Don't Forget America's Failed States

The sad truth is that it's simply impossible to run a major US state with the current public sector pay/benefits structure. The process of scaling back pensions and salaries will hurt a lot of cops, teachers and social workers who don't deserve pain. But there's no mathematical alternative to a dramatic lowering of state/local operating costs.

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The muni bond market has held up amazingly well considering that many of them are loans to bankrupt states in a soon-to-be bankrupt country. But in the coming year Meredith Whitney's prediction of "hundreds of billions of dollars of muni defaults" might come true, again with California leading the way.