8Shades of Public Finance Vol. 1 lifts the curtain on aspects of American civil and financial underpinnings that most people know little about. Local water treatment systems, state university campuses, roads, parks and many other features of our cities and states have been built with local control and local decision-making because imaginative figures like Richard Sigal found ways to turn community assets into cash through bonds. Sigal explains in clear language how bonds are structured, who gets rich, who gets stuck and how politics impacts bond financing. Sigal highlights the frightening prospect of centralized, federal control of local communities infrastructure and growth because municipal bankruptcy has become an acceptable strategy in difficult financial times, despite workable options that preserve local creditworthiness.