Do We Need a Court of Economic Justice?
I've been reading about a lot of tales of economic woe in the news lately due to the wrenching effects of the subprime mortgage debacle. One of the more bizarre cases is Jefferson County, Alabama , which is currently several billion dollars in debt because, apparently, some of its public officials, with questionable backgrounds and dubious motives, thought they could save on interest payments for the taxpayers by making some risky bond-swapping agreements. In addition, there was some plain old-fashioned graft going on in a county-wide overhaul of the sewer system being awarded to inexperienced companies with ties to the same questionable officials. Though they haven't hit bottom yet, poor Jefferson County appears headed to break the record for municipal bankruptcy. Who's to blame? More importantly, who should pay? The citizens of the county are on the hook to the tune of around $7,000 a person. Who in their right mind can call that fair? Municipal bankruptcy laws were cre