The Detroit bankruptcy is just one more step in the ongoing saga. I told a few friends last weekend that it would happen within 3 weeks.

What can be expected now? Well, there will be massive screaming and pulling of hair as various lenders are clipped to a multi billion dollar tune. There will also be gnashing teeth as the unions and retirees realize that their cash cow is a scrawny bag of bones that does not give milk any more. Buy a bag of popcorn and a drink, pull up a lounge chair and watch the fireworks. This will be interesting to say the least.

DarJones

Big piece on gaming metals storage: [URL="http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/21/business/a-shuffle-of-aluminum-but-to-banks-pure-gold.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0"]A Shuffle of Aluminum, but to Banks, Pure Gold[/URL] But all this middle-man action has got to help liquidity (availablility, timeliness, etc.), right? Glad you asked. It doesn't:[QUOTE]Before Goldman bought Metro International three years ago, warehouse customers used to wait an average of six weeks for their purchases to be located, retrieved by forklift and delivered to factories. But now that Goldman owns the company, the wait has grown more than 20-fold — to more than 16 months, according to industry records.[/QUOTE]But they paid for their position and it should take decades for them to recoup right? No:[QUOTE] To Metro, it keeps the delays long, allowing the company to continue charging a daily rent of 48 cents a ton. Goldman bought the company for $550 million in 2010 and at current rates could collect about a quarter-billion dollars a year in rent.[/QUOTE]But these paragons of virtue might dominate one commodity but they can't do the same with others right? Well,[QUOTE]In 2010, JPMorgan quietly embarked on a huge buying spree in the copper market. Within weeks — by the time it had been identified as the mystery buyer — the bank had amassed $1.5 billion in copper, more than half of the available amount held in all of the warehouses on the exchange. Copper prices spiked in response.

At the same time, JPMorgan, which also controls metal warehouses, began seeking approval of a plan that would ultimately allow it, Goldman Sachs and BlackRock, a large money management firm, to buy 80 percent of the copper available on the market on behalf of investors and hold it in warehouses.[/QUOTE]Good to see that cheap fed money is being applied toward benevolent social benefit.
Some of us in California are still stinging over the electricity manipulation. None of these guys would do that kind of thing, right?[QUOTE]In the last year, federal authorities have accused three banks, including JPMorgan, of rigging electricity prices, and last week JPMorgan was trying to reach a settlement that could cost it $500 million.[/QUOTE]Bye now. Thanks for playing.

[URL="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/07/21/bankruptcy-lawyers-detroit-creditors_n_3630960.html"]Bankruptcy Lawyers See Land Of Opportunity In Detroit Crisis[/URL][QUOTE]Orr, the emergency manager, has outlined in court papers his plans to create a new water and sewer management authority, transfer Detroit's Belle Isle Park to the state of Michigan, and restructure Coleman A. Young airport, which has not serviced commercial jets in 13 years but which the city must maintain to keep some federal subsidies.[/QUOTE]Perhaps Pittsburgh has advice on water and sewer management authorities. Coleman A. Young airport is actually [URL="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coleman_A._Young_International_Airport"]Coleman A. Young [B]International[/B] Airport[/URL]. What a waste. The FAA shut down the tower there in March. Gotta keep the drama going though so that the cargo cult subsidies continue.

Looking at this from the other side of the Atlantic, what's to stop Michigan or federal authorities expanding the definition of Detroit to cover all the Detroit metro area, at which point the rich suburbs join the tax base and get to pay to save the city?

American -people? pay a bit to help other? I'm sorry, but based on a few example I know, that is not an USAan idea. Unless it is tax-deductible, like charity. But maybe that's a stereotype.

[QUOTE=fivemack;346948]Looking at this from the other side of the Atlantic, what's to stop Michigan or federal authorities expanding the definition of Detroit to cover all the Detroit metro area, at which point the rich suburbs join the tax base and get to pay to save the city?[/QUOTE]

[SPOILER](Please turn off your irony detector before proceeding. Otherwise, you risk burning it out.)[/SPOILER]

You miss the point of the whole thing, which is to stick it to the less well off for the benefit of the wealthy. The folks in outlying gated communities don't want THEIR money wasted on those deadbeats in the inner cities. Downtowns should be turned into nice, safe, Disney-like environments so that the deserving rich have a place for an occasional pleasant night out. This also provides appropriate servant employment for the aforementioned deadbeats.

[QUOTE=ewmayer;346902]
And speaking of those doers-of-God's-work-on-earth at Goldman ...

[b]Sunday Humor:[/b]

[url=www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-07-13/goldman-banker-knocked-out-screaming-racial-slurs-serious-condition]Drunk Goldman Banker Knocked Out For Screaming Racial Slurs, In Serious Condition[/url]

There really needs to be a "justifiable KTFO" exemption in assault laws for this sort of thing.[/QUOTE]

It appears to be a clear case of self defense to me.....

[QUOTE=R.D. Silverman;346971]It appears to be a clear case of self defense to me.....[/QUOTE]

[SNARK]Indeed, except that the respective skin tones preclude that conclusion.[/SNARK]

[QUOTE=only_human;346862]Big piece on gaming metals storage: [URL="http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/21/business/a-shuffle-of-aluminum-but-to-banks-pure-gold.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0"]A Shuffle of Aluminum, but to Banks, Pure Gold[/URL] [/QUOTE]This "The House Edge" article may be an extension of an earlier NYT series, [URL="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/business/series/house_advantage_series/index.html"]"House Advantage"[/URL], that examined "the ways that Wall Street banks can, and often do, gain advantages over their customers."

We can hope
 

Fed eyes new [URL="http://www.addictinginfo.org/2013/07/24/big-banks-worst-fears-realized-as-federal-reserve-eyes-new-regulations-over-commodities-trading/"]regulation[/URL] of banks in the commodities biz.

A lot of money is wasted on botched and delayed IT projects. The technical reasons they fail may belong in another thread but the sheer wastefulness of throwing away taxpayer money and the hubris of reinventing the wheel multiple times to have a precioussss project of their very own belongs here I think.
[URL="http://spectrum.ieee.org/riskfactor/computing/it/pennsylvania-wont-renew-ibms-contract-for-botched-project"]Pennsylvania Won't Renew IBM's Contract for Botched Project[/URL][QUOTE]Pennsylvania’s Labor and Industry Secretary Julia Hearthway announced Wednesday that the state has decided not to renew its contract with IBM to modernize the state’s 40-year-old unemployment compensation computer system. According to an AP report, the contract, which was awarded in 2006 and is set to expire in 2013, is currently 42 months late and over $60 million above its original contract amount of $106.9 million.[/QUOTE]Here in LA LA land, Californians have experienced similar failures multiple times: [URL="http://www.utsandiego.com/news/2013/feb/15/california-computer-projects-delayed-overbudget/"]California and its troubled tech projects[/URL][QUOTE]This week’s [Feb 2013] announcement that state technology officials have fired the firm in charge of the Department of Motor Vehicles’ $208 million system upgrade was just the latest setback for a state with a difficult history on such projects.

The DMV has spent seven years and $135 million to upgrade its driver’s license and vehicle registration systems, but minimal progress was being made on the registration end.[/QUOTE][QUOTE]Delays and cost overruns have become familiar for government technology upgrades in California. The growing list of setbacks and boondoggles is particularly disheartening to some given California’s worldwide reputation as the cradle of the tech revolution. Recent examples:

• This month, Controller John Chiang fired the latest company tasked with guiding a $371 million overhaul of the state’s payroll system. Senate President Pro Tempore Darrell Steinberg, D-Sacramento, has called for a hearing, citing the $254 million of public money that has already been spent “with apparently little to show for it.”

• Last year, state court officials abandoned a $2 billion project designed to unify 500 court facilities under one computing system. Officials were reportedly told it could take an additional $1.3 billion to complete a decade-long undertaking that already cost $500 million but produced noteworthy court upgrades in only seven of 58 counties.

• In 2011, the California Public Employees’ Retirement System finished its computer system two years late and at nearly twice the budgeted amount — from $279 million to more than $514 million. CalPERS apologized after thousands of retirees or their survivors received incorrect payments, and some retirees got notices saying their health insurance policies were being canceled.

• In San Diego, the computing system that allows city employees to interface more efficiently through their computers was last reported to be behind schedule and $11 million over its $42 million budget. The city attributed the setbacks to an overambitious schedule, low cost estimates and too many project managers. Officials could not provide U-T Watchdog a status update this week.[/QUOTE]