$2 trillion municipal bond debt crisis could bring down 100 US cities, analyst warns

A new disaster is looming, according to a prominent market research analyst. Meredith Whitney, a financial analyst who runs her own consulting firm and correctly predicted the major debt fallout of Citigroup, warned in a little-reported on interview Sunday that as many as 100 US cities face default on their municipal bonds.

Cities and states issue bonds to pay for public services. The trouble is that municipalities are no longer collecting enough in taxes to meet their budgetary needs. According to a 60 Minutes report Sunday -- which received almost no attention by the popular press -- US cities have spent nearly half a trillion more than they've collected in taxes, and face pension shortfalls of $1 trillion.

"Next to housing this is the single most important issue in the US and certainly the biggest threat to the US economy," Whitney told a CBS 60 Minutes' interviewer Sunday night.

And you think it couldn't get worse. With Cities backing off services within their respective communities, and now the FFC regs on the Net, and now Federal government taking state land for food control....where almost to the bottom of the barrel.

source: www.rawstory.com...

It does seem that this analyst is being ignored, even here on ATS! Our economy is being propped up by a printing press, and the borrowing from Peter to pay Paul Plan, yet people still are living in denial, and allowing big bankers to keep making money off the masses, until the gig finally is up.

The article said this analyst had death threats from bankers after her warning. Should be a big flag! Hope she takes care of herself.

We are in a long slow death spiral.

No wonder cops are starting to hand out more tickets.

The local thieves need the cash just as much as the federal ones do.

reply to post by BigTimeCheater


Yeah, this is a fact. Know someone (cop) that said this is true. Giving tickets to the easy targets (nice people that will most likely pay the ticket) of course he said he would deny he ever said this if necessary!

I do hope Karma will be a real B!$ch. Otherwise the good guys will lose for nothing.

Are cities obligated to pay the pensions no matter what? Or can down the line just say "sorry" and not give them anything? Either way, no one really wins. Although losing a pension would bite something hard..

Reminds me of a line in an country song by Alabama:

"The newspaper said that Wall Street fell, but we were so poor that we couldn't tell"

Keep your gardens and chickens intact people, they're the types of things that you would rather not need but have, then not have and need.

In order to have DEBTS, it means one have to borrow money from someone. What happened to the money? 2 issues to look into inorder to find an answer.

1. Federal and State financial requirements are often scrutinized by professionals years ahead, not with predictions like a pyschic, but mathematical statics that takes MANY factors into account, to ensure that they do not go into debt or cannot afford to pay for its expenses later.

What happened? Where did the money went? What happened to financial prudence? Who was involved and should be made to pay for the mistakes, instead of our next generations?

2. Who were the borrowers that encouraged such loans, in the hope that they may profit from the masses and their next generations' sufferings? Did they manipulate events so as to achieve their targetted profits?

These need to be asked individually as the nation stares into the debt horror laid out in clear, and seek the best solutions possible without the sacrifice of bloodshed on bothsides and others around the world, as well as generations to come.

It is only money - pieces of paper, after all. The human life is more precious than that. Money can be earned, but once life is gone, nothing can make it return, more so for those whom we loved and loved in return.

The extortion cycle cease's to end. From the USG income tax extortion, to the state police making up allegations to site and issue a ticket. Where does it end? makes you wonder just how free we are in this country comrades~