The Terrific Illinois Bond Deal that “Only” Cost You $12 Million Extra
ICPR data was used for this story
via REBOOT Illinois
“For many years, whenever I typed the words “Illinois credit downgrade” in an editorial or column, I could practically feel my readers’ eyes glaze over. As important as a government’s credit rating is, stories describing the state’s descent from Aa3 to Baa2 and the nuances of the bond market hardly could compete with political headlines that saw, among many other fascinating things, a governor being hauled out of bed by the FBI and booked for trying to sell the president-elect’s U.S. Senate seat.
Credit rating downgrades are abstract, their effects spread over many years and they’re hard to comprehend. There was nothing abstract about Rod Blagojevich looking stunned in his running suit in a mug shot. Or in a more modern example, about Bruce Rauner calling Democrats corrupt and Democrats claiming Rauner is trying to destroy the middle class.
Lately though, with news of Illinois’ crumbling credit arriving bundled with well publicized bad news about our budget-free state’s overall financial collapse, I’ve sensed that more and more people are starting to understand why this not only is important news that theyshould know, but also the kind of aggravating bad news that they need to know.”
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