Motor City Kitty

The problem with Detroit is pretty simple -- the city doesn't have any money. And a lot of people want what little money there is. Walter Russell Mead explains it well:

Detroit’s situation seems almost unprecedented, and it’s not clear how the city can best respond to it. The unions’ biggest problem is that Detroit simply cannot pay their pension claims without destroying city services. Detroit doesn’t have the money to provide even minimal services to its current population while paying off the large numbers of retired workers, many of whom hail from times when the city was larger and richer.

And as long as Detroit can't pay for minimal services, especially police and fire protection, very few people will want to live or do business there. Back to Mead:

Because there is no money, there is no solution that gives the unions the relief they seek.  Total obedience to the state constitutional mandate might not be possible, and that’s a problem. The government can pass a law saying that everyone has a constitutional right to a free trip to the moon, but if it doesn’t build the spacecraft that can get you there the right is void.

The mandate that Mead discusses is a provision in the Michigan state constitution that prohibits cutting promised pensions to municipal workers. However, no right is void if there's a way to make someone else pay for it, which is why it's a certainty that Detroit will be coming to Washington for relief. If such relief is given, Washington won't be in a position to turn away Chicago, or the State of California, or any other entity that asks for similar relief. And while these other entities may not be ready to ask yet, they will be coming; Detroit's situation might be more dire than it is elsewhere, but the dynamics are the same. And since the federal government is only $17 trillion in debt, you have to wonder where it's going to come up with the money. I think we know the answer, by the way -- it won't. Or perhaps we'll have dollars like Weimar Republic deutschmarks. Or both.