This article is not quite as partisan as the title sounds. It makes the point [[among others) that both state and federal officials, who normally monitor municipal corruption, turned a blind eye to what were clearly both corrupt and bad business practices in Detroit. It does have the one fundamental flaw, about which I emailed the author. He refers to Detroit's political machine. I don't think Detroit has had a political machine in the typical sense in ages. Machines might be corrupt, but they did tend to be centrally organized and still provide some governance. In our case, I think, the corruption was widespread but not top down. Everyone took what they could, all but abandoning any pretense of public service. Government needs government workers, but it does not exist for government workers. Or shouldn't, anyway.

When Detroit finally emerges from the mess [[and, for the record, I am confident it will), there should be some sort of Truth and Reconcilliation Commission-style group to study how things went wrong, and what procedures and policies will keep things honest and efficient in the future. The idea wouldn't be to persecute and prosecute [[let the prosecutors do that, where applicable), but determine how to prevent the cronyism, nepotism, misappropriation, etc. in the future.

http://blogs.the-american-interest.com/wrm/2012/05/05/rogue-democrats-loot-detroit-as-nation-sleeps/