California: Iiiis Broke! (And CDS on California are more costly than Kazakhstan)

I'd imagine that if Goldman Sachs is found to be involved in the financial destruction of California, we might hear a similar refrain about throwing someone down a well... but Borat wouldn't be the one singing.

"California's debt is seen by investors as riskier than Kazakhstan's, according to Bloomberg News. Five-year credit default swaps tied to California's debt, which are a key measure of the market's belief in the likelihood of default, are actually trading at 100 basis points above those of Kazakhstan. In other words, the market believes a developing country of just 15.7 million people is actually less likely to default on its debt than California, which makes up the eighth-largest economy in the world."


http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/03/01/californias-debt-now-risk_n_481058.html