The sewers of Jefferson County

摘要

The parlous finances of America's state and local governments represent "the largest threat" to the country's economy. Defaults totalling hundreds of billions of dollars are possible, enough to rattle America's $3.7 trillion municipal-bond market. This dire warning was delivered a year ago by an analyst called Meredith Whitney, who also predicted the banking crisis. She was dismissed as alarmist. Indeed, in the first six months of 2011 the number of municipal defaults was down by half compared with the same period in 2010.