The
city of Hamtramck, desperate for cash, has asked the state for
permission to take an unprecedented step: filing for bankruptcy. City
Manager Bill Cooper said the city of roughly 20,000 people is staring
at a $3 million deficit, fueled by a dispute with Detroit. Unless
Hamtramck files for bankruptcy, it won't be able to pay its nearly 100
employees or 153 retirees, he said.
The city sent a letter to the state Department of Treasury last week asking for approval to seek bankruptcy protection. It has not received a reply, Cooper said.
"I'm going to run out of money Jan. 31," Cooper said. Bankruptcy would allow the city wants to stave off creditors and force its unions to consider concessions.
Many Michigan municipalities are under severe financial pressure following a crippling recession that has seen tax revenues plummet. The Detroit Public Schools considered bankruptcy last year but opted against it.
"I'd much rather find another way," Cooper said. "It's not Option 1."
A spokesman for the Department of Treasury said, under state law, a municipality can't file for bankruptcy without first having an emergency financial manager appointed.
Caleb Buhs, a Department of Treasury spokesman, said the department received the letter Monday and officials are studying it. Under a 1990 law, only an emergency financial manager appointed by the state can take a city into bankruptcy, he said. No Michigan municipality has declared bankruptcy before or since the law was passed, he said.
The city of Hamtramck has an annual budget of just under $18 million. A substantial portion of its revenues come from a tax-sharing agreement with Detroit that centers on General Motors' Poletown plant. Detroit has withheld payment for a number of months, arguing that it had overpaid previously. Hamtramck has sued its bigger neighbor, but a court resolution could take months or even longer — not soon enough, Cooper said.
Well, post its IPO, GM should at least make the IPO flippers a little richer. Too bad the city below is not one of them.
Well if you chose to believe that as far as long term thinking I have a dome in Michigan i could sell you for about 500k. You think China will continue to allow an american car company to be the leader then you don't understand the command and control economy. I wouldn't make a long term bet on GM in China. Plus can you imagine how much the unions will be demanding in about a year. The downhill slide will just start all over again. I hope they sell a billion cars in China so maybe the remainder of the 40 billions owed to the taxpayer will be paid off but I'm not holding my breath.
Agreed. Even if they do make it, their stock is being waaaaaay overpriced. All the suckers getting in now are paying a huge premium for the "GM" name......oooooohhhh....no I can own a slice of Americana - just another failed American manufacturer that had a shitty business model and failed. That's why GM is pushing the offering size. They no there's suckers out there that will take the bait. This stock will crater shortly after the offering and languish for years. Float is way too big.
I think you're more right than you know.
The chinese are the majority owners of those supposedly GM owned facilities in China. GM only has a minority stake.
what speaks volumes is that VISA was held privately for so long and then decided to head for the hills and lay the coming disaster on the retail investor
Truer words have not been written on this blog, especially by a large rodent, or any rodent. Visa NEEDED to go public. Scary.
I have an idea. Propose cutting payments to the 153 retirees in half as part of the bankruptcy package. Problem solved.
Hmmm...retirees on full pension and benefits outnumber active employees by 1.5 to 1.
Doesn't sound like a great plan for long term sustainability, and fits right in with the whole government employees doing far better than the private sector factoid list enumerated here and elsewhere in recent weeks.
i think it already started in Alabama but yes this is the dominos starting to fall .............
20000 and 18 million budget. My shithole town of fuckville, CT has 30000 people and a budget of 100 million. WTF
4200 in my town, budget under 1.3 Million, one part time employee, our city hall is 100 years old. We do just fine..
I left Detroit, having grown up there in 1985. Even then I thought Hamtramck was bankrupt. Looked like a decrepit ghost town back then.
...exactly...
maybe one day you'll figure it out.
It might have an eclectic mix of people, but to me as well you can't tell the difference between Hamtramck and most of the city of Detroit surrounding it.
OT: Quote from CNBC referring to Teppers sales of finacial stock last quarter.
"The influential and secretive financial blog ZeroHedge certainly thinks so:"
I guess we should be a bit more open in our comments.
??? how do I find the "secretive" blog thingie. Kinda' understand the influential part (why even el-Rushbo has been compelled to mention ZH.)
- Ned
really, is there a secret handshake or something? Who do I have to...?
The handshake is shown here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t1bHBthJN9w
lmao, of course the thumb and finger circle is verboten in certain oil-producing societies that we depend upon. - Ned
(not that there is anything wrong with that).
Here, just step into this warm, square little room -- you'll want this apple in your mouth... :>D
First that Rusty guy wants to show me his smoking room, now you want me in this warm square room.
but I'm sure your not like all the others :-O
dp
The first and second rules are in play ...
Shhhhhhhh!
Growing up in suburban Detroit my whole life until I left that shithole for a new shithole (South Bend) I am utterly surprised the city hasn't sold out to OCP. Watch RoboCop 2 in the very beginning. That's Detroit a few years from now.
They could have played the GM ipo and made a couple of million. Surely!
I'm intrugued: the headlne is accurate:
"asks for permission"
what?
they are obviously bk. go file. or, as they are doing, troll for a bailout so they won't be seen as bad people. Serious sucking up ones' problems and moving forward situation coming generally. Or die (figuratively or actually, the universe doesn't really care.)
- Ned
Why don't they just go all California and start printing up IOUs?
And just for kicks, pass a law that says all businesses operating within the city must accept them for payment at face value.
I got a question. After just watching a Andrea Mitchell ( Alan Greenspan's wife) do a story on the young UK Prince, Am I the only one that thinks she is CIA?
She has always struck me as a "Valerie Plame" CIA agent used to shape the news.
Has anyone else noticed this?
I think that most media people, particularly the most famous and successful, naturally fawn over power and serve its interests.
No need for CIA recruitment to keep them toeing the line.
I bet she'd get a nut over it, wallstreet will buy an article. I'm sure the cia does the same and some of these people have "contacts" that ego feed and pass around cash and prizes.
You can see "off the shelf" bullshit get a bid right when needed.
As for media: Buy the major media corporations (done) Payola for small time reporters (done) And increasingly, put actual old and/or big money in front of the camera or typewriter. A few actual ruling class people in media:Anderson Cooper (Gloria Vanderbilt's son) Tucker Carlson (stepmother was Swanson frozen foods heir) Andrea Mitchell (wife of Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan) Cristianne Amanpour (wife James Rubin, a former Assistant Secretary of State) Tom Freidman - old money billionaire, married very well These people have a point of view, and it is not middle class. You don't get the news on TV because TV is OWNED by vested interests. Which are NOT YOURS. (IMHO)
Like every other reporter she reports what she is told to report. The puppeteer pulls her strings like eveything one else allowed to be a msm darling. Lucky for her she is a member of the chosen or her looks woulda killed her career..
I didn't think that until the UK Prince story.
No they are bilderbergers they aren't the CIA - they own the damn thing. Private police forece and all. The CIA isn't there to protect governments it's there to protect the principals who own the republic.
"Well, did we screw our biggest clients over today boys??"
I finally figured out who he looks like. Blankfein looks like a bald Norman Fell, Mr. Roper from Three's Company.
cowardly lion from wizard of oz (without the oz's) but not so cute, humble and cuddly.
Elmer Fudd
is that a subliminal mushroom cloud on his forehead?
*my eyes*
Not to try and argue, but wasn't "it begins" also said about Harrisburg, PA and that county in Alabama?? And the town in CA that actually did file BK?? They sure are able to drag it out long enough.
I think that was Jefferson County Alabama.
The only reason I know is because I'm from Jefferson County Colorado.... We might be bankrupt too but I don't know? The area is very nice though!
So they go bankrupt. Who cares? Detroit will wipe the debt clean and annex them and get a few extra sheckles for its budget.
Due to budgetary constraints, the light at the end of tunnel has been turned off.
Hey you guys, just got off a flight from London.
What the hell happened???
Muni bonds hammered to hell!
Another market crash??!!
what a friggin'surprise.......
Just wait for what happens to corporate junk bonds. The dumb money is going up in smoke.
The Federal Reserve is Laundering Money
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wpmlHTeVG9A
The Chinese have been laundering their debt into currency since at least 1997. That's because they own a controlling portion of their banks. In America, our Plutocracy does the laundering for themselves, not the nation. Talk about patriotic. The Chinese may have a lead on us there too...
They're been "Greenbacking" their public debt for a decade. That's how the IMF shows them at 20% debt to GDP and all those "China owns America" commercials are running, put on by bankers! The only reason China was able to GET in this position of shuffling their debt is because they're forgiving their own loans! (special purpose vehicles) but that's another matter. The bottom line is they get their PUBLIC out of trouble, not their plutocratic bankers.
Well, perhaps we SHOULD learn a lesson here from China, don't let private bankers control your currency and earn interest of your public debt. I don't think THAT is what the bankers had in mind when running the commercials, but it's undeniably one lesson to take from the Chinese.
The bankers ought to be careful putting those ideas of Chinese system supremacy in our head! The communist market system sucks. But - the one area the sovereign works is BANKING and CURRENCY aka preventing the plutocracy from stealing.
Tom Friedman at the ny times (All the news that fits!) has been creaming his pants over visions of having a chinese style dictatorship here for a few years now.
The Chinese creamers are funny. Sure, there are things to like and dislike. If you're going to get excited about anything, it's that they will help show the old American Greenbackers another way forward.
Private industry, public banking. Beats the hell out of this.
Damn right.
For a sense of what we've lost, here is Detriot many years ago:
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a8/Michigan_%26_Griswold...
http://www.metacars.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/11/OldDetroit.jpg
We need to stop saying that the economy will collapse. It fucking HAS collapsed. We've been borrowing to pretend we're producing for 3-4 decades.
weren't the chinese plugging some lead in some of their bankers heads for corrupt practices and sending the bill for the bullet to the bankers' family?
And the head of their FDA for taking @ $30,000 bribe. Shot dead.
our plutocracy is embarrassing us.
They kill people and imprison political opponents, yet our system looks more immoral and craven as a whole.
Wait. The banks can WHOLESALE create Federal Reserve Notes to bail themselves out, over 1.xT worth in immediate cash plus 10 trillion more in promissory support.
But - they're going NUTS over creating Federal Reserve notes to buy taxpayer bonds, and thus lowering our interest payments?
Then, we're supposed to admire those putting the breaks on this SPECIFIC non-bank asset action and call them heroes?
This is so brazen, I say we just print U.S. Treasury Notes and squash the bankers private currency completely.
I agree. This won't happen though. It is a populist solution (meaning it would help actual human beings).
"... the city of roughly 20,000 people is staring at a $3 million deficit..."
Wait, did he say MILLion? How quaint. Surely these days this is but a rounding error? We talk Billions, no TRILLIONS now.
Even still, pulling out a calculator, that's $150 per resident. Not all that much, I would have thought.
Seems like a bit of non-news to me, but I might be missing something here.
Agreed. Even though it is unconstitutional I honestly think a few of these municipalities could issue their own currency to resolve the issue and by the time it got on a federal docket the legal fees would be too high for the feds to print.
toner is getting pretty low in congresses' outhouse.
The Fed and the big banks are just walking the market down so when GM IPO's the market has some upward mobility.
When is options expiration again?
Ain't no thang but a chicken wang.
*notice increased volatility in "market conditions" yet the IPO is right on schedual unlike last time when it got pushed out.
with u6 @ 17% not sure who is going to be buying shitty cars that are overpriced (except GE) Which is like the government moving $$$ from the left hand to the right hand. Fuckin' bullshit amateur games.
Look at the numbers: 4 divisions in the dust but GM still maintains the highest sales in the U.S? Who is buying those cars? anyone can - all you have to do is show up at the dealership and you will go home with a new car. GMAC finally rebuffed GM and their sales ruse. GMAC has already received over 25 billion from Barry to cover the "old" losses.
Now, with our money of course, GM has purchased "AmeriCredit" to keep the game going a little longer. Check out the quarterly repo lists in your area and you will see why American cars have little resale value.
at least they get to keep the "GUB MOTORS" plant in town, even if it doesn't pay taxes
Actually, that is not really a bad thing. In 1948 Puerto Rico, a territory of the US changed from territory to Commonwealth. The Senate Majority leader was elected in 1952 as the first Governor. Puerto Rico was an agrarian society that had evolved from a Spanish feudal colony. The new Governor knew that they island had no future as an agrarian feudal plantation. So he took advantage of US tax laws at the time and invited US companies to open factories in the island with several incentives. Factories were "leased" the land for free and were given a tax free status from all local taxes. Because US companies would be manufacturing outside of the US and exporting to central and south America, the companies bypassed US taxes also. The island's GDP and income tax receipts skyrocketed. Dozens of US companies moved to P.R. and the island achieved almost full employment. Then, during the Clinton administration, a change in the tax law eliminated the tax shelter for US companies in P.R. Companies started to move to Mexico in order to regain the tax free status. In order to recover the loss tax revenue, the then governor, eliminated the free leases and local tax free status. The island now has the worst unemployment, higher cost of living and crime rates and lower per capita income than any state in the US. Government at work folks. Government at work.
http://www.swarmusa.com/vb4/content.php/317-Renaissance-2.0-Section-One-Lesson-6
Detroit has more character than most cities. Maybe the best music has come from there in the history of the planet. Motown, and from above I learned techno were both a Detroit scene. Detroit was where in the 70's rock danced a pole of electricity to the country's pulse, as was the city during the origin of the punk scene in '80. Not to mention the iconic Madonna and Stephen Bray are natives. Then it blossomed again during R/B and Hip Hop, and still to this day, many an entertainer and artist come from this city, as the phoenix must rise from ashes.
J Dilla - Nothing Like This:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ncSt5xC8Uk
You said the best music, yet you only mention Motown. Unless you are counting techno, punk and Madonna as music.
I mention 70's rock and RB/Soul, and Hip Hop. I thought I covered every decade. I bet their blues scene was cool in the 40's. And Techno and pop get the ladies dancing, so I don't mind it.
I know about the town in Alabama, they stopped paying their retiree's. You see parts of the country are becoming depleted of wealth and people, in essence we are seeing the balkanization via wealth of the US. Then we will see the balkanization in territories when the states and the local govt. start to withhold sending their tax revenue and decide to go it alone.
I lived in the Detroit area for a long time.
I thought Hamtramck was bankrupt 3 decades ago. Arethey just getting around to the paperwork?
How . . . in The WORLD is it that a dinky 'city' of 20,000 has a budget of 18 m-m-m-million dollars!?! That's $900 a Year, per person! Who in the world expects taxes like that? Who in the world would pay them?
City fathers should be asking, not for bankruptcy, but euthanasia.
actually "that would cause your taxes to rise, too." I knew a guy from the IRS. He told me "even if we went full on...you know, 'right wing German'--the bill for the guards would clearly need a statistically significant revision to the upside." You know what they say about cops--"just because he's friendly doesn't make him your friend." I've noticed a similar quality in my "IRS friend."
Let them all file for bankruptcy and re-do the union contracts and pensions. They'll sign.
Then we all get a much needed tax break.
The rest of the cities will take note, as will the Federal Gov., Inc.
Where is Harrisburg, PA? Did they not pull the trigger yet?
OT: The TROOP MOVE in Yemen is a pincer move against China.
Surprised this isn't a TD special, must be busy. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000142405274870465820457561062376556457...
We're as good as IN YEMEN, with bases. You prob saw that coming for six months with so many air craft carriers running thru the area, air bombs that didn't go off in the news were no surprise. China a hop over in east Africa and runs oil shipping right a mile from our new bases. That's conventional leverage. Just one snip is all it takes.
There's more....India and S. Korea just inked mineral and gas deals with Yemen too. Mineral quarries. Long term investments that NEED military protection. Yemen is batshit with rebels. They inked the deals based on our military move. Just in case you didn't know. I assume they negotiate complex mineral quarry deals in advance. So, the hot news this month in Yemen is obviously just lucky timing. This U.S./India thing is legit. BTW, that's what the U.S. military does. It secures investments. The American people have lived lifestyles far below their actually productivity for decades. The GAINS and sweat equity are privatized. The Fed should liquidating our entire debt.... wouldn't even pay off our capital contribution plus production thru the military for the last ten years. They owe us more. No joke either.
Debt and deficits have NEVER been the problem. The real problem is getting our start-up capital (and a reasonable rate of return) out of these profitable foreign military security endeavors.
It may, however, be the butterfly that flapped its wings.
Too bad loved that Kielbasa............
Ask yourself how different am I?
Ask yourself, "Who ever got anywhere by being normal?"
.