????7月18日下午，美國底特律市遞交破產申請。它不僅是一場大規模的財務危機，也不是單純的一個里程碑式的時刻，標志著美國歷史上最大的城市破產案誕生。它也是一次徹底的失敗。

????底特律破產有著深層次的含義。這里曾經感知著美國的經濟榮衰，是推動美國世紀實現的經濟引擎。這里曾經飛揚著非洲裔美國人的驕傲，也曾是數不清的美國夢誕生的地方。

????底特律緊急財務管理人凱文?奧爾最終邁出這一步，向聯邦法院申請Chapter 9破產保護，這個舉動其實并不意外。這樣的結果至少已經醞釀了兩年，有些人估計時間可能更早。這樣的結果也是我們許多人悲觀地等待了很久的結局。

????通用汽車(General Motors)以前的管理者們可以作證。即便是這家世界最大的汽車制造商也不能拿著糟糕的業績無休止地借錢，也不能在各項財務指標都顯示償債無望時，還指望債權人繼續不斷地提供資金。2008年底信貸市場下跌時，通用汽車陷入了負債過高的問題。債權人拒絕為通用汽車提供債務再融資。

????與此同時，幾十年來底特律也一步步走上了債務泥沼的不歸路：民選官員猶猶豫豫，遮遮掩掩，百般辯解，卻沒有采取嚴厲措施來填補財政缺口。事實上，這個城市的財務負債正是由那些本應解決這些問題的人們造成的：一屆又一屆的政府向城市工人們承諾根本不可持續的薪資、就業和養老金。

????民選官員們為什么要做出這些承諾？因為他們可能從不擔心將來需要為這些承諾負責。他們或許是對的，他們中很多人已經去世或退休。

????在任官員無人能逆轉公共服務的滑坡，比如治安和消防保障、急診服務、交通和照明等等。20世紀80年代以來，已有幾十萬居民失望離開，留下70萬人承擔后果?，F在繼續留守在這個城市的人們將得不到應有的基礎城市服務，應有的治安和消防保障，以及應有的急診服務。

????不能將底特律前市長柯溫?基爾帕特里克和市議會前議長莫妮卡?康耶爾等人視為是底特律破產的主因，雖然他們的確干得不怎么樣。

????現任市長戴夫?賓竭盡全力——這一點值得肯定——削減預算，與市政員工工會理論，但他的努力遇到市議會的阻撓。市議會似乎永遠也不明白，也沒有被他們也有份的、糟糕財務報表所觸動。這里只舉一個例子：百麗島是底特律河上的一顆明珠，曾經有一項方案希望免除底特律繼續支付維護百麗島的費用。結果方案最終被市議會否決，因為他們不知道是出于什么原因，認為把百麗島交出去，變成密歇根州的州級公園是底特律的恥辱。

????The bankruptcy filing on the afternoon of July 18 by the city of Detroit isn't just a massive financial implosion. Nor is it simply a milestone moment, the biggest municipal collapse ever in U.S. history. It is an utter defeat.

????Detroit's bankruptcy is a profound failure for a place where once beat the heart of this country, where the economic engine of the American Century roared to life, where a banner of African-American empowerment flew, where the middle class came to know itself, and where timeless aspects of the American Dream were born.

????No one should be shocked that Kevyn Orr, Detroit's emergency financial manager, finally took the step of petitioning the federal court for Chapter 9 protection from creditors. This outcome has been at least two years in the making and, by some reckoning, much longer than that. This is the bottom many of us have been gloomily waiting for.

????As former General Motors (GM) executives can testify, even the world's biggest automaker can't borrow endlessly against faltering performance and expect creditors to keep furnishing money -- when every financial indicator shows that repayment is impossible. GM got caught with too much debt in late 2008 when credit markets went south. Lenders balked at refinancing GM's debt.

????Detroit, meanwhile, stumbled over a period of decades into irreversible insolvency because its elected officials dithered and dissembled and argued, instead of undertaking tough measures to close fiscal gaps. In truth, the city's financial liabilities were created by the very people who should have been resolving them: One administration after another promised wages, job guarantees, and pensions to city workers that were simply unsustainable.

????Why did elected officials make those promises? Probably because they never feared being held accountable. Many of them, dead or retired, will have been correct.

????And no one in office was able to reverse the decline of public services such as police and fire protection, emergency medical, transportation, and lighting. Since the 1980s, a few hundred thousand residents threw in the towel and moved away, leaving the 700,000 remaining to bear the brunt. Now those who remained will not get the basic city services they deserve, the police and fire protection they deserve, or the emergency medical care they deserve.

????The criminality of ex-Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick and ex-council president Monica Conyers and others, though disgraceful, can't really be blamed as a key factor in the city's failure.

????The current mayor, Dave Bing, labored mightily -- to his credit -- to slash budgets and reason with public employee unions, only to watch his efforts undermined by a city council that seemed never to comprehend or be moved by the horrific financial statements they were party to. Just one example: A deal to relieve the city of the expense of maintaining Belle Isle -- a jewel in the middle of the Detroit River -- was shot down because the council somehow viewed its transformation into a state park as an insult, a stain on the city's pride.