Austerity in Detroit - Pt 6: The Bankruptcy "Setup" — It Didn't Have To Happen, It Was Rigged by a Cabal of Legislators, Bankers and Politicians

A City Always On Verge of Low Credit Ratings Makes A New Deal With Banks: "If Detroit's Credit Rating Falls, Banks Can Demand Immediate Payment of 25 Years of Interest"  - Guess What Happened?

Wallace Tuberville, Senior Fellow at Demos and author of "The Detroit Bankruptcy,"
explains why he thinks Detroit may have been rigged to fail.

After decades of standing on the precipice of its credit rating falling, bankers somehow managed to sucker Detroit's reckless politicians into a suicide 'deal'. The 'deal' allowed banks to demand immediate payment of 25 years worth of interest if Detroit's credit rating fell. Of course, Detroit's credit rating did fall and the banks demanded their money, and Detroit went into default.

Some think it was a long-planned for setup: 1) The state forces an 'Emergency Manager' (dictator) on Detroit (even though Detroit residents voted against an 'Emergency Manager' in a referendum); 2) The state cuts revenue sharing to Detroit; 3) The state thus rigs Detroit to fail by lighting the fuse on a '25-years-worth-of-interest' bomb. This appears to be a sneaky way to impose 'austerity', privatize Detroit's assets, and 'payback' Detroit's unions for all those years of good pay and benefits — snatching back money paid to workers by stripping their pension checks and benefits.—Ronald David Jackson

Interview: Wallace Turberville, Senior Fellow at Demos.

Interviewed by Amy Goodman and Nermeen Shaikh of DemocracyNow.

RELATED STORIES:

• Austerity in Detroit - Pt 1: Babies Pay for Detroit’s 60-Year Slide With Mortality Above Mexico's
  
• Austerity in Detroit - Pt 2: Detroit and Iraq — Both Are Plundered by the Same Bandits
  
• Austerity in Detroit - Pt 3: Detroit Residents Seek U.N. Intervention as City Shuts Off Water to Thousands
   
• Austerity in Detroit - Pt 4: “Operation Afro-Dilution” — Michigan’s Plan to Flood Detroit with Upscale Immigrants

• Austerity in Detroit - Pt 5: The Revolution Will Be Privatized — They're Bulldozing a Fifth of Detroit

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