A great series finished last month on the Chicago Public Schools district’s engagement in complex bond deals, the lack of public oversight, and the high costs of many of those deals. I’ve been researching interest rate swaps for over a year, and I’m impressed with the thoroughness of the reporting here. THIS is why we…
Tag: banks
Reparations From Banks – NYTimes.com
After five years, the banks are starting to be held to account. Last week, JP Morgan: The government’s attempts to hold banks accountable for their mortgage practices may finally be paying off. On Friday, JPMorgan Chase agreed to pay $5.1 billion to the regulator of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to resolve charges related to…
In Embattled Detroit, No Talk of Sharing Pain – NYTimes.com
Detroit, currently under the governance of an emergency manager, seems destined for bankruptcy or mass default (it has already begun to default on some of its credit payments. Either scenario will be groundbreaking in municipal finance and in the power relationships between bankers, retirees, cities, and states. The impending battle between people living on fixed…
Bill Seeks to Tie Municipal Borrowing to Public Pension Disclosure – NYTimes.com
There are many policies floating around to reform the muck that is municipal finance these days. A group of U.S. representatives from California are pushing a bill in Congress that would require states and cities to disclose the “true cost” of their pension plans, and whether they can pay those costs. California, of course, is…
Fitch weighs in on Michigan’s Emergency Manager law
Fitch Ratings issued a press release on the situation with Michigan’s Emergency Manager law (right now the court is weighing whether to put on the fall ballot a measure to repeal the current version of the emergency manager law, under which Detroit’s consent agreement with the state). Ratings agencies have been vocal about Detroit’s troubles,…