Defaults on tax-exempt municipal bonds like those issued on Whoops have been relatively infrequent and have usually involved smallish sums. Only 685 defaults have occurred since 1940, out of 301,016 municipal bond issues. In terms of money lost, each of the three largest were around one-twentieth the size of last week's fizzle. The West Virginia Turnpike Commission defaulted on $133 million in bonds in 1958. Chicago's Calumet Skyway collapsed under bond indebtedness of $101 million in 1963, and investors were short-changed in 1978 when the Chesapeake Bay Bridge and Tunnel Commission reneged...
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