In America's richest state, the capital flirts with bankruptcy

New York

THE hedge-fund enclave of Greenwich, on the Connecticut Gold Coast, is about 100 miles and a world away from the state capital.

But the fiscal crisis in Hartford, the historic centre of the American insurance industry, is fast becoming more representative than mansions or yachts of the wealthiest state in the US. The city is edging closer than ever to the breaking point, waiting for the financially troubled state government to step in.

It may seem crazy that a place as rich as the Nutmeg State, which counts among its reside…