Banks' $7 Billion Tax-Exempt Bond Scam Yields Nothing for Needy

'During the past decade, local governments across the U.S. have issued more than 70 of these phantom bonds -- at least $7 billion of them. That's enough money to pay the salaries of 150,000 teachers in the U.S. for one year, based on an average pay of $46,597. Proceeds from the tax-exempt bond sales are supposed to be used to improve homes for the poor or upgrade health care for the elderly or supply computers to inner-city schools.

Taxpayers never get most of those benefits; the winners are the banks, insurance companies and financial advisers that get paid millions of dollars for crafting these transactions and then profit by using bond proceeds for their own investment gains.'

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