Monday, October 17, 2011

How does a city go bankrupt?

All it takes is a series of bad investment decisions:

  • The city invested in new technology,
  • at a too-good-to-be-true price,
  • unproven at the scale they wanted,
  • from an entrepreneur who was uncertain that he could deliver, and
  • despite being unable to find insurance to cover the city in case the project didn't work. 
  • To top it off, the one council member who voted against the project was not re-elected.
Next time you hear the words "investment" uttered by someone trying to justify increased government spending, think of Harrisburg.

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