Items of Interest:
Kevin Hassett / Bloomberg:
California's Nightmare Will Kill Obamanomics: Kevin Hassett -- Last week, we discovered that the state of California will gladly pay you Tuesday for a hamburger today.
With California mired in a budget crisis, largely the result of a political impasse that makes spending cuts and tax increases impossible, Controller John Chiang said the state planned to issue $3.3 billion in IOU’s in July alone. Instead of cash, those who do business with California will get slips of paper.
The California morass has Democrats in Washington trembling...
related:
California State Controller:
Frequently Asked Questions about Registered Warrants (IOUs)
BizJournals.com: Wanted on Craigslist: California IOUs
Minyanville: A Brand-New Arbitrage Market for California's IOUs
discussion:
Tim Knight / Slope of Hope:
Fall Down -- I was musing about a scenario that probably plays itself out thousands of times a day in the formerly great state of California, where I reside:
- A person who has a negative net worth (due to being severely underwater on his house).......
- goes into Bank of America, an institution that would have been bankrupt, were it not for........
- the United States, which is also technically insolvent..........
- and gives the teller an IOU from the State of California, which is no longer issuing checks due to its own insolvency.
Pretty sad, isn't it? This isn't fiction, though. The above situation is repeated every day of the week...
Gaius / Blue Crab Boulevard: As Goes California — So goes Obamanomics. Kevin Hassett, writing at BloombergThe Lonely Conservative: Obamanomics = Spending into OblivionPundette / Pundit & Pundette: States in dire straitsNo Sheeples Here!: Getting To The Heart Of Fearless Reader's Economic WoesRob / Say Anything: If You Want To See How Obama's Economic Policies Will Work Out, Look At CaliforniaLos Angeles Times: New York takes legislative gridlock to next levelLittle Green Links: California's Nightmare Will Kill ObamanomicsAlan Stewart Carl / Donklephant: Could Health Care Reform Lead to Budget Crisis?
----
NY Times: Tax Bill Appeals Take Rising Toll on Governments Minyanville: States Could Face New Shortfalls as Homeowners Beg for Lower Taxes
----
Philip Aldrick / Telegraph: US lurching towards ‘debt explosion’ with longterm interest rates on course to double — The US economy is lurching towards crisis with long-term interest rates on course to double, crippling the country's ability to pay its debts and potentially plunging it into another recession, according to a study by the US's own central bank...
Michael Laprarie / Wizbang: Tea Party WeekendRolfe Winkler / Commentaries: Afternoon Links — Goldman, Barclays marketing “insurance” …
----
Peter Roff / US News:Democrats Admit That Their Cap and Trade Bill Is a Job Killer
discussion:
Sammy Benoit / YID With LID: NEW EVIDENCE—> Global Warming Is an Expensive Hoax
----
WSJ.com:Public Pensions Cook the Books -- Some plans want to hide the truth from taxpayers.
Here's a dilemma: You manage a public employee pension plan and your actuary tells you it is significantly underfunded. You don't want to raise contributions. Cutting benefits is out of the question. To be honest, you'd really rather not even admit there's a problem, lest taxpayers get upset.
What to do? For the administrators of two Montana pension plans, the answer is obvious: Get a new actuary....
----
- Ben Bernanke's $1 Trillion Hangover - Jia Lynn Yang, Fortune
- $4.5 Trillion Glut Will Haunt Obama’s Dollar - William Pesek, Bloomberg
- Is The Recession Already Over? - Kelly Evans, Real Time Economics
- Get Ready for 14 Percent Unemployment - Louis Woodhill, RealClearMarkets
- Inflation the Big Winner Versus Deflation - Bill Fleckenstein, MSN Money
- A Journey Across 'Stimulated' America - Chadwick Matlin, The Big Money
- We Don't Need a Second Stimulus Plan - Bruce Bartlett, Financial Times
- A Look at the Power of the Top 1% - Michael Maiello, Forbes
- Popular Rage Only Brake on Top Pay - Michael Skapinker, Financial Times
- How Bad Are Auto Sales? 10 Questions & Answers - Joseph Szczesny, TIME
- True Health Reform Finally in Reach - Paul Krugman, New York Times
- Healthcare: Fattening, Not Starving, The Beast - Fred Hiatt, Wash Post
- Plenty of Countries Get Healthcare Right - Jonathan Cohn, Boston Globe
- The CEO Hostage Crisis at BofA - Charles Gasparino, New York Post
- Obama's PAYGO Is Good Rhetoric, Awful Policy - John Tamny, Forbes
- Bank Fixes Won't Revive the Economy - John Judis, The New Republic
- Why Economists Missed the Crisis - Robert Samuelson, Washington Post
- California's Nightmare Will Kill Obamanomics - Kevin Hassett, Bloomberg
- California Prints Its Own Currency: Satire? - Bill Frezza, RealClearMarkets
- Sheila Bair & the White House Financial Debate - Ryan Lizza, New Yorker
- Turning a Corner? Industrial Production as Future - New York Times
- Second Derivative? Why Market Jargon Is Evil - Jack Hough, SmartMoney
- How Much Exactly Does the Federal Government Owe? - Econbrowser
- The CDO Is Back, But It's Different This Time - Joe Weisenthal, Clusterstock
- The Sentencing of Ruth Madoff - Sheelah Kolhatkar, New York Magazine
