This Essay, written for a colloquium considering the effects of the recent financial crisis on local governments, asks whether bondholders or citizens are better monitors of municipal fiscal behavior and who should be charged with the risk of municipal default when cities experience financial distress. Should citizens feel the fiscal pain through tax hikes and service cuts or should bondholders suffer losses? This Essay argues that bondholders should be charged with the risk of municipal default, not because they are better monitors of local fiscal behavior, but because they are better bearers of financial risk. The Essay further considers whether this allocation of risk can help prevent municipal fiscal stress before it occurs and what the recent history of municipal defaults tells us about the politics of local fiscal crises. The Essay concludes by offering reasons for why municipalities have such low default rates as compared to their private-side counterparts.
Gradualism should have won out in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health, exerting gravitational influence on the majority and dissenters alike. In general...
Research correlating stringency in land-use regulation to low housing supply, high housing costs, and segregation relies on surveys of planners about...
On December 15, 2023, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit issued its decision in Illumina, Inc. v. FTC. Although the court vacated and...
On January 17, the Supreme Court heard arguments in what are potentially the most significant commercial law cases of the last decade. In the...
Cities have been largely absent from the theory and legal doctrine of federalism, especially in the United States, where federalism is understood to...
Income inequality is a national preoccupation, and the public’s imagination is captured by the astronomical incomes of Valley tech billionaires and...
There is a live debate going on over whether antitrust should take a broader view of the economics of market concentration. When antitrust reformers...
This casebook aspires to help students understand and think systematically about the techniques of statutory interpretation. It blends exposition with...
In an era defined by partisan rifts and government gridlock, many celebrate the rare issues that prompt bipartisan consensus. But extreme consensus...
On Aug. 14, a Montana district court released a groundbreaking decision for climate change activists. In Held v. Montana, the court announced that...
The 1968 Fair Housing Act required local government recipients of federal money to take meaningful actions to affirmatively further fair housing (AFFH...
The question whether the term “set aside” in the Administrative Procedure Act (APA) authorizes a federal court to vacate a rule universally—as opposed...
Those Who Need the Most, Get the Least: The Challenge of, and Opportunity for Helping Rural Virginia
Rural America, as has been well documented, faces many challenges. Businesses and people are migrating to more urban and suburban regions. The...
The issue of state separation of powers generally is not one that the federal courts have had much occasion to address. Recent issues have arisen...
A key question in the academic and policy debates over the optimal architecture for sovereign debt has long been whether sovereigns should be given...
Observers of metropolitan dysfunction have long advocated for a regional tier of government that could (among other things) equalize spending across...