The city of Detroit formally went into bankruptcy at a press conference today. And the brawl over the tattered remains commenced.

By Friday, many in this city, including some elected leaders, said bankruptcy seemed unfortunate but also inevitable. But those representing tens of thousands of city employees and retirees said they intended to fight the case, particularly for the thousands of retirees who depend on city pensions. "Apparently Governor Snyder and Kevyn Orr want Detroit's public service workers to rely on their children for food and shelter, or have to work until they die," said Lee Saunders, president of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees.

There seems little doubt that, in the minds of Governor Rick Snyder, and his appoined jefe, Kevyn Orr, to say nothing of the minds of the elite media around the country, the coming brawl is going to be framed as those pesky retirees and their pesky pensions against go-getter business and "investment" types who want to come in an "revive" Detroit using techniques guaranteed to keep Naomi Klein in lecture fees for the next five years.

But others, including some Detroit business leaders who have seen a rise in private investment downtown despite the city's larger struggles, said bankruptcy seemed the only choice left - and one that might finally lead to a desperately needed overhaul of city services and to a plan to pay off some reduced version of the overwhelming debts. In short, a new start. "The worst thing we can do is ignore a problem," said Sandy K. Baruah, president of the Detroit Regional Chamber. "We're finally executing a fix."

There are 700,000 people who actually live in Detroit. I would guarantee that almost none of them figure in the upcoming grand design. This morning, on MSNBC, Chris Jansing hosted a panel that included former Governor John Engler who, after being Deeply Sorry things had come to this pass, but then waxed optimistic about an investment-community led comeback for the city. Engler even cited what happened in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina as a possible path for Detroit to follow.

Yeah, right. Of course, he did.

It was left to to suggest that, perhaps, some of the people who actually live in Detroit right now should have a piece of the revival. And then economist Jared Bernstein pointed out that Engler had mentioned how much demolition and rehabilitation work needs to be done in the city, and that the city's official unemployment rate stands at 16 percent, and how, maybe, putting people to work in some sort of public-works program to do the demolition and rehabilitation work might actually be worth some study, what with its being compellingly obvious and all. (Bernstein, of course, was following the dictates of the blog's First Law Of Economics -- Fk The Deficit. People Got No Jobs. People Got No Money.) Then, the panel ended. It was like Bernstein had said something in Finnish. This does not bode well.

Charles P. Pierce Charles P Pierce is the author of four books, most recently Idiot America, and has been a working journalist since 1976.

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