上级政府被迫出手挽救资不抵债的地方政府，甚至可能因此受到牵连而遭遇债券降级。 西班牙、意大利和中国的任务落到了国家政府的头上，而美国则需要州政府担负挽救市镇的职责。
Higher levels of government are “on the hook” to bail out local insolvent governments, and may even suffer bond downgrades as a result; in Spain, Italy, and China, that role falls to the national government, and for US cities and towns, to their states.