Municipal Bankruptcies

[RE]

There have been a few articles lately mentioning cities here in thee FSoA that are in financial difficulty, now we're getting newz from the UK of Birmingham being on the brink of financial collapse.  Just like they have the same problems with affordable housing and commercial RE across the pond, their financial system is run by the same TBTF banks under the same set of rules, so they get exactly the same problems at the same time.

Which is why the explanations given in this article about the reasons for their problems such as mismanagemeent and an IT system problem are all basically bullshit.  All the munis are in trouble for the same reason...high interest rates they have to pay out of their bonds.  While they can handle a spike in interest rates for a few months, if they stay persistently high for a year or more, they run out of ways to shuffle around money and delay payments, and everything hits at once, "all of a sudden".

Recent inflation data came out which has forced Da Fed to cancel their rate cuts which they have been promising for months.  Without the rate cuts, there's no cheap money on the horizon for these munis, so now they're out there closing the swimming pools and selling off their art collections.

Like with NYC back in the 70s though, rarely does an actual BK go forward with a muni.  They always find some way to restructure the debt so the banksters and hedge funds get paid off, and the city limps along with fewer teachers, fewer libraries and fewer trash pickups.  So it goes.

https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/uk/birmingham-faces-economic-collapse-amid-record-bankruptcy-filings/articleshow/109781245.cms

Birmingham faces economic collapse amid record bankruptcy

RE