

It now costs Illinois more to borrow money than Mexico - cwan
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-10-05/illinois-pays-more-than-mexico-as-cash-strapped-states-sell-bonds-overseas.html

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sethg
According to the CIA World Factbook, Mexico has 5.5% unemployment, public debt
37.7% of GDP, 3.6% inflation, _and_ it’s a net oil exporter. So Mexican
sovereign debt looks like a reasonable investment, as these things go.

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kjhmkghn
If chicago defaults it's rather harder to seize it's assets. The USS Nimitz is
something of a deterrent to even the most ruthless repo men.

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enko
Cute, but no-one is going to try to seize any "assets", whatever you are
imagining they might be. What will happen is instead this: that the Fed would
bail them out to avoid a chain reaction, or that the state will have to go to
the IMF, cap in hand, and accept an austerity program in return for further
assistance, just like any other state that can't pay its debts.

The _Nimitz_ , I'm afraid, is not going to be doing much of anything except
its normal trick of sitting there and costing USD$440k per day.

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anamax
> that the state will have to go to the IMF, cap in hand, and accept an
> austerity program in return for further assistance, just like any other
> state that can't pay its debts.

Will the IMF loan to a US state?

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kjhmkghn
If they had nuclear weapons they might !

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huherto
It is not mentioned in the article. But yesterday Mexico sold 1 billion USD at
100 years. The longest debt issued by Mexico ever.

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pavel_lishin
Reading this article has reminded me that I know absolutely _nothing_ about
economics and finances.

Can someone recommend some reading material that'll make the article more
legible than ancient Greek graffiti? Preferably a short crash-course, rather
than seven books I'd have to get on inter-library loan?

