Jefferson County in Alabama faces bankruptcy.

Leaders of the largest county in the US state of Alabama have voted to file for a $4.1bn (£2.6bn) bankruptcy, the costliest US municipal failure ever. Jefferson County has been struggling to avoid bankruptcy since 2008, but recent talks on a deal to restructure its crippling debt broke down. The county sunk into debt after a costly upgrade of its sewer system. Jefferson County has about 658,000 residents and is home to Alabama's largest city, Birmingham.

BBC News

Another county going under, at a time like this. But this is not all the story......

In September, a deal with the county's creditors, includingJPMorgan Chase, had lenders agreeing to forgive about $1bn in debt, the county refinancing another $2bn, and a series of sewer rate increases. However, the negotiations remained $140m short as some terms of the deal shifted, increasing the repayment amount from $2.05bn to $2.19bn.

Many of you will remember, as it was only the other week, that MFglobal went under, and their biggest creditors were? Yes, you guessed, JPMorgan once again. They have been taking hit after hit, and now with Italy hitting the 7% mark, global stocks have been flying off, in the US, Europe, and right now, in Japan.

Im never one to speculate and try and call out disaster before it strikes, but how long will JPMorgan last when everyone they are linked with are becoming bankrupt? They are definitely the ones to be watching right now, it could however go one of two ways, they go down with everyone else that their linked with, or a huge investment opportunity . Get the stocks when they're down, and sell them off when they get a bailout. Either way, something involving JPMorgan will be big news soon.

Just a couple thoughts....I feel for the residents of the county. However, your first quote stated that the county went into debt for costly upgrades to the sewer system....Every county/city/state that wants/needs something has to pass a bond to accomplish it. Unlike the Fed gov, most of those bonds have to have a means to fund it, ie, school upgrades so 50 cent increase in sales tax, whatever it happens to be. How did this county get that far in debt without the population knowing about it, and 5 billion to boot. I understand how costly water/sewer systems can be, but this should have been fore-warned long before default was an option. Does it also mean that this county was not performing routine system maintenance and upgrades. Sounds like they let it go until it had to be completely replaced, which there should have been annual maintenance dollars in the budget to cover this....Just sounds very, hinky

Next, if a company has earned personal rights, and most towns are incorporated....and a county is made up of towns, and this county was forgiven 1/5 of their 5 billion dollar debt....Why have I never ever received any offer to forgive any debt I have? Guess it is another case of screw the little guy, but hey, if you get a ticket in that county or any county/city/state for that matter.....I bet you ten bucks to a dollar that you will need to pony up ever single dollar that fine says and exactly when they say it is due...If not, to jail you go.


These organizations are made up of smart (hopefully) individuals.....Let them fail, and I bet they will be the first ones up front with some solutions that the populace will accept. We don't let them fail and suffer like the average person does, if their jobs were literally on the line, they would start coming up with answers or they don't need to be in the position. It is time our society has people in positions that not only deserve it, can do it successful, and execute it in a manner their constituents desire.....There are many ways to skin a cat.