The train wreck that is the state of Illinois has generated a lot of questions lately, including ‘Will its government ever pass a budget?’, ‘Will it ever pay its overdue bills?’, and ‘Is it possible for a state to go bankrupt?’
Looks like we’re about to get some answers to these questions, along with one more: ‘What happens to the financial markets when people finally realize that Illinois is far from the only impending bankruptcy?’
Today’s Wall Street Journal has an anecdote-filled article illustrating what certainly looks like a case of terminal financial mismanagement (How Bad Is the Crisis in Illinois? It Has $14.6 Billion in Unpaid Bills):
Among the many, many data points:
The state comptroller predicts unpaid bills will soon top $16 billion. ‘It is almost hard to say those numbers out loud because they seem so insane, but that’s where we are right now.’ Unfunded pension liabilities now total $250 billion. That’s about one-third of state GDP, and is in addition the myriad other debts taken on in recent years.
This post was published at DollarCollapse on JUNE 28, 2017.
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