 in assessed value, which used to be approx 50% of market, now it is just made up numbers with no basis in reality, I digress – with an addition 70 mil in equipment and inventory taxes, PLUS 3% income tax, PLUS higher (by three times) insurance rates, plus, plus, plus.
Throw in the fact that few of the “best” employees would voluntarily agree to put their life at risk AND gift De’toilet a minimum of 1.5% of their income and one just has to question why a biz would stay.
I mentioned to them that if the pensioners and unionists are mainly kept whole (with all cuts to future workers, or the “screw over your children” contracts so popular in this state with unionists), that it would mean that – once again – THEY will be raped for the $$$$$$.
Both agree there is nothing to be done, neither can figure out how to fund the move since their buildings are virtually worthless in the market.
So, stick around until the day they just can no longer afford to stay open, or have had enough reaming and can no longer take it.
I’m sure the recovery Obama told us about is right around the freaking corner.
Or, just maybe, the “recovery” is for the politicians and their lackeys so what is said is true. What they are neglecting to say is that there will NEVER be a recovery for the non-union middle class.
We are nothing more than milk cows, soon to be converted into burger.
I hope I’m wrong, but I get the feeling this shit is going to go down just like the auto bankruptcies.
Screw over your vendors and customers to keep the unions flying high.
Maybe someday this destruction of productive to pay for the parasitic is going to work out and “fix” shit.
Maybe not.
Wow, I don’t think I have seen TeresaE worked up so much. I left Michigan in 2005 and haven’t looked back. Their State of affairs gets more ridiculous and delusional every years. Nobody is going to get their free lunch. Trying to continue that lie is only harmful to workers and retirees. I recently was look at the housing market in Detroit. I was amazed. You can buy a lot of land with an abandoned house for $1, but the yearly property taxes are over $1,000. Just mind numbing to me.
Also, there is massive fraud from banks who now own these blighted properties that aren’t paying the taxes on them.
Second City Cop is an excellent police blog centered around the creaking, failed Democrat political machine in Chicago and its ramifications for police work. The Chicago scene is its primary — but not exclusive — focus. SCC also features previews of Chicago’s coming attractions, like Detroit’s economic collapse:
We were just reminiscing about the past. A little over a year ago, Mitt Romney said to let Detroit go bankrupt, that a complete financial overhaul of the city, its corrupt practices and restructuring of debt was probably the best route for the beleaguered city. He was speaking as a businessman would with a company that was bleeding money. Remember all the democrats and media making fun of him for actually considering a city the size of Detroit could (or should) fail? Silly Mormon businessman.
In a completely unrelated story, we just heard that following an eleventh hour appeal to the Obama administration, Detroit filed for bankruptcy on Thursday, placing the city residents, its employees, its retirees and its creditors in financial limbo:
•Detroit filed the largest municipal bankruptcy in U.S. history on Thursday, setting the stage for a costly court battle with creditors and opening a new chapter in the long struggle to revive the city that was the cradle of the American auto industry.
The bankruptcy, if approved by a federal judge, would force Detroit’s thousands of creditors into negotiations with the city’s Emergency Manager Kevyn Orr to resolve an estimated $18.5 billion in debt that has crippled Michigan’s largest city.
Michigan Governor Rick Snyder said he saw no other options for Detroit and approved Orr’s request to file for Chapter 9 bankruptcy protection.
“Detroit simply cannot raise enough revenue to meet its current obligations, and that is a situation that is only projected to get worse absent a bankruptcy filing,” wrote Snyder, a Republican, in a letter accompanying the filing.
Detroit’s creditors are expected to face huge losses, and the future of retiree pension and health benefits for thousands of city workers hangs in the balance.
Here’s another article that tells you exactly what went wrong:
•Buried in the middle of the report is a telling climax to this sorry tragedy:
Any hope of a federal bailout to avert bankruptcy fizzled last week after Mr. Orr spoke with the White House, including Obama confidante Valerie Jarrett, according to city and White House officials.
This is where blue governance has brought Detroit in the end: not even a liberal Democratic administration will step in to save the pensions of thousands of public workers and African Americans, condemning countless innocents to having their pensions and health benefits gutted in bankruptcy court.
Blue model defenders will point to the cruel exodus of General Motors, the unjust outsourcing of American manufacturing, and the general unfairness of life in the big city as the culprits in the slaying of Detroit. But these champions of the marginalized should keep a few facts in mind.
Detroit has been spending on average $100 million more than it has taken in for each of the past five years. The city’s $11 billion in unsecured debt includes $6 billion in health and other retirement benefits and $3 billion in retiree pensions for its 20,000 city pensioners, who are slated to receive less than 10 percent of what they were promised. Between 2007 and 2011, an astounding 36 percent of residents lived below the poverty line. Last year, the FBI cited Detroit as having the highest violent crime rate for any major American city. In the first 12 years of the new century, Detroit lost more than 26 percent of its population.
And now Detroit’s desperate request for a bailout has been turned down by the Obama White House.
Progressive politicians, wonks, and activists can only blame big corporations and other liberal bogeymen for so long. The truth is that corrupt machine politics in a one-party system devoted to the blue social model wrecked an entire city and thousands of lives beyond repair. The sooner blues come to terms with this reality, the greater chance other cities will have of avoiding Detroit’s fate.
But hey, those Republicans are evil sons-of-bitches, aren’t they?