[anamax]

As as been pointed out repeatedly, the bribes were a small fraction of the total debt. The city got over $2B and that money is gone. The bankers didn't get it.

It appears that the city pissed this money away. Why aren't they responsible for that?

[Jugglernaut]

Of course they're responsible and that's why five of them were sent to prison.

What the bankers did was bribing officals into taking bad advice at hiked rates leading to a 30-40 year loan having to be paid off in a tenth of that time. THIS is what's leading to the impending bankrupcy.

I cannot fathom why the investment bankers involved haven't been sent to prison for a very long time. They were the ones who started this whole ordeal. No bribes = no horrible decisions = no bankrupcy = no porta pottys. While I agree that bankers in general are being blamed for most everything that's been going wrong in the world in the last few years this time it really was their fault. Not only theirs but they should be more than fined.

[yummyfajitas]

What the bankers did was bribing officals into taking bad advice at hiked rates leading to...

"...[paying] $120 million in fees -- six times the prevailing rate...increas[ing] the county's debt by $277 million."

Fixed that for you.

http://www.inthepublicinterest.org/case/jp-morgan-investment...

The fact that the county also took on contracts with contingent balloon payments is not caused by bribery. It's caused by the county officials either not reading or not caring what was in the contracts they signed.

This time, about $277 million of the $3.1 billion problem is indeed the fault of the bankers. The only thing being debated here is the other $2.8 billion.

I cannot fathom why the investment bankers involved haven't been sent to prison for a very long time.

The contractors they hired (who were actually the ones that committed bribery) are in jail.

http://blog.al.com/spotnews/2010/09/five_men_convicted_in_je...

[UrbanPat]

Did you read the Bloomberg article at all? The county (not the city) didn't piss the money away - they built sewer infrastructure with it. The reason they can't pay it back is because a lack of municipal bond buyers during the recession invoked a provision requiring the county to pay back $850 million in 4 years rather than 30-40.

So the bankers ARE partially responsible. They were paid for advice, and their advice was terrible. Now we're bankrupt, and they deserve to take a big loss.