Full interview and summary linked here.
Note to readers from Mark Glennon re: Ukraine
May 6, 2026
4 Comments
Everybody needs a side hustle these days, and mine is Ukraine, where I am now.
-- Connecting the dots between our economy, government and business --
Audio and summary 
If this bill passes, say goodbye to local control over all Illinois parks and expect to see open drug and alcohol use, needles, no sanitation and fire hazards, but no ordinary park users.
I hope the entire pension system collapses, rip the bandaid off .
In the chaos of collapse, can be found some hilarious consequences. The etched in stone pension promises may be found to be not so deeply written. Public schools may have to choose between keeping the doors open and the teachers’ unions. Demfilth will have to choose between feeding their own families or feeding illegals. Pinhead may have to choose between police and fire and welfare. Streets and San? Yea right. Businesses will be made to pay until they bleed. Residents will be made to pay until they bleed. Home values? Your guess is as good as mine, but as people… Read more »
If it’s past the point of no return, and it is, do any of you realize what the coming progression is? My guess is somewhere between financial ruin for many in Illinois and the purge. Should be fun to watch from afar.
Large spending cuts as well as large tax increases. There is the only scenario for Chicago.
Chaos and panic cause people and especially politicians to do stupid things. Look at the reaction to COVID. Should be fun to watch.
No doubt. It will be quite the theatrical production. That being said, once the dust settles, large spending cuts and more taxes will be served up. Everything else will just be for show.
Don’t forget financial ruin for many “voters.”
Choices have consequences.
So does a lack of choices.
You’ve been given choices the entire time. Chicago could have chosen Vallas or anyone else that promised fiscal austerity. Instead they chose BJ who wants to make the “rich” pay and doesn’t want to cut spending. The people of Illinois could have chosen Ted but instead decided they wanted someone that can’t win. These are the choices that Illinois voters keep making. As I’ve stated, those choices have consequences.
Correct me if I am wrong but didn’t Vallas declare an assortment of pension holidays directing funding destined for teachers pensions into operating expenses for the school district? One might even opine that Vallas is no better than the others or possibly worse
https://southsideweekly.com/op-ed-paul-vallas-failed-to-pay-public-pensions/
I believe you are correct. With that said, he still would have been the better choice if nothing else, to restrain the spending that BJ just loves.
Also, there were other candidates in that race and voters didn’t want them either. Just like Ted losing last week, the voters don’t make wise choices and then later complain about the opposition or that they don’t like the choice in the general. They were given a choice and now they are living with it.
Some people vote themselves freebies, to be paid for by everyone else. Apparently more people make this choice, so that makes it perfectly valid. Everybody has a choice, then the bigger mob gets to do whatever it wants. That’s democracy, the pinnacle of moral goodness.
Yup. Everyone votes for their own best interest. The key is to build a coalition to gain the majority of the votes and win. As I’ve explained to you before, it’s our current form of government. If you’ve got a better alternative then put that forth. Until then, we the people will decide our outcomes through elections and our constitution. I know you don’t like that because you don’t always get your way in that form of government but it’s the best we have. Time to grow up and try to build your own coalition.
We decide outcomes through elections. But we are not deciding policy by the Constitution, which gives limited enumerated powers to government. Those limited powers are consistently violated in favor of mob rule, which I have pointed out to you repeatedly but you choose to ignore.
Even the Nazis respected mob rule, and made sure to pass laws before they embarked on the final solution. Doesn’t make it right.
“To be paid for by everyone else”, there is the key phrase. Everywhere democrats are in power they seek to spread the financial pain across the board. Stooges drive without auto insurance and everyone’s rate increases. Crash a car through a store window to steal merchandise or an ATM machine and everyone’s property insurance rates rise. The social contract has been destroyed.
Scrip will be in the script for pensioners … for shopping at the city-owned grocery store.
Good luck with that Felix.
Hmm……will I be able to pay property tax with Cook County scrip?
So, they only choice for the taxpayer is to leave? All that will be left is poor immigrants and they have no money. Cannot get blood from a stone.
Not at all. They can choose to elect candidates that promise to drastically cut spending and start to be fiscally responsible. If the voters don’t want to cut spending, they can choose to pay more in taxes. If they don’t like either of those choices they can move to another state. It’s all within their own control and they will need to live with their decisions.
The city is effectively bankrupt, if not formally. Unfortunately the rating agencies are enablers by giving passing grades to the same entity they are paid to rate. Conflict of interest in action. Mark, what is the total long term debt for the various types of bonds, and how much of that is securitized and how much is non secured? I remember you used the term ‘assetless bankruptcy’.
Not sure offhand. I wouldn’t want to be the one to try to paint the picture of how it would look in bankruptcy. I am a little rusty on some issues and I don’t have all the facts I would need. Bankruptcy could conceivably make some assets available. For example, it’s plausible to think that the parking meter deal could be voided. Also, the Chicago Treasurer holds cash, but it’s not easy to know the current balance because her office is scandalously nontransparent. What we really need is a good, practicing bankruptcy lawyer who understands city finances to sketch out… Read more »
(According to grok) As of the end of Fiscal Year 2024 (December 31, 2024), the City of Chicago’s total bond debt stood at approximately $27.911 billion. This figure comes from the city’s official Annual Comprehensive Financial Report (ACFR) analysis. Homeowners, grab your ankles. It’s not all due at once, but it’s all due without bankruptcy.
It is not if Chicago will go bankrupt it is “WHEN” it will go bankrupt. Death by public sector union greed.