Bethlehem, Pa- Local governments invest in schemes they didn’t even understand

http://www.mcall.com/news/local/swaps/all-news-swaps-060609-pt1,0,1306292.story?page=4

Blurbs from the article:

“No school district in Pennsylvania engaged in more swap transactions than Bethlehem, which did 17, state records show….”

“(The swap transactions have) cost taxpayers tens of millions of dollars in payments and fees to investment banks, financial advisers and lawyers.”

“Although the school board sat through hour after hour of meetings, its members acknowledged in interviews that they failed to understand some of the most basic elements of the borrowing plan. Even though the district had been issuing variable-rate bonds with swaps since 2003, it wasn’t until last year that board members realized that the “synthetic fixed rates” — the term for the final interest rate created by the swaps — were not fixed at all.”

“I probably would have been a lot more uncomfortable with it had I known that,” said Koch, a former substitute teacher.

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This story echoes many across the nation as it begins to become increasingly clear that the reason we are in the mess we are in is because our political leaders were inept at best, exceedingly corrupt most likely.  They followed any scheme that enabled them to hide our money easier.

As more and more localities discover what these local seedy political families have been doing across america for decades, the process of cleaning out the dirt will begin to be accelerated, and soon the great sleaze families of america, the political class, will be out of work, permanently, and their lifetime healthcare and pensions stripped from them, and their illegal government contracts awarded to family members.

The day for revolt may begin at the ballot box, we pray.

Info for a meetup about this article:

Concerned Citizens of Bethlehem Area School District  (CC-BASD) meeting June 9,2009 6:45 PM at the “Border-Line Restaurant (The old Perkin’s) across from Shantz’s Garden Center in the Lehigh Mall just off Union Blvd.

Parker Davis

An American Freedomist

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This entry was posted on 7. June 2009 at 20:16 and is filed under Freedom News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response or trackback from your own site.

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