Shikha Dalmia on Detroit's Slow Fiscal Death March

Sometimes you have to go to hell before you can return. That, at any rate, seems to be the game plan of Detroit's current leaders. After a lot of high drama and condemnation in response to a consent agreement proposed by Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder to clean up the city's books, those leaders finally agreed last week to a version that is so watered down that it has no chance of succeeding. What all of this shows, writes Shikha Dalmia, is that there is no political solution to Detroit's fiscal mess. Nothing short of legal bankruptcy will work.