In November of 2008 with the nation's economy unraveling, Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs (one of the top five U.S. municipal bond underwriters) were infuriating politicians and public finance officials by recommending the purchase of credit-default swaps (CDS) thereby betting against debts of eleven states, including New Jersey, California, Wisconsin, Florida, and Ohio among others. Many of these were municipal bonds that they had originally underwritten. Thereby, through an act of...