Moody’s has downgraded Illinois’s credit rating, reports NBC:
In the midst of the state’s ongoing budget impasse, Moody’s Investors Service downgraded Illinois’ credit rating to two steps above the “junk†level Wednesday.
The credit rating service downgraded Illinois’ general obligation rating from Baa1 to Baa2, affecting roughly $26 billion in debt. The service also downgraded the rating of bonds connected to the state’s general obligation credit.
“The rating downgrade reflects continuing budget imbalance due to political gridlock that for more than a year has kept Illinois from addressing revenue lost due to income tax cuts that took effect in January 2015,†the Moody’s report reads.
According to Moody’s, the outlook for all the ratings is negative.
That makes Illinois’s rating the same as Italy’s. I’d rather have Italy’s climate than its credit rating.
Hmm, you have a point about the weather.
However, I spent 3 winter months living in a tent in Northern Italy during one of the Balkan wars. That part sucked, and it was cold as hell (the tents were heated with some kind of fuel oil that ran out about 3am – some sucker had to hike over, fill the cans, fill the heater and try to get it started while the rest of us shivered), but at least we could go drink wine in Venice on our one day off every two weeks. That’s about all I remember from that deployment – freezing my ass off and recovering in one of the world’s greatest cities. Oh, and the lady friend I met there – that was memorable as well….
Sorry for the tangent.