Illinois is drowning under a mountain of debt, unpaid bills and underfunded pension liabilities and it's largest city, Chicago, is suffering from a staggering outbreak of violent crime not seen since gang wars engulfed major cities from LA to New York in the mid-90's. Here is just a small taste of some of our posts on Illinois' challenges:
A few weeks ago, we expressed some level of astonishment that the rating agencies, in their infinite wisdom, decided to bestow an investment grade rating upon a new $3 billion bond issuance by the City of Chicago. Of course, this wouldn't be such a big deal but for the fact that the state of Illinois is a financial disaster that will undoubtedly be forced into bankruptcy at some point in the future courtesy of a staggering ~$150 billion funding gap on its public pensions, a mountain of debt and $16.4 billion in accrued AP because they can't even afford to pay their bills on a timely basis.
The state of Illinois is a financial disaster that will undoubtedly be forced into bankruptcy at some point in the future. As we've pointed out multiple times over the past several months, the state faces a staggering $130 billion funding gap on its public pensions, a mountain of debt and $16.4 billion in accrued payables because they can't even afford to pay their bills on a timely basis. Here are just a couple of our recent posts on these topics:
As Illinois muni debt continues to hover around all-time highs, the number of watchdog groups offering warnings about Chicago's deteriorating finances continues to grow. The latest such warning comes from Truth In Accounting which provided the Windy City an 'F' on their latest fiscal report card citing a staggering debt burden that amounts to $41,700 per Chicago resident. To put that figure in perspective, the median household income in Chicago is roughly $48,500.
Authored by Doug French via The Mises Institute,
“Pension fund problems worsen in 43 states” says the Bloomberg headline.
Laurie Meisler writes,