Forefront | Blog
The City of Detroit
The City of Detroit Bankruptcy is gathering international scrutiny. Four reporters from WEDGE magazine, a business publication in Japan, visited our offices last week to discuss how the City of Detroit incurred financial duress. They were interested in the prolonged period of decay and the Chapter 9 process. I didn’t want to use the reference it was like Chinese Water Torture. Small drips over a long time. I wasn’t sure how that reference would be translated. What struck me as funny was they could not understand how people could let elected officials get away with such lack of leadership and responsibility. They could not believe, in America’s system, that people could let this happen and not force necessary decisions. They were spending a week in Detroit then were going to Rochester, New York to hear and see the devastation to the community with Eastman Kodak’s bankruptcy and demise. One of the reporters stated, don’t people understand that you have to encourage and help businesses thrive in order to keep a tax base to allow Government to operate. Now there is a novel idea, “promote business”. Leave it to the Japanese for such a unique approach. Go figure.
