Detroit-like Collapse Closing in on Chicago due to Math and a Shortage of Pink Ponies, But Mostly Math

"Math always trumps politics."

I can't remember who said it, but we see evidence of the ironclad truth of that statement as we review the history of humankind on Earth. Unsustainable borrowing is, of course, a doomed proposition. And whether we examine current examples like Detroit, the last century's models, or even hundreds of years of experience (PDF), we find no example -- not one -- that monstrous levels of sovereign debt can lead to anything but economic collapse.

But enough about Paul Krugman. Let's review The New York Times' latest stunned prose regarding a Democrat-controlled government's imminent collapse ("unexpectedly", of course).

Chicago Sees Pension Crisis Drawing Near

...a crushing problem lurks beneath the signs of economic recovery in Chicago: one of the most poorly funded pension systems among the nation’s major cities. Its plight threatens to upend the finances of President Obama’s hometown, now run by his former chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel...

...The pension fund for retired Chicago teachers stands at risk of collapse. The city’s four funds for other retired city workers are short by $19.5 billion. At least one of the funds is in peril of running out of money in less than a decade. And starting in 2015, the city will be required by the state to make far larger contributions to the funds, which could leave it hundreds of millions of dollars in the red — as much as it would cost to pay 4,300 police officers to patrol the streets for a year...

...And last month, Moody’s Investors Service downgraded Chicago’s rating by an unexpected three notches as part of a broad reassessment of how pensions are affecting the financial strength of cities. That “super downgrade,” in the parlance of the bond market, left Chicago, the nation’s third-largest city, with a lower rating than 90 percent of Moody’s public finance ratings...

...Illinois, which has the most underfunded state pension system in the nation, controls Chicago’s benefit and funding levels [and in] Springfield, which, like Chicago, is controlled by Democrats, leaders have clashed over how best to cut costs of the plans — a notion that pits the lawmakers against labor unions, which have traditionally been allies...

...The city’s general budget fund faces a potential shortfall of $339 million in 2014, but city officials say that gap is lower than initially expected and manageable ... Circumstances grow far more complicated a year later, when state law will require Chicago to pay significantly more — $1 billion a year — into the city’s pension funds, to make up for years of underpayments. Even sooner, the Chicago Public Schools, which draws from the same tax base, is required to find an extra $338 million for its pension fund, and more every year after that.

In other words, fasten your seat belt, we're in for a bumpy ride.

Ironically, the twisted troll known as Paul "Enron" Krugman has a featured article linked nearby headed "Republicans Against Reality". In it, he blames GOP budget hawks for their unwillingness to compromise with the greatest creators of government debt in world history -- the Democrats and, specifically, the 110th Congress. Remember, because of Democrats' failure to pass a budget since Obama took office, the original $840 billion one-time, emergency "Stimulus" has been built into the baseline budget every year since.

And as we watch Krugman's collectivist Utopias of Greece, Spain, Portugal, and Italy fall; as we watch the poisonous alliance of Democrats and public sector unions literally destroy cities like Detroit and Chicago; and as we wait for entire blue states like California and Illinois to follow; meanwhile, the real enemies of reality like Paul Krugman will be blaming Bush, Reagan, or James Monroe for the inevitable, miserable results of their deranged philosophy.


Hat tip: BadBlue News.