http://edition.cnn.com/...ons/index.html?hpt=hp_bn1

Look toward Haiti and indeed all of Africa. Those blaming European colonialism can consider Ethiopia, which was never colonized.

detroit will come back. we are so near sighted in the states. we are examining a period of 50 years. a half a century!
detroit will reinvent itself before i'm gone.

if i had money i'd be buying up old buildings in downtown Detroit left and right.

I'm gonna go with fluffty politicians/mayors

Detroit will not come back with the same terrible fiscal policies and corruption that got it into this mess to begin with...the businesses caving to the unions broke detoit along with the horrible spending habits the city had.

lesson one in simple economics

do not spend more than you have.

from wiki economics golden rule applies that : All things being equal, an increase in government borrowing raises the real interest rate consequently crowding out (reducing) investment because a higher rate of return is required for investment to be profitable. Unless the government uses the borrowed funds to invest in projects with a similar rate of return to private investment, capital accumulation falls, with negative consequences upon economic growth.

Simplified : The more the city has to borrow, the higher the interest rates are and to offset the higher interest rates the return of investment has to be higher. Something Detroit was not and is no capable of in its state currently. With the rate of return needing to be higher the private investors are not running to Detroit to invest in it. There is a serious lack of skilled and educated labor surrounding Detroit and the crime is way too high/dangerous for serious investment outside of the immediate downtown area. You leave the downtown area and you quite literally risk life if you cross the wrong people. Until that changes, Detroit is stuck.

Before Detroit rebounds we will see LA, San Diego, San Francisco, Denver, Boston, NYC, Chicago and Philly all go bankrupt. Likely many more large cities that have themselves buried in pensions and horrible fiscal policy that is very rapidly growing to become a huge issue. These people in municipalities built up these huge funds to make it a nice cushy job to have, with complete and utter disregard to the solvency of these funds over time.

it's a set up!

Back in 1987 they said..
Set in a crime-ridden Detroit, Michigan in the near future.. is on the verge of collapse due to financial ruin and overrun by crime..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=INmtQXUXez8

Coincidence my ass

mdevol:
I don't know that I buy your assessment... interest rate returns are not localized like that. Required rate of return must be commensurate with risk associated with the investment and the risk in Detroit is too high. That isn't because the local government is borrowing and "driving up interest rates"... That could be asserted for a national scale (country government economy) but not within a single city. A private investor would compete for a loan interest rate against any project anywhere in the country (or beyond), assuming similar risk. It is the "risk" associated with Detroit that is pushing interest rates up.

A bank is going to demand a higher return to loan money to start a project in a city where there is no guarantee of reliable fire protection, law enforcement, transportation systems, etc. These critical pieces of infrastructure are failing (or some would argue, failed) in Detroit.

Here are some other interesting perspectives from closer to the problem:

http://www.publicsectorinc.org/...resentation_to_creditors/
http://www.amren.com/...for-detroits-dysfunction/
http://www.freep.com/...0228/OPINION05/302280155/ (Feb)
http://www.freep.com/...0923/OPINION05/309230009/ (Sep)

Less local but with good facts included:
http://www.bloomberg.com/...s-hobbling-processes.html
http://www.zerohedge.com/...ave-you-shaking-your-head

And Vic, if you look at that last link, there are thousands of homes available for purchase right now for under $500.

Also interesting, but not complete, IMHO:

http://www.ted.com/...r_rebuilding_detroit.html

To use ethiopia as an example is rather disengenuous and simply illustrates your ignorance of the geography and politics in the region. And for the record, the valuable parts of it were colonized (check up Eretria).

Besides, Ethiopia has God on Earth, King of Kings and He shall bring forth in Ethiopia the Great Paradise, Zion.

So, I'm not worried about them. Detroit still needs a deity.

on the one Hand all these horror stories and pictures from Detroit. On the other hand they obviously still have enough people to entertain and pay for all these sports franchises like Tigers, Red Wings, .....

the people that pay for and go to those sports are mostly not from Detroit but from the surrounding areas like Farmington, Ann Arbor, Royal Oak, Grosse Pointe, Dearborn, Birmingham, and so on. There are nice cities surrounding Detroit that are helping in supporting the little that is still left. The new leadership of the city has a long way to go but they are starting to do the right things despite the city council still very much trying to keep thing the way they were.

Alos, the Piston rarely sellout and the tickets are as low as $5 to go to a game. The Pistons are not doing well.

Detroit just hired 100 new firefighters as part of a federal grant. I seriously considered relocating out that way if I applied and got hired.

I like how the link is to a reasonable CNN story but then the subtext of your one sentence contribution seems to be "BLACK PEOPLE." Actually I've noticed every post you've made is about black people.

Movement of Jah people!

what caused it? simple spending more than they were taking in, and still spending, then started taxing the remaining business and people more and more till there tax base left town.

Sometimes I am impressed with the depth of AT dialog on issues and sometimes... I am not.

Does everyone really feel the need to chime in that bankruptcy results from spending more than you make? Wow, that's rocket science there.

If you really want to dig in, think about *why* they were spending more than they made in revenues. Several good links and comments have already been provided in the thread....

I always hated watching sports on TV because the announcers are often complete and total idiots. My favorite example was when watching a football game. After halftime one guy asked the other what the team should do to turn around from their losing position at the end of the first half. His answer was roughly "Well, what they need to focus on in the second half is getting possession of the ball, moving it down the field and scoring some touchdowns"...

OH REALLLLLLLY?????