The Financial Crisis Spreads to Massachusetts
The illusion of financial solvency was nice while it lasted, but it looks like the ride is over. As the partisan bickering continues in Washington, the credit markets are tightening up like Cape traffic on Labor Day weekend.
It’s not just affecting your ability to get a mortgage—even State Treasurer Tim Cahill can’t get a loan to cover the full amount of a quarterly local aid payment, forcing him to tap the state’s rainy day fund.
Surely the treasurer knows how to handle this setback.
“I don’t think any treasurer alive could say they’ve ever seen anything like this. . . There have always been cash shortages, but you could always go to the market and get more. This is the first time we haven’t been able to do that.”
Aw, crap.
Listen up, lawmakers. We don’t care if Nancy Pelosi stands up and starts directing yo-mama jokes at President Bush and hurts your feelings—you’ve got to do something. As the presidential candidates like to say, this crisis is spreading from Wall Street to Main Street. And Main Streets across Massachusetts are already riddled with potholes, so the last thing we need is a credit market that’s so tight our cities and towns can’t afford to fix them.
