Archive for the ‘Budget’ Category
Thursday, April 4th, 2013
Time for another Texas vs. California roundup:
“The real problem With California is math, not politics.”
“The data for the two biggest states, California and Texas, appear to confirm a jobs slowdown in California over the past four months, likely due to a big tax increase passed by the voters in November. Meanwhile, Texas’ job market is accelerating.”
Stockton bankruptcy moves forward. Whether bondholders will be screwed over in preference to outrageous union pensions remains to be seen.
How blatant a money grab is this? “Meanwhile, the city was proposing to slash by 80% the $125 million in principal on pension obligation bonds that it had issued in 2007 to pay an overdue bill to Calpers.” So they intend to renege on a bond to pay CalPERS in order to keep paying CalPERS. That’s some scam they’ve got going on there…
The difference between San Bernadino and Stockton’s bankruptcies.
“The net message is you can’t see a restructuring when the largest creditor isn’t being restructured.”
A site devoted to looking at union pensions in Marin County.
California citizens: So, let’s talk about how AB109 has let violent felons out on the street early. How do you– California Legislature: Gun control gun control gun control!
California legislators of both parties enjoy spring break junkets paid for by special interest groups.
People continue to vote with their feet by moving to Texas.
Tags:bankruptcy, Budget, California, San Bernardino, Stockton, Texas, Welfare State
Posted in Budget, Democrats, Economics, Welfare State | No Comments »
Tuesday, March 26th, 2013
News keeps on churning…
Your live Cyprus bailout tracker. Some tidbits: British ex-pats are pulling their funds from Mediterranean banks. Also, bank managers in Cyprus have been given EU documents specifying how much money they can allow people to withdraw, only the documents have €xx where it says how much they’re allowed to withdraw. (Or maybe they’re just using Roman numerals, and the amount is 20 euros…)
Switzerland: We’re not stopping any money flows from Cyprus
“Given what we know now we can safely say no European Bank, or Government issued debt is safe. It is time to flee any investments in the EU financial institutions, most of which are over loaded with the useless Government paper they were forced to buy to improve their capital ratio’s. If you have deposits in the EU, they are not safe from Government seizure, Greece, Italy, Spain, Portugal and Ireland are the front line risk, but the rest of Europe can not be considered secure. If you are a holder of any form of European Bank security, exit it fast. Many countries in Europe are on thin ice in terms of debt, and the ECB will not help.”
“No matter what the specific outcome from Cyprus over the weekend, Europe has now completely lost its ability to manage its debt crisis.”
What it’s like to live in a cash economy with no cash.
The Euro bailout Hall of Shame. So far…
Tags:Budget, Cyprus, Economics, Euro, European Debt Crisis, Welfare State
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Tuesday, March 26th, 2013
So the Cyprus crises is “solved,” for values of “solved” that means “everyone but bankers and Eurocrats get screwed.”
“The message that stakeholders of all stripes can be coerced into helping a cash-strapped nation may make investors more skittish they’ll be targeted if Slovenia, Italy, Spain or even Greece again is next in line to need help. The risk is that bank runs and bond market selloffs become more likely the moment a country applies for a new rescue.” A funny definition of the word “helping.” Like “helping” a mugger holding a gun to your head.
And just in case you think I’m exagerating: Cyprus is seizing money from people at the border.
“Why would anybody keep more than €100,000 in a Greek or a Spanish or an Italian bank?…In short, the Dijsselbloem plan was a plan to bankrupt southern European banks and make southern European euros worth less than northern European euros. In case you were wondering, this is the farce stage of the euro tragedy.”
UKIP Leader: Get your money out of Spain while you have the chance:
“If we are seeing the limits of German willingness to support eurozone bailouts when the numbers don’t matter, what will happen when the numbers do matter very much?”
Legal Insurrection has a few more lessons.
The European cradle-to-grave welfare state is unsustainable. It’s only a matter of how many trillions will be destroyed before the world is willing to face that fact.
Tags:Budget, Cyprus, Economics, Euro, European Debt Crisis, Welfare State
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Thursday, March 21st, 2013
Cyprus crisis is a miniature version of the Greek crisis, and the Greek crisis is a miniature version of Europe’s crisis. The scale and details differ, but the underlying problem is mind-numbingly familiar: People spending too much of other people’s money with too little accountability. Cyprus bank bailouts are unsustainable in the same way that Greek government bailouts are unsustainable in the same way that the European cradle-to-grave welfare state is unsustainable.
How could it have been avoided? The same way any of the multitudes of financial crises that have rocked Europe in last several years could have been avoided: Don’t spend money you don’t have. That solution is both blindingly obvious and completely unacceptable to the Eurocratic elite (as well as our own liberal ruling class). After all, the bloated welfare state is where they get theirs. Nothing can be allowed to come between the permanent ruling class and their perks. Nothing.
Some current Cyprus news:
Four days left until the next end of the world.
Background on the Cyprus crisis.
Once Greece hit the skids in 2010, it was inevitable that Cyprus would follow. Already by 2011 the government was effectively prevented from selling bonds by a junk credit rating. It resorted to a €2.5 billion ($3.2 billion) loan from the Russian government, due in 2016. The killer, though, was the pact reached in October 2011 to reduce the value of Greek government bonds by 70 percent. That produced a loss to the Cyprus banks of more than €4 billion—the same in proportion to the economy’s size as a $4 trillion loss in the U.S. President Demetris Christofias, seemingly not realizing the severity of the blow, agreed to the haircut without seeking offsetting aid for Cypriot banks. He eventually sought a bailout, but, befitting a left-wing politician who earned a doctorate in history in the Soviet Union, dragged his heels on cutting government spending while inveighing against the “troika” of the European Union, the European Central Bank, and the International Monetary Fund. Losses mounted.
Russia to Cyprus: Die in a fire.
Explaining the Cyprus crisis like you’re an idiot.
It’s Crazy Stan’s Discount State Assets Stand! Everything must go!
Tags:Budget, Cyprus, Economics, Euro, Europe, European Debt Crisis, Welfare State
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Wednesday, March 20th, 2013
Time for another Texas vs. California roundup! Just imagine how the MSM would crucify Rick Perry if the head of, say, the Texas Teacher’s Retirement System were indicted on multiple counts of felony fraud…
Ex-CalPERS CEO and another board member (who just happens to be Ex-Mayor of Los Angeles) indicted for fraud.
A grand jury in San Francisco charged Federico Buenrostro Jr. and Alfred Villalobos, and they were booked and released on bond Monday after briefly appearing in court.
Buenrostro, 64, served as CEO of the California Public Employees’ Retirement System from late 2002 until June 2008. Villalobos, 69, served on the CalPERS board and is a former vice mayor of Los Angeles.
The indictment alleges the two conspired to fabricate documents that certified to federal regulators that Villalobos’ firm had obtained required “investor disclosure letters” from CalPERS to serve as a “transfer agent.” The indictment charges that the falsified documents allowed Villalobos to reap $14 million in fees for serving as a middleman between CalPERS and a prominent investment firm handling $3 billion in CalPERS’ money.
“The Wall Street public pension trough feeding frenzy has, unbeknownst to taxpayers and government workers participating in these funds, cost the nation trillions and is only getting worse.”
A detailed, in-depth look at how financial legerdemain are used to hide the huge pension liabilities in various California counties, and how Moody’s new accounting rules will put an end to it. “Government financial statements for decades have very seriously understated pension expenses and failed to raise the alarm about the massive unfunded pension debt that was the result.”
So how does the city of San Bernadino deal with being bankrupt? By handing out pay raises.
How did Stockton go bankrupt? It might have had something to do with nearly one-quarter of workers on the city’s payroll getting more than $100,000 a year.
“At least some minority politicians are beginning to figure out that a party primarily devoted to preserving the jobs, automatic pay hikes and generous pensions of public employees is a party that’s not necessarily interested in what’s best for minorities.”
California comes up with a great fake justification for using cap-and-trade as a wealth redistribution program. Which, of course, has always been the real purpose of cap-and-trade anyway…
Texas pummels California in job numbers. “California has a civilian labor force of 18,591,111 while Texas has a labor force of 12,680,661. This means that California has a workforce that’s 47 percent larger than Texas’ but Texas created 19 percent more jobs in the past 2 years and 22 percent more jobs in the past year!”
Current proposals in the Texas legislature would outlaw capital appreciation bonds.
A strong majority of Texans surveyed agree that other states should be as awesome as we are. “Sixty percent of respondents agreed that other states should emulate how Texas state government looks and operates. Only 31 percent disagreed.”
We’re awesome, but we still need tax cuts.
Tags:bankruptcy, Blue State, Budget, California, San Bernardino, Stockton, Texas, unions, Welfare State
Posted in Budget, Economics, unions, Welfare State | No Comments »
Tuesday, March 19th, 2013
Update: REJECTED!
Imagine a basketball being swatted back into Angela Merkel’s face…
A few updates on yesterday’s Cyprus bank deposit seizure story.
Supposedly the votes aren’t there to ratify the money grab. Which may mean that Angela Merkel and the EU will just keep twisting until the “proper” decision is arrived at.
“A one-time, ad hoc seizure of money isn’t a tax. It is confiscation. Or we can use a plainer word for it: theft.”
“The decision to expropriate Cypriot savers—even the poorest—was imposed by Germany, Holland, Finland, Austria, and Slovakia, whose only care at this stage is to assuage bail-out fatigue at home and avoid their own political crises.”
The Cyprus crisis as a pick-your-own-path adventure. That’s almost as retro as fiscal restraint and balanced budgets.
The New York Times says not to worry about Cyprus. OK, now I’m really worried.
The EU creditor states have at a single stroke violated the principle that insured EU bank deposits of up $100,000 will be guaranteed come what may, and in doing so they have more or less thrown Portugal under a bus.
They have demonstrated that the rhetoric of EMU solidarity is just hot air, that they will not force their own taxpayers to share a single cent of clean-up costs for the great joint venture of monetary union – in which northern banks, insurers, pension funds, and indeed governments, were complicit.
Their refusal to pay is entirely understandable in one sense – and if I were a German taxpayer, I would not care to swallow these losses either – but then the leaders of these creditor countries can hardly expect the world to believe that they will in fact do whatever it takes to hold EMU together. Quite obviously, they will not.
The sooner this is made clear, the better. The sooner they take the proper course of withdrawing from EMU and organise the break-up the euro in the least disruptive way, the sooner Europe can recover.
Tags:Budget, Cyprus, Euro, European Debt Crisis
Posted in Budget, Economics, Welfare State | No Comments »
Monday, March 18th, 2013
Chances are pretty low that you haven’t heard that the EU has decided to seize portions of people’s bank accounts in Cyprus as a condition of a bank bailout:
When Cyprus’s banks reopen on Tuesday morning, every depositor will have some of his or her money seized. Accounts under 100,000 euros will have 6.75% of the funds seized. Accounts over 100,000 euros will have 9.9% seized. And then the Eurozone’s emergency lending facility and the International Monetary Fund will inject 10 billion euros into the banks to allow them to keep operating.
It’s hard to express in words just how bad an idea this is. Europe has truly crossed the Rubicon.
“The establishment of the principle that a government can, and at times of economic strain must, help itself to your savings, and that this is a legitimate tool of statecraft, ought to provoke riots.”
I’ll go further: riots are not enough.
If I were one of the people having my wealth confiscated, the proper response to such actions would be join an angry mob hanging the still-twitching bodies of the people who proposed and passed such a measure over the nearest lightpost.
Think it can’t happen here? Remember, liberals have already floated the idea of seizing your 401K.
The Eurocrats in Brussels have already decided that they would prefer to seize people savings rather than let the Euro fail, or admit that the European cradle-to-grave welfare state is unsustainable. “The dream of political union matters more to Europe’s governing caste than the well-being of the people they represent.”
I didn’t post anything yesterday because I was trying to figure out how much money I should put into gold and silver to get ahead of the European bank runs I half anticipated. Indeed, in this case such bank runs would etirely rational But they haven’t started outside Cyprus itself.
Yet.
More Cyprus news here.
Tags:Budget, Cyprus, Democrats, EU, Euro, European Debt Crisis
Posted in Budget, Democrats, Economics, Welfare State | 1 Comment »
Thursday, March 14th, 2013
This week we’ll do it Thursday rather than Friday:
Obama is trying to work the same magic on America’s economy that a half century of Democratic rule has worked in Detroit. More details here.
And Detroit’s former mayor Kwame Kilpatrick is going to prison.
Since 2002, total federal spending has increased 89% while median household income has dropped 5%.
In Iran, 5 of top 10 porn search terms are for gay porn (no nudity, but NSFW-ish terms, and the usual warning that it’s (ick) Gawker).
Thanks to ObamaCare, your veterinarian bills are going up as well as your medical bills.
Thomas Friedman hates the Keystone pipeline because the oil is dirty, but loves China, where industry is a thousand time dirtier than here in the U.S. And where will that oil go if the pipeline isn’t built? China. Maybe Friedman just wants all the jobs to be in China. That, or actual checks from the Chinese government or their business subsidiaries, would explain an awful lot of Friedman’s writing over the last few years…
“Most developed nations are fundamentally broke.”
The degrees of broke-ness varies: from completely and utterly broke, like Greece or Italy; to wobbly, like the U.K., France, the U.S., or Japan; to getting poorer like Germany. But all of them are going to have to raise the percentage of gross domestic product they collect in tax — and many of them very significantly.
The U.S. deficit is more than 7% of GDP. The U.K.’s deficit is just as high. There is very little sign that spending cuts to close gaps of that magnitude are on the cards, nor is there any sign that growth will be sufficiently strong to make up the difference — certainly not in countries like the U.K. or Japan.
Huge sums of additional revenue will have to be raised.
Willie Sutton once famously remarked that he robbed banks because “that’s where the money is.”
In the same way, governments will look to raise more tax from companies because that’s where the money is.
Or they could, you know, actually cut spending…
I’ve not been following the Prenda Law case closely. Fortunately, Ken over at Popehat has. Exceptionally brief background: Scumbag copyright troll lawyers operate shakedown operation, filing dubious (at best) copyright infringement lawsuits. Then they compounded the problem by suing bloggers and lawyers in an attempt to silence them. As you might expect, that strategy isn’t working out very well for them… (Hat tip: Dwight)
Florida Democrats want mandatory anger management classes for people buying ammo.
From Popcap Games, the makers of Plants vs. Zombies, comes Trees vs. Rockets. Wait, did I say Popcap Games? I meant the Israeli Defense Forces.
White House journalists as Ring-Wraiths.
Third round of Climategate documents released?
Michael Totten says that Lebanon is ready to explode from the spillover effect of the Syrian Civil War.
News of the horrific 5-year old terrorist who brandished her fearsome Hello Kitty assault bubble gun (link fixed).
Tags:China, Democrats, Detroit, Energy Policy, Greece, Guns, Hezbollah, Iran, Israel, Italy, Keystone Pipeline, Kwame Kilpatrick, Lebanon, ObamaCare, Popehat, Prenda Law, Syria
Posted in Budget, Democrats, Economics, Foreign Policy, Global Warming, Guns, ObamaCare | No Comments »
Tuesday, March 12th, 2013
Rand Paul has won some liberal plaudits for his filibuster against extra-judicial drone strikes against Americans on U.S. soil. Fine and dandy. But what liberal don’t realize is that debate, the debate over government spending, the debate over gun control, and the debate over ObamaCare are not separate fights, they’re the same fight over the central issue: what is the proper size and scope of the federal government in a constitutional republic with limited, enumerated powers?
The founders were deeply and rightly suspicious of centralized government power. They set up a system in which the federal government’s power was not only limited, but balanced against competing power. Not only were the executive, legislative and judicial branches balanced against each other, all were balanced against state governments, and against the power in the people themselves, which is why the Bill of Rights is an enumeration of what the federal government could not do to its citizens. The state exists not to do things for people, it exists to keep things from being done to them.
Those right have been eroded by the excessive expansion of the federal government, and those checks and balances thrown off by the creation of a permanent parasite class in Washington D.C. that benefits from raking its percentage off the top of an ever-expanding redistributionist state.
Rand Paul, Ted Cruz, etc. all know, understand, and believe this. To them, the Constitution is a constant, a vessel of liberty to hand down from generation to generation to keep America strong and free. To liberals, the Constitution is an obstacle to be nullified by left-wing federal judges who ignore provisions like the 2nd and 10th Amendments because the limit how much power Democrats can take from the people and give to government.
The larger government’s sphere, the smaller that of the American people. Drone strikes on U.S. soil are a big, bright line even liberals can understand. But gun control, outrageous deficits, and ObamaCare are all chipping away at the constitutional republic left to us by the founding fathers, day by day. Barry Goldwater once said that “A government big enough to give you everything you want it is big enough to take away everything you have.” Rand Paul and Ted Cruz understand that. Liberals either don’t, or actively want to participate in the taking.
Tags:Barry Goldwater, Democrats, Guns, Rand Paul, Republicans, Sequester, Ted Cruz
Posted in Budget, Democrats, Guns, Supreme Court, Welfare State | No Comments »