Oh, People Hate Losing Money!

And Wall Street hates losing money more than anyone else. But regarding the City of Stockton, I'm sure the law is quite clear who has priority over speculators, and who doesn't - that's what the law is good for, after all! In "Urinetown" parlance, this time around, Wall Street will be the "Bunny":

Wall Street creditors rested their case this morning, and closing arguments are slated for this afternoon, a day earlier than expected. But United States Bankruptcy Judge Christopher Klein said he would be unable to issue a ruling today because of the arduous task of reviewing thousands of pages in bankruptcy court affidavits and supporting documents from Stockton city officials and creditors.

"Much of the evidence over the last two and a half days has been in written form," said Klein, who joked that he may end up spending Easter weekend "bench pressing 300 pounds" of documents in considering legal challenges to the Chapter 9 municipal bankruptcy of the city of more than 290,000 residents.

Creditors who insured Stockton's pensions and issued bonds for downtown redevelopment, including a sports arena, have charged in court this week that the city wrongfully declared bankruptcy after bad-faith negotiations over its debts.

They want to force the city to negotiate with the California State Public Employees Retirement System over renegotiating Stockton's massive employee pension obligations - something the city and CalPERS says it can't do - to pay other obligations. And they have argued that Stockton could have raised local taxes to pay creditors and made deeper fiscal cuts to avoid bankruptcy.

The tax issue flared in court this morning, a day after Stockton Mayor Anthony Silva announced Tuesday that he would pursue voter approval for a local sales tax increase to add 100 police officers - but not pay city creditors.