4 Billion: Jefferson County Is The Largest Municipal Bankruptcy In History

We spotted this today:

"Indeed, last year, Meredith Whitney, the bank analyst who famously and correctly alerted the world to the problems growing at the nation's largest banks before the financial crisis, loudly predicted that we could soon see a destabilizing wave of muni-bond defaults.

So it's easy to see Jefferson County's bankruptcy, which was filed late on Wednesday and at over $4 billion is the largest municipal bankruptcy in U.S. history (Orange County, Calif., for reference, was a $2 billion bankruptcy), as a sign that the crisis Whitney predicted is now going to play out. Want more evidence? Jefferson is only the latest in a string of recent muni-bond defaults that have been filed in the past few months, including Harrisburg, Pa., Central Falls, R.I., and Boise County, Idaho."

Read more: http://curiouscapitalist.blogs.time.com/2011/11/10/a-crappy-wall-street-deal-produces-nations-largest-ever-municipal-bankruptcy-finally/#ixzz1dKcMUNZo