Tag Archives: Welfare-Warfare State

Philadelphia Borrows $50 Million So Its Schools Can Open on Time

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“Superintendent William R. Hite Jr. said the $50 million was necessary to provide the minimum staffing needed for the basic safety of the district’s 136,000 students. In June, the district closed 24 schools and laid off 3,783 employees, including 127 assistant principals, 646 teachers and more than 1,200 aides, leaving no one even to answer phones. For a number of years, Mayor Michael A. Nutter and the City Council have been working, with some success and a fair amount of taxpayer pain, to shore up the city’s finances, which have been troubled by mounting debt, a shrinking tax base and unfunded pension and health care obligations to retirees.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/16/education/a-city-borrows-so-its-schools-open-on-time.html?_r=2&&pagewanted=all

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The Blow That Killed America 100 Years Ago

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“‘There is a lot of ruin in a nation,’ wrote Adam Smith. His point was that it takes a long time for nations to fall, even when they’re dead on their feet. And he was certainly right. America took its fatal blow in 1913, one hundred years ago; it just hasn’t hit the ground yet. This is a slow process, but it’s actually fast compared to the Romans. It took them several centuries to collapse.  For all the problems America had prior to 1913 (including the unnecessary and horrifying Civil War), nothing spelled the death of the nation like the horrors of 1913. Here are the key dates.”

http://www.freemansperspective.com/1913-america/

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Bill Bonner: Thank You, TSA, NSA, FBI, and CIA!

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Bill-Bonner2

“Respect for authority is cyclical. And presently, the authorities are enjoying an upswing. People look to them to get things they can’t get on their own. Health care paid for by someone else… a retirement they can’t afford… and foolish pride they don’t deserve. U.S. troops patrol the streets of towns we never heard of… American drones wipe out families we never met… the NSA listens in on the world’s conversations… Yes, thanks to the NSA, TSA, CIA, IRS, FBI, and Pentagon, no sparrow can fall anywhere in the world without it setting off alarms in America’s command centers.”

http://lfb.org/today/thank-you-tsa-nsa-fbi-and-cia/

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Fox News Follows California Beach Bum Living Off Food Stamps For Years

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Fox News Follows California Beach Bum Living Off Food Stamps For Years

“Meet Jason Greenslate. You don’t know him but you help buy him his food. With no job and no plans to get one, Jason picks up a cool $200 a month on his EBT card courtesy of ‘we the people’. How many more Jasons are there out there?”

http://libertycrier.com/fox-news-follows-california-beach-bum-living-off-food-stamps-for-years/

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Detroit, Demographics and Detonation

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“The baby boom generation is an abnormality. It was the byproduct of halcyon days — not that we knew it at the time. But as we have seen in Detroit, when demographics shift from production to pension, there is trouble ahead. Low birth rates combined with a plethora of maturing adults on the cusp of retirement turns the pyramid of society on its head. Lower growth in itself is not a bad thing. We are still moving forward. The problem is certain promises (welfare and health commitments) have been made that cannot be kept if growth does not return to around the 3% mark.  Putting this genie back in the bottle is going to be a political nightmare.”

http://lfb.org/today/detroit-demographics-and-detonation

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Fmr. Comptroller David Walker: To help end budget gimmicks, pass this bill

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“This bill, also championed by the youth-led ‘The Can Kicks Back’ campaign, would make it more difficult for Washington politicians to kick the can down the road by providing information about the long-term impact of today’s unsustainable fiscal policy. Specifically, the INFORM Act would expose two important but often ignored realities. First, with an aging population, rising healthcare costs and mounting interest expense, federal spending is set to automatically and dramatically increase the ‘mandatory’ part of our budget.  Second, young people and future generations will disproportionately shoulder the burden of our fiscal imbalance.”

http://blogs.reuters.com/great-debate/2013/07/24/to-help-end-budget-gimmicks-pass-this-bill/

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U. of California economist says real US debt $70 trillion, not $16 trillion

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“James Hamilton believes the government leaving out certain unfunded liabilities that include government loan guarantees, deposit insurance, and actions taken by the Federal Reserve as well as the cost of other government trust funds, which bring the total amount the government owes to a staggering $70 trillion, he says. ‘The biggest off-balance-sheet liabilities come from recognition of the fiscal stress that will come in the form of an aging population and rising medical expenditures,’ Hamilton says, adding, ‘There are many historical episodes in which off-balance sheet liabilities ended up having quite significant on-balance sheet implications.'”

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2013/08/14/california-economist-says-real-us-debt-70-trillion-not-16-trillion-government/

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Larry Kotlikoff: Detroit Today, Washington Tomorrow

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“The debt Uncle Sam publicly acknowledges is now $12 trillion. But the true measure of our debt — the one suggested by economic theory — is the fiscal gap, which totals $222 trillion. The fiscal gap is the present value of all future expenditures, including servicing outstanding official federal debt, minus the present value of all future receipts. Detroit’s main means of hiding its true liabilities was discounting its future obligations at a rate far higher than appropriate, thus giving the appearance that less saving was needed to cover the shortfall.  Washington’s dirtier trick has been to keep virtually all of its future liabilities off the books.”

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/rundown/2013/08/detroit-today-washington-tomorrow.html

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This amazing, animated chart shows the aging of America

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“This is a mesmerizing little animation created by Bill McBride of Calculated Risk. It shows the distribution of the U.S. population by age over time, starting at 1900 and ending with Census Bureau forecasts between now and 2060.  As McBride points out, you can see a big ‘baby bust’ before and during the Great Depression, right before prosperity returns and the Baby Boom strikes. (You can also see the bulge of Baby Boomers ripple through the charts in the latter half of the 20th century.)”

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2013/08/13/this-amazing-animated-chart-shows-the-aging-of-america/

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U.S. 10 Year Bond Yields in Perspective (1790-Present)

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“The move in the 10 year yields has led to all sorts of speculation as to the underlying cause. Since none of this is within our my control, all we can do is look at this from a longer term perspectives to put this into broader context. Three takeaways: 1) Bond Yields can be driven to extreme son the upside and on the downside.  2) It takes many years or decades to unwind a move like that  3) Rates could go appreciably higher if the 30 year bond bull market is over. Looking at yields from an historical perspective, there is still plenty of room for yields to rise if they simply ‘normalize.'”

http://www.ritholtz.com/blog/2013/06/u-s-10-year-bond-yields-in-perspective-1790-present/

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