Tag Archives: Chicago

Someone In Chicago Is Shot Every 2.8 Hours (Despite Major Gun Control), by Tyler Durden

“When guns are outlawed only outlaws have guns” is a bumper sticker, but sometimes bumper stickers are true, as the poor law abiding citizens of Chicago keep finding out. From Tyler Durden at zerohedge.com:

Having pointed out the surge in gun sales that has accompanied many of the largest mass shootings in America (and the government’s instant knee-jerk reaction to tighten gun control, perhaps ignoring the mental problems many Americans face), and earlier noted that ‘mass shootings’ are now running at a pace of more than 1 per day in America, we thought DailyCaller.com’s Mike Piccione’s intriguing report detailing the supposed “gun-free-zone” of Chicago provided some crucial color that few seem willing to listen to…

Someone in Chicago has been shot every 2.84 hours this year for a total of 2,349 shootings during the period of January 1, 2015 to October 6, 2015, according to crime stats published by the Chicago Tribune.

This year, Chicago is expected to eclipse the previous milestone of a shooting every 3.38 hours in 2014 with a total victim count of 2,587.

But – Chicago ranks as one of the most regulated cities in the nation for gun control.

Concealed carry is almost nonexistent. To purchase a gun or ammunition requires a Firearm Owners Identification card in the entire state of Illinois, and additionally, a Chicago Firearm Permit – which is required to possess a firearm in Chicago.

Not only are the people heavily regulated in Chicago, but guns are also heavily regulated. Any long gun with a grip protruding from the stock or a firearm with a telescoping stock is prohibited and classified as an “assault weapon.”

Magazines are limited to a 12-round capacity.

Even a spring-powered pellet gun with a muzzle velocity of 700 feet-per-second is classified as a “firearm,” although it does not use gun powder, the component that puts the “fire” in “firearm.”

A stun-gun — a non-lethal device with no projectile — is considered a deadly weapon and cannot be carried for self-defense.

Chicago, for all intents and purposes, is a “gun-free zone.”

But all the state and city regulations associated with firearms in Chicago have failed to produce a safe city, and these are the policies that President Obama and Secretary Clinton wish to extend to the rest of the country.

While saying that “criminals go out-of-state to places where it is easier to obtain guns” is often used to push gun control, it illustrates that criminals ignore gun laws in every state and that onerous access to Second Amendment rights on law abiding citizens doesn’t stop crime.

Clinton’s campaign platform includes a call for federal legislation mandating background checks on all private firearms transfers and sales. Clinton also wants to repeal the “Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act.” That law protects firearm manufacturers from lawsuits for negligent use of firearms.

President Obama, through is spokesman Josh Earnest, has announced, “The president has frequently pushed his team to consider a range of executive actions that could more effectively keep guns out of the hands of criminals and others who shouldn’t have access to them. That’s something that is ongoing here.”

Per the president’s policy, Chicago has taken every action “that could more effectively keep guns out of the hands of criminals and others who shouldn’t have access to them.”
* * *

Yet the shootings continue to rise…

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-10-07/someone-chicago-shot-every-28-hours-despite-major-gun-control

Rabbit-Hole Math: How Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel Is Trying To Make A Bad Financial Crisis Worse, by Mike Mish Shedlock

From Mike Mish Shedlock at davidstockmanscontracorner.com:

Chicago Eyes Bonds that Delay Repayments

Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel has his eyes on raising money via Capital Appreciation Bonds.

CABs saddle taxpayers with higher costs because they delay interest and principle payments until a final lump-sum payment at the end.

CABs have fallen out of favor because of risk. Some cities and states have outlawed them.

Nonetheless, Chicago Mulls Borrowing That Puerto Rico Rejected as Too Risky.

Mayor Rahm Emanuel proposed issuing $500 million of bonds this week in an ordinance that would permit the use of capital appreciation bonds, where borrowers postpone interest and principal payments into one big sum at the end of the term.

Chicago is struggling to plug its deficit and $20 billion of unfunded pension liabilities. Emanuel’s move would give the third-most-populous city a means of borrowing without having to face the costs right away.

Texas restricted the use of CABs in June and California has limited them since 2013. The Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority dismissed a bondholder plan last week to restructure its debt using capital appreciation bonds, citing the disproportionate risks.

Former California Treasurer William Lockyer called the debt “abusive” because it passes on large payments to future generations.

“They increase the total cost and lower flexibility going into the future,” said Steve Murray, a senior director at Fitch Ratings. “They can limit future borrowing ability.”

Emanuel also proposed selling $125 million of wastewater revenue bonds to fund swap termination payments, Poppe said. A separate ordinance would authorize $2 billion in bonds for O’Hare International Airport, including $1.7 billion of refunding for savings, and about $300 million of new money for capital projects and interest, according to Poppe.

Rabbit-Hole Math

Given Chicago’s junk bond rating, no investor in their right mind would purchase Chicago CABs. Default risk is enormous.

Also note that Emanuel needs to sell bonds to “fund swap termination payments“. Those termination fees came into play because Chicago issued taxpayer-risky bonds that required repayment if the bonds dropped into territory.

Those bond are now junk, so Chicago has to borrow money to get out of swaps it never should have gotten into in the first place.

And $1.7 billion in bonds for “refunding savings“. Say what? Borrowing to refund savings?

Maybe that description makes sense down the rabbit hole, somewhere in Wonderland, but real world math seems questionable to say the least.

To continue reading: Rabbit-Hole Math

How They Celebrate 4th of July in the Gun Free Zone of Chicago, by Administrator, TBP

From Administrator, at theburningplatform.com:

It sure is lucky Rahm Emmanuel’s liberal paradise of Chicago has the toughest gun laws in Illinois. Imagine how many people would have been shot if they weren’t so tough. I didn’t see anything about these Chicago festivities on the national MSM news stations. I guess 9 dead black people only matters if they are killed by a white boy. Black lives matter whenever it is convenient for the race baiters like Obama, Sharpton, and Jackson to make it matter. The liberal MSM eats up the racism angle whenever a white person is involved. Of course, 93% of all black shootings were committed by other blacks. That statistic never makes the news. It doesn’t support the storyline.

Is there a flag we can start banning due to the slaughter of black people by other black people in Chicago?

I just know this horrific slaughter of black people by black people will lead to an open dialogue of how white people are to blame. I think stronger gun laws will surely stop criminals from killing people without guns. Maybe if we give the Chicago teacher’s union another $100 million they can teach black kids not to shoot each other.

9 dead, 47 injured in Fourth of July weekend shootings
Written By Sun-Times Wire

Fourth of July weekend shootings have left nine people dead — including a 7-year-old boy — and at least 47 others injured since Thursday evening.

Seven-year-old Amari Brown was killed in a shooting that also left a 26-year-old woman wounded late Saturday in the Humboldt Park neighborhood.

Amari, who lived in the 500 block of North Drake, was taken to Stroger Hospital where he was pronounced dead at 1:56 a.m., according to the Cook County medical examiner’s office.

Police said Sunday the bullet that fatally wounded 7-year-old Amari Brown on the Fourth of July was meant for his father. Both Amari and the 26-year-old woman were shot at 11:55 p.m. in the 1100 block of North Harding, police said.

The boy’s father, Antonio Brown, is a ranking gang member with 45 previous arrests and was not cooperating with police as of Sunday afternoon as they tried to find his son’s killer, Chicago Police Supt. Garry McCarthy said Sunday.

“It’s crazy. Like who would shoot a 7-year-old? He got shot in the chest. Who would do that? To a baby?” Amari’s grandmother, 52-year-old Vida Hailey asked as she waited for news outside Stroger. “All the kids that are getting killed out here – it’s crazy. When is it going to stop?”
The 26-year-old woman was shot in the chest and taken to Stroger, where her condition stabilized.

In the most recent fatal shooting, a 48-year-old man was killed in a Sunday afternoon shooting in the Calumet Heights neighborhood.

To continue reading: How They Celebrate 4th of July in Chicago

Why Chicago’s Bonds Are Now Junk, by Mike Mish Shedlock

Moody’s recent downgrade of Chicago’s bonds to junk wasn’t as ballsy as S&P’s downgrade of the US government’s credit rating a few years ago, but it showed some moxie, and Chicago certainly deserves it. Moody’s has been punished by Chicago, being omitted from rating the city’s latest bond deal, just as S&P was punished by the feds, to the tune of over $1 billion. From Mike Mish Sedlock, at davidstockmanscontracorner.com:

On May 13, Moody’s shocked the municipal bond market by downgrading Chicago to junk.

At that time S&P rated Chicago five notches higher, the widest spread between bond raters in history.

Kristi Culpepper, AKA “Bond Girl” comments on the event in What Chicago’s Fiscal Emergency says about the Quality of Credit Analysis in the Municipal Bond Market.

In a sense, Moody’s was only validating the bond market’s opinion of the city’s creditworthiness — the bonds had already been trading at junk levels for several months. This should have been a straightforward event for the chattering class to process intellectually. Rating actions tend to lag the market rather than lead it.

Oddly, however, Moody’s downgrade sparked a debate over whether Moody’s was being “fair” to Chicago.

How could Moody’s cut the city to junk when the other rating agencies rate the city so much higher? (That has obviously never happened before in an era of ratings shopping and superdowngrades.) Wouldn’t having a diverse economy and large tax base cancel out the costs associated with machine politics? (It’s not like this is Chicago’s third fiscal crisis in the past century.)

This was probably the first instance in the history of the capital markets that a rating agency was accused of having too radical an attitude toward risk.

There is a conversation to be had about how politics influences the perception of financial commitments and whether bond structures can further evolve to protect bondholders. If the general obligation pledge — absent a statutory lien, which few states have — lacks teeth in court, why isn’t it obsolete? Why is this bond structure still the foundation for credit analysis? Does the general obligation pledge allow governments to over-commit themselves financially in certain political contexts? I would submit to you that this absolutely the case with Chicago.

What financial risks does Chicago pose to investors?

Let’s examine Chicago’s credit profile and you can decide whether or not the city’s bonds are speculative investments.

From Nuveen:

Chicago’s combined annual debt and pension costs are substantially higher than any [of the ten largest US cities] when these obligations are indexed to total governmental revenue. Chicago’s fiscal 2015 debt service and annual pension costs account for 44.8% of fiscal 2013 governmental revenue. San Jose is the next closest city at 27.8%. The nine cities other than Chicago averaged 22.4% of revenue.

Most municipal market analysts assume that the city will address its unfunded pension liabilities and relatively high debt burden by increasing residents’ property taxes by nearly 50%.

Chicago officials have been unwilling to raise property taxes for at least a decade.

If officials lack the political will to raise taxes when their bonds are trading at 300 basis points (3%) over the AAA benchmark, will there ever be a resolution short of insolvency?

http://davidstockmanscontracorner.com/why-chicagos-bonds-are-now-junk/

To continue reading: Why Chicago’s Bonds Are Now Junk