Windy City Finances Are In The Wind

[From article]

After years of warnings, financial reality is hitting home in Chicago, 

[. . .]

In March, Moody’sdowngraded the city’s credit rating to junk, 

[. . .]

So for several years now, the media have been telling Chicagoans that there’s a financial crisis. But it hasn’t really felt like one,

[. . .]

Chicago is actually borrowing the money to pay the first two years of interest payments on these bonds. In true Chicago style, the proposal passed the city council on a 45-3 vote.

[. . .]

Chicago Teachers Union, hostile to any reform that would affect teacher salaries and benefits, says that the district is “broke on purpose.” And CPS has no permanent CEO in place after Barbara Byrd-Bennett resigned last month amid a federal investigation into no-bid contracts.

http://city-journal.org/2015/eon0712ar.html

AARON M. RENN
Chicago’s Financial Fire
The city faces trouble from every direction.
July 12, 2015

Municipal Bond Abuses

[From article]
"What’s going on here? This is only the biggest criminal investigation into the $2.8 trillion municipal bond market ever, and most people have never heard about it. [. . .]
what happens after states and municipalities sell bonds and reinvest the money until they need it.[. . .]
[it's] an environment where nobody seems to be looking."

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601039&sid=aKnD.lV.d3j0

Bond Bid-Riggers Deserve Overdue Jail-Cell Justice
By Joe Mysak
March 23, 2010
Bloomberg.com