Comments on: Should RI default on the 38 Studios bonds? A debate at noon

By: Ed

Ed — Wed, 27 Jun 2012 23:24:09 +0000

Steve you and your comrades have been overpaid and you and your union brethern were stupid enough to believe what the union leadership and elected officals stated. The compounding COLA’s can never be honored because they will take all the tax money for pensisions.

By: Mario

Mario — Wed, 27 Jun 2012 20:44:52 +0000

I’ve been saying from the beginning that RI should default on the bonds (although I would suggest that 20-30% is a decent compromise). It’s true that the likely effect would be a credit hit and higher interest rates going forward, but that would, I assume, be more focused on new unauthorized bond issues than for authorized ones (I prefer that terminology to “moral/general” as it gets to the heart of the issue), the use of which we should be curtailing anyway*. In fact, if the state were to pay back the so-called moral bonds at a discount, it would improve the state’s fiscal outlook considerably, leading to a lower likelihood of general default, and the state would be better able to provide basic services and infrastructure improvements, leading to better overall economic prospects going forward. So, counter to what the critics say, this could do a lot to improve our long-term credit worthiness.

*Voters in this state approve nearly every bond proposal put forward, regardless of the merits, so I can’t see why the state thinks it is so important to bypass the constitutional approval process to go into more debt.

By: Steve D

Steve D — Wed, 27 Jun 2012 15:24:01 +0000

Oreo, as I contemplate living without a raise for 10 years (retired Prov fire captain) I do find this debate very interesting. So the bankers will get bailed out again. While the middle class pay? I don’t know what happened to this country. P.S. Ted the word out on the street is there are a group of retiree’s planing on suing the city. You may want to look into that story.

By: oreo

oreo — Wed, 27 Jun 2012 14:22:56 +0000

The unions are going to LOVE this. Moral obligations?? In RI??

By: Ed

Ed — Wed, 27 Jun 2012 13:44:56 +0000

Rhode Island is stuck to pay the bondholders the full amount. Who needs to make restitution to the state is every elected offical who voted to approve this bill and the members of the EDC who voted yes on to give 38 Studios funds. After they make restitution they should be proscuted and never allowed to handle government funds.