My Weird Prompts
Daniel Rosehill
Podcast
Episodes
Listen, download, subscribe
How Cities Borrow Money: US Bonds vs Denmark vs Israel
Most people's eyes glaze over at "municipal finance," but the question of how a city gets credit turns out to be one of the sharpest windows into how a country is governed. The US runs 50,000 independent issuers and a $4.4 trillion retail bond market with a near-zero default rate. Denmark runs a single municipally-owned lender, KommuneKredit, whose liabilities are jointly and severally guaranteed by every Danish municipality — giving all of them sovereign-grade rates in exchange for strict permission rules. Israel runs a third model entirely: 257 authorities, budgets approved by the Ministry of Interior, borrowing authorized by two ministries, and effectively no municipal bond market at all. We pull the thread on the golden rule, the hidden state guarantee behind American munis, and what actually happens when a city can't pay — given that cities, unlike nations, can't print money. Key sources: • Federal Reserve Z.1 L.212 Municipal Securities — https://www.federalreserve.gov/releases/z1/20260109/html/l212.htm • S&P Global Ratings, Institutional Framework Assessment: Israeli Municipalities — https://www.spglobal.com/ratings/en/research/articles/250203-institutional-framework-assessment-israeli-municipalities-13398705 • SNG-WOFI, Country profile: Israel — https://www.sng-wofi.org/country_profiles/israel.html Episode 5892 — myweirdprompts.com/n/5892 (permanent short link: myweirdprompts.com/785006)
My Weird Prompts RSS Feed
