Banks stand to lose millions of dollars in debt repayments if the biggest municipal bankruptcy in American history is allowed to proceed.
But the real victims of the financial collapse in the US state of Alabama's most populous county are its poorest residents - forced to bathe in bottled water and use portable toilets after being cut off from the mains supply.
And there is widespread anger in Jefferson County that swingeing sewerage rate hikes could have been avoided but for the greed, corruption and incompetence of local politicians, government officials and Wall Street financiers.
Tammy Lucas is the human face of a financial and political scandal that has brought one of the most deprived communities in America's south to the point of what some local people believe is collapse.
She says: "If the sewer bill gets higher, my light might get cut off and if I try to catch up the light, my water might get cut off. So we're in between. We can't make it like this."
Mrs Lucas's monthly sewerage rate bills - the amount levied by the county to flush away waste and provide water for baths and showers - has quadrupled in the past 15 years. She says it is currently running at $150 (£97) a month, which leaves little left out of her $600 social security check for food and electricity.
"We need to keep the water running because we're women," she says. "We need to take baths. I try to pay the sewer bill and the water bill together and then what little I got left I try to put on my lights. I got to have lights."
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-16037798
Water, water, everywhere,
Water, water, everywhere,
but not a drop to drink.....
“If you trust in yourself, and believe in your dreams, and follow your star. . . you'll still get beaten by people who spent their time working hard and learning things and weren't so lazy.”
Re: Water, water, everywhere,
Wow, that is shameful.
I live in a town where the water distribution system has been privatized, and services three neighboring towns. We pay the highest rates in the state for water (it's owned by an AUSTRALIAN company, btw), but nothing like those poor people. My water bill is around $600 for the entire year, sewerage about half that.
I live in a town where the water distribution system has been privatized, and services three neighboring towns. We pay the highest rates in the state for water (it's owned by an AUSTRALIAN company, btw), but nothing like those poor people. My water bill is around $600 for the entire year, sewerage about half that.
“I ask no favor for my sex. All I ask of our brethren is that they take their feet off our necks.” ~ Ruth Bader Ginsburg, paraphrasing Sarah Moore Grimké
Re: Water, water, everywhere,
“If you trust in yourself, and believe in your dreams, and follow your star. . . you'll still get beaten by people who spent their time working hard and learning things and weren't so lazy.”
Re: Water, water, everywhere,
Sometimes I'm glad that my water all comes straight from the sky. 
Why is it that when Miley Cyrus gets naked and licks a hammer it's 'art' and 'edgy' but when I do it I'm 'drunk' and 'banned from the hardware store'?
Re: Water, water, everywhere,
Well if the bond holders are rich or banks, then what's the problem?
Declare bankruptcy, fuck the bondholders, and go about your business.
Next problem...
Declare bankruptcy, fuck the bondholders, and go about your business.
Next problem...
Re: Water, water, everywhere,
Wow. What a gordian knot to untangle.
It sounds likek JP Morgan not only behaved directly corruptly in bribing the elected officials but they also offered a deal so bad that no rational person would take it. A failure of regulation in other words. I think its reasonable to repudiate the debt on those grounds and make the banks liable for their own crookedness.
_______________________
"...
nvestment bank JP Morgan Securities and two of its former directors have been fined for offering bribes to Jefferson County workers and politicians to win business financing the sewer upgrade.
Six of Jefferson County's former commissioners have been found guilty of corruption for accepting the bribes, along with 15 other officials.
New county commissioners, struggling to service the debt they inherited from their crooked predecessors, took the decision to file for Chapter 9 bankruptcy last month.
But the county's bondholders, who stand to lose about $4.5m a month in repayments if the bankruptcy is allowed to proceed, are contesting it in court.
... "
_________________________
yrs,
rubato
It sounds likek JP Morgan not only behaved directly corruptly in bribing the elected officials but they also offered a deal so bad that no rational person would take it. A failure of regulation in other words. I think its reasonable to repudiate the debt on those grounds and make the banks liable for their own crookedness.
_______________________
"...
nvestment bank JP Morgan Securities and two of its former directors have been fined for offering bribes to Jefferson County workers and politicians to win business financing the sewer upgrade.
Six of Jefferson County's former commissioners have been found guilty of corruption for accepting the bribes, along with 15 other officials.
New county commissioners, struggling to service the debt they inherited from their crooked predecessors, took the decision to file for Chapter 9 bankruptcy last month.
But the county's bondholders, who stand to lose about $4.5m a month in repayments if the bankruptcy is allowed to proceed, are contesting it in court.
... "
_________________________
yrs,
rubato
-
quaddriver
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Re: Water, water, everywhere,
it cost me $4gs, but I have a new 250ft deep 9" cased well that flows over 10gpm at 60psi, replacing a 60ft deep 6" cased well that struggled to maintain 2gpm at 40psi and had 20ppm of clearwater iron....
my nearest neighbor is 1/4 mile away and is old and hardly uses water, my table should be good for the rest of my life...
not saying everybody should drill baby drill, but municipal water has become quite the racket.
my nearest neighbor is 1/4 mile away and is old and hardly uses water, my table should be good for the rest of my life...
not saying everybody should drill baby drill, but municipal water has become quite the racket.
Re: Water, water, everywhere,
Succinct. I like it!dgs49 wrote:Well if the bond holders are rich or banks, then what's the problem?
Declare bankruptcy, fuck the bondholders, and go about your business.
Next problem...
(And I REALLY like the fact that I have no water bill, and I have no sewer bill!)
Treat Gaza like Carthage.
Re: Water, water, everywhere,
If the bondholders or their agents engaged in bribery to get the bonds issued, then the bonds should be voided without the county being forced to declare bankruptcy.dgs49 wrote:Well if the bond holders are rich or banks, then what's the problem?
Declare bankruptcy, fuck the bondholders, and go about your business.
Next problem...
"The dildo of consequence rarely comes lubed." -- Eileen Rose
"Colonialism is not 'winning' - it's an unsustainable model. Like your hairline." -- Candace Linklater
"Colonialism is not 'winning' - it's an unsustainable model. Like your hairline." -- Candace Linklater
Re: Water, water, everywhere,
So this state does not have an Atty general to do this or is he a Libertarian?
yrs,
rubato
yrs,
rubato