Detroit's Cutting-Edge Bankruptcy Plan

Arguably, one of the biggest obstacles to the Motor City’s efforts to resolve more than $18 billion of long-term debt was persuading major banks to let the city out of the preposterously unfavorable loan terms that were negotiated by former mayor Kwame M. Kilpatrick who was sentenced last October to 28 years in federal prison after being convicted of two dozen counts of corruption, racketeering and extortion.