let's bring in the man who penned that op-ed, richard ravitch, the author of "so much to do." richa richard, great to have you with us. we understand there are massive pension obligations that many cities face. are we overstating, you know, the headline that there are more detroits? the sky is falling, right? because not a lot of cities are facing the same sort of population exodus that detroit is facing and having difficulty issuing debt in the muni bond market. >> well, i think first of all, retirement obligations, health care costs are rising faster than the rate of inflation. and putting enormous pressure on state budgets which, in turn, put enormous pressure on city budgets. when you add to that that there are sincere efforts to reduce the federal deficit which results in reductions in federal aid to states and cities, you have increasing pressure on those governments, those local and state governments, to balance their budgets. and politicians like to be able to avoid taxing and like to avoid, if they can, making service cuts. and if they can borrow and kick the can down