Posts Tagged ‘bankruptcy’

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Texas vs. California Update for April 3, 2013

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.

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    Posted in Budget, Democrats, Economics, Welfare State | No Comments »

    Texas vs. California Update for March 20, 2013

    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.

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    Posted in Budget, Economics, unions, Welfare State | No Comments »

    Texas Vs. California: August 16, 2012

    Thursday, August 16th, 2012

    Looks like California has done such a good dog of screwing the pooch that I may have to start doing these roundups weekly:

  • Although bankrupt, California is about to add another outrageous benefit to its already bloated pension plan.
  • The Road Warrior‘s future as California’s present.
  • Creditor demands that Stockton reduce it’s outrageous pension plans.
  • In deed, CalPERs and state and local governments have combined to screw both taxpayers and bond-holders.
  • Hermosa Beach meter maids make make nearly $100,000 a year.
  • Could Fresno be the next California city to declare bankruptcy?
  • That is, unless the next California city to declare bankruptcy is Los Angeles.

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    Posted in Budget, Economics, Texas, unions, Waste and Fraud, Welfare State | No Comments »

    “Greece is not salvagable”

    Friday, September 30th, 2011

    That’s the rather bracing judgment from this Stratfor overview of Greece’s problem. Moreover, they’re saying that about its existence as a nation-state, even absent the European debt crises. Also: “Greece has to be kicked out of the Eurozone if the Eurozone is to survive.” Problem? They don’t have enough “firebreak” funds to do it. “Until the Europeans have 2 trillion Euro in funding stashed away, they can’t kick Greece out of the system.”

    I’m not sure I share the pessimism about Greece in the long run. After all, nation-states can exist for an awful long time, despite crappy conditions (see, for example, Haiti). Of course, that assumes that a newly Islamic Turkey doesn’t decide to settle old scores by conquering them outright. (Assuming, of course, that Turkey is still predominately Turkish rather than Kurdish. Claire Berlinski is a little more sanguine about that prospect.)

    Honestly, of the two, I think Greece will outlast the Eurozone by a good measure. The question isn’t the whether Eurocrats can prevent the Eurozone from breaking up, but rather how long they can delay the inevitable, how much sovereign debt can they put taxpayers on the hook for, and how much harder will the inevitable market correction be when it comes? It seems to be a race between how much European taxpayer money can be wasted propping up Europe’s bankrupt welfare states vs. how much of American taxpayer money can the Obama administration waste channeling payouts to well-connected Democratic cronies. The Eurocrats may be winning the race to insolvency, if only due to the lack of a European Tea Party.

    In other Euro Debt Crises news:

  • Europe votes to throw more money down the rat hole.
  • But don’t take that as any kind of victory for the Euro. Quite the opposite. “The furious debate over the erosion of German fiscal sovereignty and democracy – as well as the escalating costs of the EU rescue machinery – has made it absolutely clear that the Bundestag will not prop up the ruins of monetary union for much longer. Horst Seehofer, the leader of Bavaria’s Social Christians, said his party would go ‘this far, and no further’.”
  • Greece passes the tax increase the Eurocrats say is necessary to stave off default.
  • How broke is Europe? They’re considering a tax on every financial transaction. This is great news…for stock exchanges outside of Europe.
  • How Charles de Gaulle foresaw the Euro crackup.
  • The German finance minister says that a leveraged Euro-TARP is dead. I would say why U.S. regulators were pushing such a scheme was puzzling, except of course it isn’t. The goal is to put off the Euro-collapse until after the 2012 elections.
  • Meanwhile, liberal moneybags mastermind George Soros says that the Euro crises is dragging us toward another depression. His solution? I know you’re going to be shocked, shocked to learn that it’s bigger, more central government. “The governments of the eurozone must agree in principle on a new treaty creating a common treasury for the eurozone. In the meantime, the major banks must be put under the direction of the European Central Bank.” To be followed shortly thereafter by the formation of the First European Airborne Swine Squadron.

    • Is there any other place desperate Eurocrats can get money to prop up their falling welfare states? Are they perhaps hoping that Obama will bail them out? After all, what’s a few more trillions in unsupported debt between friends?

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    Posted in Budget, Democrats, Economics, Elections, Foreign Policy, Jihad, Waste and Fraud, Welfare State | No Comments »

    Texas Democrat (and House Financial Services Committee Member) Ruben Hinojosa Declares Bakruptcy

    Saturday, February 5th, 2011

    “Texas Democratic Congressman Ruben Hinojosa – a member of the House Financial Services Committee – filed for personal bankruptcy late last year.”

    The eight-term congressman was forced to file for bankruptcy after Wells Fargo Bank won an arbitration hearing that found Hinojosa owed the bank $2.6 million. That left him with $2.9 million in liabilities against less than $1.5 million in assets.

    If I put this in a novel, an editor would reject it for heavy-handed symbolism…

    (Hat tip: Instapundit)

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    Posted in Democrats, Economics, Texas, Waste and Fraud | No Comments »

    Turning America into California (and not in a good way)

    Tuesday, November 17th, 2009

    This article by Dennis Prager nicely summarizes how left-wing policies has brought California to the verge of bankruptcy…and how Obama’s policies threaten to do that to the rest of the nation.

    “The left wants America to abandon its defining commitment to individualism and replace it with a European-style nanny, or welfare, state.”

    Indeed.

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    Posted in Uncategorized, Waste and Fraud | No Comments »

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