But he expresses sympathy for the pain bore by the banks as a result of Detroit's bankruptcy. He also suggests that the city should have been liquidated:

And as the Chapter 9 filing played out, it was held mostly harmless from its own mismanagement, incompetence and corruption.

That may not have been the best outcome.

Instead of Detroit facing its mistakes, those who loaned it money over the years, for reasons good and questionable, paid the price for 60 years of denial and neglect.

Roughly $7 billion in debt was erased. Very few of Detroit's creditors walked away whole; most took haircuts ranging from 14 cents to 86 cents on the dollar.

Nobody weeps for banks and bond houses. Indeed, the protest signs bore the message, "Make the Banks Pay!"

Money lenders have never been popular — until someone needs a loan.

In Detroit, creditors, as they typically are, were vilified as greedy corporate exploiters who wanted to rob the city of its jewels and steal food from the pantries of its retirees.

But what did these financial institutions actually do? They loaned money to the city when it asked for it, and then expected to be paid back.

http://www.detroitnews.com/story/opinion/columnists/nolan-finley/2014/11/09/finley-banks-paid-detroit-bankruptcy/18667677/