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Detroit May Run Out Of Cash Next Month
Another day, another US city on the brink of insolvency. This time it's Detroit, whose recently appointed emergency financial manager Kevyn Orr said may run out of cash next month and must cut costs such as long-term debt and retiree obligations. According to Bloomberg, "Orr’s report says the cost of $9.4 billion in bond, pension and other long-term liabilities is sapping the ability to provide such basic services as public safety and transportation. He listed cutting debt principal, retiree benefits and jobs among options he may take. “No one should underestimate the severity of the financial crisis,” He called his report "a sobering wake-up call about the dire financial straits the city of Detroit faces."
Funny, the above bolded sentence, because we have long since crossed into a stage where absolutely everyone is underestimating the severity of the financial crisis, which incidentally is long over if one listens to the broader media. As for Detroit, may we suggest the same medicine that the "expert economists" prescribe for every other instance of overlevered insolvency: just issue more debt. Surely with worthless Greek bonds soaring, there must be some Japanese investment funds that can't wait to buy up all that paper on nothing but promises of untold riches courtesy of the endless carry trade that apparently can do no wrong.
Then again, Detroit may not be Greece:
The Motor City is caught in a downward spiral of revenue from a shrinking tax base -- it has lost two-thirds of its postwar peak population -- while unemployment at 18 percent is twice the state level, according to Orr’s report. Managing an area larger than Boston, San Francisco and Manhattan combined has become increasingly difficult.
“Without a significant restructuring of its debt, the city will be unable to break the cycle of damaging cutbacks in essential municipal services and investments,” according to Orr’s report. He also cited the need for concessions from unions, and revamping the police and fire departments to protect residents beset by crime and arson-inviting blight.
Detroit’s long-term obligations are at least $15.7 billion, including unfunded pension and retirement benefits. The general fund this fiscal year, with revenue of about $1.1 billion, will pay about $461 million for debt and health costs, according to the report.
All the city’s revenue couldn’t pay off its debt in 20 years, said Bill Nowling, a spokesman for Orr.
“If we don’t change and restructure, we are going to run out of cash,” he said yesterday by telephone. “That shouldn’t come as a shock to anybody.”
Maybe Detroit can pull a Cyprus and just confiscate a few billion from the savings accounts of the locals. Oh wait.
So with that option out of the picture, the only other one is to scare everyone into the domino theory of M.A.D. unless someone ponies up and injects some more good money after bad:
“We want to be very clear and strong: This is exactly the situation the city is in, and our creditors need to know that,” Nowling said. “Some do. A lot don’t.”
Orr’s plan lays out alternatives for dealing with long-term debts, including reducing interest rates, stretching out payment schedules, outright forgiveness of principal or refinancing. The city’s credit rating is below investment grade.
It will be difficult to reach consensus among debt holders, said Doug Bernstein, a bankruptcy lawyer with Bloomfield Hills, Michigan-based Plunkett Cooney PC. Curbing pension benefits will be crucial to gaining an agreement from bondholders to cut debt costs without resorting to bankruptcy-court protection, he said.
“That’s an optimistic view, that you can do it by consensus,” Bernstein said. “Maybe when they read the numbers, they’ll agree. But given the number of different credit classes and collective-bargaining units, I don’t see them conceding voluntarily.”
So if a collective effort of sticking heads in the sand here is out of the question, the only other option is bankruptcy. Sure enough:
Orr’s report is probably a prelude to the city’s seeking Chapter 9 bankruptcy protection, said Manny Grillo, the New York-based head of restructuring practices for Goodwin Procter LLP. He said there are too many creditors, including 48 employee unions, to reach a consensus without court intervention.
“No one is ever going to be the first to cut a deal,” Grillo said. Michigan, led by Republican Governor Rick Snyder, may step in with financial help “to fill in the gaps” only after deals have been struck to lower debt costs, Grillo said.
And just in case there is any confusion about what the future holds for the once proud headquarters of America's automotive genius, the next steps include the city going dark. Literally.
Orr wants to continue an effort to turn over the aging streetlight system to a public lighting authority by 2020. The plan calls for eliminating almost half of 88,000 streetlights, concentrating replacements in more populous areas. The plan also says Detroit should exit the business of supplying electricity to businesses and municipal operations.
Finally, the vision of the creator of RoboCop, which was set in a crime-ridden Detroit in the "near-future" seems to have been 100% spot on:
Hiring a new police chief and restructuring the department will happen soon, Nowling said. Given cuts in the city workforce over the past few years, additional employees may be needed in the short term to implement more efficient practices, including the replacement of outdated computer systems, according to Orr’s plan.
So will the Detroit PD soon be staffed entirely by bulletproof cyborgs as a cost-cutting strategy? Perhaps they can be funded by whatever profits the robotic vacuum tubes that are the only traders left in this farce of a market. And what happens once said robocops begin a universal suffrage and demand a legal right to vote in one of their robotic brethren into public office?
Surely, more insane things have happened in the new centrally planned abnormal.
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Wait for it... in 3... 2... 1...
loud whining for a bailout from Obama's stash. (and we all know where O's stash comes from!)
Why don't they do what they do in my area? Just raise taxes.
Say whatttt????
Relax, everyone. Detroit is TBTF, Too Black To Fail. Our elected leaders will do what is, "fair." Prepare for wealth transfer, moral hazard, and moar entitlement slavery.
datz rayciss... <but I'm fairly certain that the 'Loyal Order of the Lodge of Waterbuffaloes & yodeling cheesepopes' won't have any objection to the comment>
You guys are really pushing it...one N word and poof you are gone.
nuclear?
How come Helicopter Ben doesn't just stamp out a bunch of trillion dollar coins and drop them all over Detroit? Is it because it is inhabited mostly by black people?
Why do only rich white bankers get the trillion dollar coins?
I wonder if Helicopter Ben sleeps in his sheets?
Hey, I just got an audit letter from the IRS. I didn't even post this yet.
Because then he'd really be Helicopter Ben. His original thesis would do more to stimulate demand than this QE farce. Ofcourse it exposes the REAL goal of QE. It isn't to stimulate the economy but solely to repair TBTF inastituitions balance sheets and clear toxic "assets". Once this is accomplished to the geatest degree possible QE will end.
You've heard of gravity, right?
A trillion dollar coin dropped from a helicopter could kill someone!
Beats me... I think he's just making conscientious responses to the 'News' feeds?
~~~
@Brave Sir Robin... I wholeheartedly protest your implication that 'RICH WHITE BANKERS' are being singled out here as 'asymmetric beneficiaries'... I won't report you [to the cheesepopes], but you're on notice...
Are the "cheespopes" in Wisconsin?
I believe Tyler meant to use to a photo of the "economy" version of Robocop...
http://thoughtsonfilms.files.wordpress.com/2008/04/bekindrewind9.jpg
@BSR [vis-a-vis 'Wisconsin cities]...
~~~
I really dunno... Rumor has it that they migrate... Here's the latest intel...
- They've evacuated BERLIN...
- CLINTONVILLE is a place of interest...
- They actually 'discovered' the city of 'COLUMBUS' [genetically verified, insinuation-wise, by a History Channel documentary]...
- GREENFIELD is loved... [for it's lush meadows]...
- HORICON is a budding 'banking & government' location...
- INDEPENDENCE is a gnarly place which is in need of a larger police force...
- MIDDLETON has a class of workers who utterly don't belong in the #FORWARD progress of things
- MIL WAU KEE... Is actually, 'Algonquin', per Alice Cooper, for 'Land of Plenty'... Which is where tribes seem to migrate...
- NEW LONDON is a possible future site for gold & banking cartels
- SEYMOUR is a place to go to name your future sons to become 'BUTTS' viewers
- SUPERIOR is a religious & cultural center
- WATERLOO is the the military hub
i live in the hood and we are your future, the first bond failure leading to the second....
Dredd goes disco.
Aghggghk!
They oughta just do what my uber-liberal gubamint vastly overpaid buds out here in California say to do, Just Raise Taxes!
Oppps!
The politicians in Detroit said some months ago that the whole reason for the economic malaise was that the "white folks moved to the suburbs"
I shit you not!
So I guess there's nobody left from whom to extract the tax burden.
Or have I something dramatically in error, here?
T'will be most interesting to realize the GM/Union/Detroit connection with respect to any bailouts...
Say, I got an idea!
We'll do a bail in!
Anybody owns a Volt "gets" to fund $100K of Detroit's shortfall!
Civic (no pun intended) duty and all that crap
Why just the Volt? Why not anybody with a GM car? Wait, make that anybody with a "Uhmerkkin Car." And screw that 100k number. Make it a cool million.
If you're gonna go, go big!
The Volt has a hallowed place in Denial Mythology.
Just say Ohm.
A bail out is just a way of taxing people who don't live there or did not create the mess.
I believe the Marxists call it "Social Justice."
My favorite MSM meme is how urban slum dwellers are always represented in the passive voice, as if they had no agency whatsoever. You can see it in this article: The residents are "beset with crime", not engaged in it. The "arson-inviting blight", as if the old buildings are seductively whistling at innocent passersby. The urban residents are always being victimized by inanimate objects like "guns", or abstract nouns like "poverty", " wh_te privilege", or "the terrible legacy of slabery".
The purpose is to assign blame, culpability, and ultimately, tax-assessed accountability to people who had nothing to do with the mess. You are exactly right.
The politicians in Detroit said some months ago that the whole reason for the economic malaise was that the "white folks moved to the suburbs"
I shit you not!
Yup. They did say it. Oh Detroit went down because we parasites ran out of hosts to suck dry.
Detroit videos and photos are so weird. Some of the office buildings look like people fled in the middle of the night. Like Chernobyl. They left files, furnitures, office things and just fled. This includes dentists and doctors offices. It is on youtube and other places on the web. Staggering.
Apparently, it is now possible to NOT have too much of a good thing.
+1
You mean the good thing, debt, was good? Until... SUDDENLY, it wasn't?
I'm Shocked! Just absolutely astonished I tell ya!
All the shit the debt paid for - you know - the FREEBIES!
HAHAHA!
The borrowed billions funded
irrepressible mischief, silly highjinks, and lovable tomfoolery by The Diversity
Nothing to worry about.
Up next: some friendly horseplay.
But the borrowed billions didn't fund their pensions,
so I'd guess that's up next
Unless Bernanke plans on boosting Wall Street bonuses by several hundred trillion, which might leave enough table scraps to meet Detroit's over optimistic estimates of their prowess in selecting financial managers and advisors.
http://www.detroitnews.com/article/20130512/METRO01/305130320#ixzz2TChWX3K8
The emergency manager's spokesman put the city's predicament in more blunt terms. "We're going to be out of money by the end of the year," Nowling said Sunday. "If all we did was collect taxes and pay our debt, we couldn't pay it off in 20 years. That's the situation that we're in now."
As part of the deficit, Orr counts $226 million in accounting gimmicks and delayed payments owed to vendors and the city's pension funds. Detroit is paying just $31 million of a required $139 million payment toward its pensions this fiscal year, Orr said.
For the first time, Orr raised questions in the report about how well-funded Detroit's two city employee pensions systems really are.
The Detroit General Retirement System and Police & Fire Retirement System claim to have been 83 and 100 percent funded, respectively, as of June 2011. But Orr and a team of consultants aiding the restructuring of city government are beginning to question mathematical assumptions used to determine the value of the funds.
The city's June 2011 report showed the pensions having a $646 million accrued unfunded liability. But Orr said the market value of the two pension funds' assets — such as real estate — were more than $1 billion less than the actuarial assumptions.
Orr has asked for 56,000 pages in documents from both pension boards as he tries to figure out their true worth, Nowling said.
"Utilizing more current data and or conservative assumptions could cause that deficiency to rise into the billions of dollars," Orr wrote.
If the pensions are worth less than previously thought, Detroit would have to add millions more into the funds above the $108 million in pension payments the city is already behind on, said Eric Scorsone, a Michigan State University economist and emergency manager law expert.
"The pension was kind of seen as one bright spot and if it's not, I think, as they would say, it's another nail in the coffin," he said.
"That was one of those bright spots that well, at least the pension was funded," Scorsone said. "Obviously they can't pay the $100 million, let alone $200 million."
Retirees outnumber active employees paying into the plans, and the police and fire plan is closed to new employees under the most recent contract, said George Orzech, a fire department battalion chief.
"That's going to be even more of a drain," said Orzech, a police and fire pension board member.
Orr's report warns that past borrowing to make pension payments, and Wall Street bets against those bonds, could haunt the city's bottom line for years.
Debt service on $1.8 billion in Pension Obligation Certificates and related swaps the city owes is expected to escalate over the next decade, with the principal alone more than doubling from $23.1 million this year to $56 million in 2023, according to Orr's report.
Interest on the pension-related debt will be $83.8 million of the city's $139.9 million in debt interest this year.
"You've got serious money problems coming down the road here because of the POC payments you took out," Orzech said.
Orr's initial findings of trouble in the pension fund and the hugely unfunded retiree health care "could be the tipping point where the city ends up having to file bankruptcy if there's no concessions made," said Douglas Bernstein, managing partner of the bankruptcy and creditors' rights practice of Plunkett Cooney in Bloomfield Hills.
Orr could argue in federal bankruptcy court that public employee pensioners in Michigan are constitutionally guaranteed to get paid before other debtors.
"If he takes that position, the problem with taking it is he can't afford to pay it," Bernstein said. "It's simply an obligation that's unsustainable."
Retiree health care benefits aren't constitutionally protected and could be wiped out by the emergency manager, Bernstein said.
Hedgless, treading mighty close to the line.
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You have been warned.
surely you jest. I guess this policy doesn't apply to the Jew-baiters around here..
Correctamundo.
About the jest...I mean, anyone named for an aggressive female is kidding right?
Blue Boy,
No jest.
Check the ZH home page at bottom.
New racial discrimination policy.
WTF - are you some sorta posse?
"New racial discrimination policy."
That is bullshit of the highest order whoever you are "forwardho". What sets this site apart from others, or at least did, was that commenters could speak their mind. If they upset someone, then that someone spoke their mind back. Fuck moderation. Leave the comments be.
And if I'm".......banned immediately, and have their(my) comments removed from the system...... " then work away sweety. Cause the reason I came to love this site will be no more anyway, and I won't give a fuck.
If you go mainstream Zerohedge, you'll soon go the way of Detroit. Remember, there are a million and one sites on the web that give incisive economic news. Your comments section made you different.
100 Amazon Coin says he's a "Brother From Another Planet".
I don't think there's a "Species" policy - yet. Apparently "reptilian" doesn't bring them out of the woodwork quite the same as other, mmm, incendiary terms.
Don't call me "Surely"!
Thanks.... assholes such as those need not post here....
And yet...
if Obama had a city, it would look like Detroit...
I do hope you're wrong. If Detroit is bailed out then the line will form for bailouts. This could be the perfect excuse to just federalize the whole country.
At what point does the American Citizen say enough is enough? How many times does the line have to be redrawn before our backs are against the wall? There was a movie made in the early 80's starring Kurt Russel as Snake Plisskenand this is what I think Detroit's overall plan is
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0082340/
@hedgless_horseman
No wonder you and Francis "closet bigot" Sawyer get along so well. Do you burn effigies at your farm while instagramming your latest home-grown food? Maybe invite Francis along for a pretend lynching?
The comments on this site have gone way downhill.
2% crack tax would probably help, or levy a fee for a drive by shooting permit/application, or hell, just move Guantanamo to the Motor City (aka Guantanamotor City), Shit, I've got moar ideas to help with your blight, just call me at 1-666-OU812.
Bailout is so passe.
Word of the day is "bail in". All people in Detroit just get a 30% haircut and the city is saved.
Lol, good one.
Bailout is so passe.
Word of the day is "bail in". All people in Detroit just get a 30% haircut and the city is saved.
How do you Bail In a welfare city?
The problem with that is no one left there has any money or assets to bail in. 30% of zero is still zero. 30% of a negative number is still a negative number.
Simple, you can't take what the people have, you take what has been promised them (also known as Accounts Receivable, or Pensions).
Soylent Green
$9.4B?
That's just a Bernanke fart.
He'll cover that.
QE4 will fix that. DOW 36000.
Bernank needs to QE until the S&P surpasses the national debt. Only then will things be "fixed."
So, if Bernanke could fart nickles, how much would that weigh?
Paging Kyle Bass... Info needed in Isle 4
How are Detroit muncipal bonds doing? Where is CDS trading on Detroit? Time to short Detroit.
Meanwhile, 1 good thing to happen in Detroit...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=onWC8nNpIco#!
cut its debt?
but debt is money....krugman told me so
now is a great time to borrow moar, while rates are so low
cut its debt?
but debt is money....krugman told me so
now is a great time to borrow moar, while rates are so low
That flies as long as there is no change in contract law,in a natl financial meltdown.
No worries...the NAR says The Aliens are coming to buy Everything....(better lock yore perty yung'n up!).
Welcome to "Moar-town"!
Home of the world champion "GIBSMEDATS"!
I saw this earlier and I apologize if it was already posted. The review is at this site plus some good charts.
Detroit - the poster child for Obama's America.
http://confoundedinterest.wordpress.com/2013/05/13/detroits-deficit-spending-problem-and-the-orr-report-100-million-deficit/
The story that just keeps on giving. Close it down
And send them where? Cleveland? Pittsburgh? It will just start all over again..
bulldoze it, at least thier won't be a property tax bill
agreed....it will be cheaper to just shut it down and abandon the city. fire everyone and move them out. throwing good money after bad is a fools game.
"This town needs a good enema."
Running out of cash never stopped nobody! This world is insane.
Everyone is negative equity, including the FDIC.
What, me worry?
Psssh, FDIC is nothing. You really want to go prematurely grey look at PBGC(Pension Beneifit Guarantee Corp). Stealth TARP II in the making.
my father received a letter from his union. Thier pension fund is in critical status. I'm sure thier thousands just like it. but lets not talk about dark clouds this sunny day when the spx made a new high again
Here is that leftist douchebag and friend of Joe Stalin aka Pete Seeger singing "I'm Sticking with The Union."
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JH8c8rVJ4I8
Scum.
Let's make the cars break down faster and restrict access to spare parts so that consumer need to take out bigger loans to buy newer cars earlier.
Let's not. And let's not even "say we did". I mean we might as well go with Alan Greenspan's idea of bulldozing foreclosed homes so that we can build new houses, rinse, lather, repeat ad infinitum. You know, the broken window fallacy thang.
Planned obsolescence has already been implemented to fullest possible extent. How long until we have our very own not just dumpster divers, but full-blown landfill salvagers/miners, here in North America. That will be like a mini-goldrush right there, with groups fighting it out over territory, and those best at spotting all the different kinds of mobile phones rising to the top.
Just some Mad Max-esque parody for the ZHers.
...............and next month
and next month
and next.........
"I'LL BUY THAT FOR A DOLLAR!!"
"SOLD!!!"
bennie, fairy godfather, press the magic button for the 1000000 time please & save poor Detroit
LOL ~ 'Dr. Bernanke'
~~~
Now is the time
To call the doctor
This is a serious case
There's not much time
To call the doctor
CALLING NOW FOR DR. DETROIT
~~~
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9_A8Xe9M0NY
these are just scare tactics. how about the federales? why not pony up some cash for Detroit? sure it will be a great investment in the very near future ...
Detroit used to have a population of 1,870,000. Now, it's population has dwindled to only about 670,000. This is a loss of 1,200,000 persons. Of these, 700,000 moved to the suburbs and 500,000 have been killed.
As predicted decades ago...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bVDDYQlmq0w
Moar bullets!
Or draft them into the Army. Possession of drugs is a 1-way ticket to Boot Camp and 3 years with Uncle Sam. You may be posted to crisis regions. Subtext: You WILL be posted to a crisis region.
Just when I could not get more bullish I find out Detroit has cash.
Who's going to keep the lights on when the Detroit Red Wings play their home games - they're in the quarter finals!!! Go Red Wings!!!
Lights or no lights, it won't matter. Hawks in 5 baby!! it's a shame the NHL is breaking up such a long standing original 6 rivalry. I loved to hate the wings but always repected them.
Good luck.
From what I've heard... Those fuckers throw 'dead squids' on the ice after victories [so they can't be all bad]...
After GOALS.
Yes sir you are correct... after goals... [still one of the kewlest things in the sports world IMHO]... Nice!
My guess is this is the reason Goldman won't put a big office in Michigan. There might be real dead squid thrown on the ice instead of the innocent sweet cephalopod....
LOL! Idiots distracted by bread and circuses while brainwashed by TV and Hollywood. Nice job.
Have them issue a 5% bond, with so many "chasing yield" it should be a tremendous hit! < sarc off >
Make it 50% Bond and let Bernanke print some moar money to cover it.
“The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people's money.”
Margaret thatcher
Detroit has run out of people with money.
Let's look at the bright side, votes will get cheaper to buy.
Please, the western world has run out of other people's money.
"Please, the western world has run out of other people's energy." FIFY
lol. The western world has not just run out of other peoples money, but people and land that actually produce stuff, and ideas the eastern world (India and Asia) can steal.
Its amazing how easily you get ripped off when you leave the doors to the property open with a sign that says 'free trade' and 'open civilization'.
For the moment the west is effectively printing food, water, gold, silver, oil, gas. At some point that magic hat trick will stop satisfying the masses as well.
Detroit is running out of cash?! Hey idiot Detroit, and hundreds of other cities, a number of states, a good number of western world governments ran out of cash a LONG fucking time ago. And they long ago ran out of suckers to stick with 'debt' to boot.
Amazing I guess not having infinite supply sources puts a kabash on that 'gwoth' will save us all religion. But hey just like in the past when one religion fails humans WILL find another one to replace it. If I'm a betting man I'd put a silver on the 'best for everyone religion' coming knocking at everyones door soon.
Us taking your stored food, gold, silver, gas, oil, and whatever we want is 'best for everyone'. I'm going to have to put out a sign. Whatever you want from me 'go take it from the 1% because they already have everything I ever wanted and then some' and its 'better for everyone' if you take what we need from them first.
Signed J. Q. 1/2pack.
Detroit has run out of people with money.
Detroit is a cesspool, and it's filled w/TAKERS,drug dealers,gangs, and criminals.The hard working pensioners are going to get Bawney Fwanked,and the Beat goes On.
Obama still has some of his stash for Detroit. My guess is now that the GOP runs the state that Obama's stash has been cut off.
I am tired of paying for these people. Not once, twice but usually 4 and 5 times on every tax we pay.
Funny Enough, when I was in college, our finance professor had an investment banker come in who worked in municipal bond issuance. When talking about his job, I distinctly remember him saying how he felt good when he could "help" out communities in need of funds for necessary infrastructure and such. He then gave the specific example of Detroit. I remember sitting there in 2011 thinking to myself, "how are you helping anyone when all you are doing is getting someone more into debt and setting up investors to get their faced ripped off".
it all depends on what your definition of "help" is ... perhaps, teaching them a lesson in life, one might consider help ...
AndrewJackson That is exactly what happened with sub-Saharan Africa and the IMF. Only a complete fool would have believed that those loans would ever be repaid conventionally. As always there are grander designs at play.
See "Confessions of an Economic Hitman"
LOL
Problem #1 Investment banker saying glad he's helping the little guy/others, etc.
Problem #2 Muni banker... Satan's Spawn.... Not much of a lower life form.
@ knucs, other than POTUS, that would be true.
In college, in 2011?
It seems that your appraisal of the Investment banker would also apply to student loan advisers.
Whom I hope you promtly told to piss up a rope.
No Loans here. I had one friend that was 6 figures though. Was able to turn him around though and now he is on the Dave Ramsey plan, paying off half in two years.
Cut the services such as ambulance response to match British NHS. 30+ minutes for ambulance response. Socialism means equality.
WTF? GM was bailed out, Chrysler bailed out and sold to the "rich" Italians.... Pensions Smencions, the Unions were bailed out too. Oh wait, GM is moving production to Mexico, Brazil and China. As for the cops, how hard can their job be. We have scrapped the fourth amendment (reference Boston). Just march through the streets, bust down doors, haul people off to the for profit jails, and bulldoze the rest. What problems? Green space for all. An Agenda 21 Utopia. Bring in the Motor City Moose to graze.
Seriously!
What the fuck went wrong?
Excuse me. When did transportation become a basic service?! If you can't get from A to Z on your own, tough shit. Walk.
Detroit: The next mother of all metro FEMA camps?
Holy.
Shit.
Now.
That.
Is.
A.
Fucking.
Scary.
Thought.
Sis! I take everythig back!
I love Big Brother!
Come on, did you really think it would be New York?
Detroit may run out of cash next month?
Fucking hell, I ran out of cash on Friday after wasting my money on beer and hookers and coke and spliffs and more coke,
So I went to work today and got some moar money,
Rinse, repeat, rinse, repeat,
Join the fucking line Detroit, you aint as skint as me.
Or ask bernsplanks, I hear hes good for a couple of bil'
I take offense to your definition of wasting money. That doesn't sound like waste unless is was crappy coke, dirt weed, ugly hookers and bad beer and even under those conditions it's still not all bad :-)
Dude !!! You should have used a coupon for that coke !!!
And get youself a Japanese love doll:
http://www.fantasydoll.com.au/gallery
(Haruhi looks mighty inviting!!!)
and make your own beer:
http://www.northernbrewer.com/shop/brewing?gclid=CJ7X1c_Wk7cCFelxQgodUxMAOw
The preceding message has been approved (and fully tested) by the Bernank...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iZq3i94mSsQ
Living in Detroit still might be safer than going to a Mothers Day parade in New Orleans.
The KKK sure messed things up for those poor people at that parade.
Damn racists! hujel
Nope. Not even close.
I thought King Hussein saved Detroit. Did I read the headline wrong?
LOL
That is just so bad....
What's so bad about bankrupcy court? Deal with it and move on. Just turn the page.
Appropriate comment, Detroit, Bob Seger, turn the page...
They ran out of cash a long time ago. They have been borrowing other people's cash for a long time. Now they will get freshly printed cash from Big Ben laundered through multiple channels.
in 20 years america will be third world......no question about it......once the debt for growth fueled system ends...once the expansionist, extractionist empire ends......the landscape will similiar to developing countries......................similar to russia...........there will be pockets of wealth.....american cities that thrive......but the rest of the country will be in decay...............
"there will be pockets of wealth.....american cities that thrive......but the rest of the country will be in decay..............."
You just described present day.
Right. Washington DC, Northern Virginia, then the rest of us...
no fonz......nearly the entire country is still paved, hooked into the grid, receiving ample social services, etc.....that will NOT be the case in 20 years......
It's decaying Kito. More and more everyday. When that hurricane hit everyone by me lost power. The lines all run above ground. They cleared some tress off the lines but they can't commit any money to upgrading the system or running the lines underground. It will take less and less powerful storms to have the same effect going forward. Luckily for me this is Long Island so you guys will all have to pitch in continuously so I can watch the Yankees beat up on the Tigers with little interruption.
i completely agree fonz....but still nowhere near third world...........not yet................the archdruid (some of his blog posts are great thought experiments on the future) talked of this dytopian future.........as the infrastructure breaks down, there wont be uncle sams money to rebuild, maintain, repair, etc...........only the money centers will get what they need.......everywhere else will revert to pre-industrial revolution standards...................
Yet some of the technological advancements are stunning. I wish I had something else to focus on other than this slow motion nightmare.
After hurricanes it is usually white southern non-union linemen who restore the power aka good ole boys.
Unless the union scum in the NE want the good ole boys to join the union to fix the lines. The linemen from Alabama told them to go to hell in NJ. "We ain't joinin the union!" LOL!
These guys work 17 hours a day in the heat and in the dark doing dangerous as s*it work.
You ain't seen that state of roads in CA...
Nor the quality of "social services"
The cops, fire, EMS are skinnying along while the "social programs" just keep spendin' on unintelligible crap...
Hell, some dick in Sacramento just introduced a bill to help the poor feed their pets.
Aaaargah!
Eat the fucking pet for shit's sake
Then euthanize the owners.
You ain't seen that state of roads in CA...
Nor the quality of "social services"
The cops, fire, EMS are skinnying along while the "social programs" just keep spendin' on unintelligible crap...
Hell, some dick in Sacramento just introduced a bill to help the poor feed their pets.
Aaaargah!
Eat the fucking pet for shit's sake
Then euthanize the owners.
And anyone WONDERS why Kali is SO screwed?,their pols are all fricken Socialists,the Northern Kali taxpayers foot the bill for this excrement.
The ****ing left managed to destroy paradise aka California. The geography is paradise while most of the people are total shit. I think it started right about the time of Charlie and the Family. The Beach Boys found drugs and it was downhill from there. Dumb Dennis actually took home some of the Family robot chicks to screw and that is how Charlie got into his house.
The story people never realize is that The Beach Boys took Charlie into the studio to do one of his songs. They pissed off Charlie and Terry Melcher (Doris Day's son) was their producer. Charlie thought Melcher still owned the home where Polanksi and Sharon Tate were staying.
California is a beautiful state filled with cockroaches.
"California is a beautiful state filled with cockroaches."
Must be attracted by all the rotting fruits and nuts...
Indeed, my sentiments exactly.
Anyone been to D.C. recently.
Boom town.
"in 20 years america will be third world......no question about it"
~~~
The 'PROJECT DESTINATION' will call for the NEED for enteprising & well homeschooled young sons, like you,... kito... You know... to 'run' things [& all]...
~~~
Bully for you... chilly 4 me...
you know francis........one day, when i run shit..when im the man........i will make sure there is a job for you.....you, my friend, can carry my water anytime you desire...............
kito ~ I'd be happy to carry your water anytime [if you teach me how to properly wear khakis]... Consider me 'Tony Curtis' to your 'Lawrence Olivier'... :-)
Tony Curtis aka Bernie Schwarz.
+1 for Bowie
Funny thing is, when one analyses the situation, the US ALREADY is, but the trap hasn't yet sprung so no one is aware.
Almost funny to sit in a Starbucks or Pandera's reading and realize that EVERYONE in the building is dirt poor but just doesn't know it yet. hujel
THIS!!! ^^^^
... except for us stackers...
Wealth distribution in the U.S. This is a fucking eye popper. http://thecivillibertarian.blogspot.com/2013/05/must-see-wealth-distribu...
I'm tellin' ya, the wealth was distributed more evenly in feudal times. At least then you had some chickens and a goat to your name! You had to work the land for the rest of your existence, sure, but not indebted the same as a modern consumer, with student loans, credit cards, a mortgage, car payments, and of course, national debt which they are on the hook for.
Mindboggling, to say the least, when you 'get it'.
Is there some other Detroit that paid out $474 million fees to big banks on Wall Street ?