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Related: About this forumThe Bankruptcy of Detroit and the Division of America
by Robert ReichSeptember 5, 2014
Detroit is the largest city ever to seek bankruptcy protection, so its bankruptcy is seen as a potential model for other American cities now teetering on the edge.
But Detroit is really a model for how wealthier and whiter Americans escape the costs of public goods theyd otherwise share with poorer and darker Americans.
Judge Steven W. Rhodes of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Eastern District of Michigan is now weighing Detroits plan to shed $7 billion of its debts and restore some $1.5 billion of city services by requiring various groups of creditors to make sacrifices.
Among those being asked to sacrifice are Detroits former city employees, now dependent on pensions and healthcare benefits the city years before agreed to pay. Also investors who bought $1.4 billion worth of bonds the city issued in 2005.
http://robertreich.org/post/96715972175
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The Bankruptcy of Detroit and the Division of America (Original Post)
Crewleader
Sep 2014
OP
Art_from_Ark
(27,247 posts)1. In 1975, New York City filed a bankruptcy petition
Demeter
(85,373 posts)2. And Gerald Ford, with an eye to the integrity and honor of the nation, Bailed it out.
Too bad we don't have a President like that anymore...he was from Michigan, mind you. He wouldn't put up with this.
What can you expect out of Chicago, anyway? Besides Milton Friedman and the Chicago school of economics?
Art_from_Ark
(27,247 posts)3. At first, Ford had balked at the idea of bailing out New York City
But he changed his mind sometime after the New York Daily News responded with its famous headline: "Ford to City: Drop Dead".
Demeter
(85,373 posts)4. Yeah, that was when we used to have a FREE (as in, unchained) PRESS