Sense on Cents

Are the ‘waves’ of municipal debt breaking on Miami about to overwhelm the city and force it to declare bankruptcy? Do not rule it out. If Miami goes this route, will that cause a domino effect for other municipalities around the country, including Los Angeles?

The risk of bankruptcy is very real. Thanks to a loyal Sense on Cents reader for bringing the impending financial doom in Miami to our attention. While municipal finances in our country encompass a whole set of issues, a common denominator is the crush of pension liabilities accrued by unions.

Renegotiating those liabilities will cause real pain and anxiety in many cities and towns. Would they lead to actual civil unrest? I hope not but we should not be so naive nor presumptuous.

This video is a brief 2-minute clip. The wealth of information runs much longer than that.

LD

This entry was posted on Thursday, May 27th, 2010 at 11:34 AM and is filed under General, municipal finance. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.