Summary
19 July 2013
Detroit has become the largest US city ever to file for bankruptcy, with debts of at least $15bn. Once the heart of the US car industry, Detroit's population has fallen from two million in the 1950s to 713,000 today.
Reporter:
Jonny Dymond
The city was once famous for its automobile industry.
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Report
The birthplace of mass production, 'Motor City', has thrown in the towel.
Decades of decline led up to this moment. Spiralling crime and the departure of the car factories that gave Detroit its nickname saw the destruction of its tax base. Years of incompetent and corrupt management left the city insolvent.
The emergency manager appointed by the state governor spent months going through the city's books. His conclusion: the city's debts are too great to be sustained.
Now the courts will have to work out who gets paid what, and the city's fall is complete.
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Vocabulary
- mass production
producing a large quantities of goods using machines in a factory
- thrown in the towel
given up, admitted defeat
- spiralling
increasing faster and faster in a downward direction
- tax base
total of income, assets and property which can be taxed by a government
- incompetent
not having the ability to do something in the right way
- insolvent
not having enough money to pay debts
- going through
examining carefully
- books
financial records
