Nov 11, 2011

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-11-10/alabama-s-jefferson-county-declares-biggest-municipal-bankruptcy.html

Jefferson County, Alabama, declared the largest municipal bankruptcy in U.S. history, capping a more than three-year saga that turned it into one of the biggest casualties of Wall Street's credit crisis.

The Chapter 9 filing leaves creditors including JPMorgan, the biggest U.S. bank by assets, facing hundreds of millions of dollars in lossesand may revive concern that defaults will rise in the $2.9 trillion municipal bond market. The move also leaves residents of the county that’s home to Birmingham, the largest city in the state of 4.8 million people, facing unsustainable sewage fees to repay the debt that led to the debacle.