Yes that Chartres, the one with the famous cathedral in France. It's the custom of European municipalities to finance public works projects with bank loans, rather then by selling bonds, as is customary in the US. Chartres (and a lot of other municipalities) are having trouble finding a bank that will make them a loan. Chartres sent people as far away as China looking for loans. The point of the Wall St Journal piece is that the Euro financial hangup is slowing the European economy. Perhaps.
Of course you have to wonder about some of these projects. Chartres managed to build a really nice water park and a 10 screen movie theater a few years ago with a 500 million Euro loan. Is it appropriate for government to build recreational facilities? As opposed to letting private enterprise handle it? Up here in darkest New Hampshire we have some really nice water parks and movie theaters and they are private operations, privately owned, privately operated, and privately financed.
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