As I have mentioned before, the housing bubble and bust is successfully stripping municipalities of their financial sovereignty.
The Creeping Financial Coup d’Etat
To make matters worse, with municipal bond insurers in trouble, the issuance of municipal bonds is getting more expensive.
Enter 
Warren Buffet to take a position to strengthen the insurance support:
Buffett Offers to Back Municipal Bonds
Does this mean that as municipalities go into technical default or default, Buffet will be in a cross-cutting position to dictate terms to municipalities? So, for example, they have to shut down schools, pass laws requiring terminator seed or sell off their land, water, utilities and other assets.
Seems to me that Buffet is positioning himself to be in the catbird seat to play an invisible IMF to the US municipalities “Argentina.” Buffet and his network can make a fortune enforcing municipal policies and scavenging municipal assets.
This raises an important question. Why invest in Berkshire Hathaway stock, when you can instead buy up and control your local natural resources and strategic assets?
I have to disagree with John and agree with Ms. Fitts.
What “bailouts” are is Orwellian doublespeak for centralization, consolidation, and tyranny.
What Buffet is attempting to accomplish is not brilliant Capitalism, but brilliant Statism/Facism by assuming the role of an IMF-like bank with a controlling interest in local governments, in effect creating municipal debt slaves whose authority is usurped by a board of directors from BH.
Good point. The markets largely took this as a “Buffet Bailout”, but what it really is, is yet another brilliant financial decision by Warren Buffet. He is putting himself in position to get ahold of whatever gems are here, cheaply.
From a capitalism stand point, its brilliant. From the stand point of the average person, you point rings well.