What big city will be next? I think Detroit is a microcosm of the country as a whole. Their white flight is like large companies going abroad (those that are big enough to afford to, that is). Their budget problems are like the national debt, just going up up up. They are going to have to pay more for the money they borrow after this is over, just like the value of the dollar will decrease due to inflation when the country finally succumbs. In my opinion there is no stopping it now, it’s just a matter of when and how. I mean the fact that their population went down means nothing, with less population service costs go down. Now if you look at average incomes that would probably be more informative, although if they are at the expense of the budget(unions) then may also be meaningless. US personal and household incomes have gone down in the last 10 years, not a good sign!