Tag Archives: Welfare-Warfare State

Bill Bonner: Goodbye, Motor City

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“Motor City has been flattened. Now it’s being scrapped. The largest municipal bankruptcy in history. Detroit was once one of the richest…and most dynamic…cities in the world. And it was the centre of America’s most profitable industry: automobiles. German and Japanese automakers had the good fortune to be bombed out in World War II. But Detroit grew bigger…more prosperous…and full of zombies. Yes, dear reader, Detroit is a zombie story. Since 1971, almost all big stories have a zombie angle. Because the credit-based monetary system that Richard Nixon put us in is a perfect habitat for zombies.”

http://dailyreckoning.com/goodbye-motor-city/

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In cash-strapped Detroit, few critics question new sports arena funding

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“The Tigers’ home stadium Comerica Park, which opened in 2000, was built at a cost of $300 million, 38 percent of which was publicly financed. Ford Field, the Lions’ domed stadium, was built next door to Comerica and opened in 2002 at a cost of $430 million, 36 percent of which was publicly financed.  A state board recently approved issuing bonds to help pay for a new arena for the Red Wings at the heart of a proposed 45-block entertainment district just north of downtown. The total project is slated to cost $650 million. About 44 percent of the project would be financed through public sources.”

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/07/29/in-cash-strapped-detroit-few-critics-question-new-sports-arena-funding/

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Should Detroit’s Bankruptcy Be an Early-Warning Sign for Washington?

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“There’s no way a bailout of Detroit goes through the House of Representatives. Heck, I don’t even think it could make it through the Senate. So some folks on the left would be justified if they asked why the high rollers on Wall Street supposedly deserved a bailout a few years ago but they don’t get one today. The answer, of course, is discrimination by color. But I’m not talking black vs white. The color that matters in politics is green. The financial industry dispenses huge campaign contributions to both sides of the aisle, and the bailout was their payoff. Public employee unions, by contrast, give almost every penny of their money to Democrats.”

http://danieljmitchell.wordpress.com/2013/07/29/should-detroits-bankruptcy-be-an-early-warning-sign-for-washington/

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America’s public finances: The Unsteady States of America

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“Detroit’s population has fallen by 60% since 1950. The murder rate is 11 times the national average. The previous mayor is in prison. Shrubs, weeds and raccoons have reclaimed empty neighbourhoods. The debts racked up when Detroit was big and rich are unpayable now that it is smaller and poor.  Though some of its woes are unique, a crucial one is not. Many other state and city governments across America have made impossible-to-keep promises to do with pensions and health care. Detroit shows what can happen when leaders put off reforming the public sector for too long.”

http://www.economist.com/news/leaders/21582258-it-not-just-detroit-american-cities-and-states-must-promise-less-or-face-disaster

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US blows out $16.7 trillion debt limit

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“The US Treasury has already exceeded the federal legal borrowing limit of $16.7 trillion in May. That signals the main structural problems remain unresolved putting at risk the fragile recovery. The country’s  outstanding public debt is already $38.82 million above the statuary debt ceiling and now at $16,738,220,000,000.00, according to Treasury data.  In the debt ceiling debate two years ago, lawmakers and the White House battled for months before Obama signed an increase into law on Aug. 2, 2011, the day the Treasury Department warned that US borrowing authority would expire, Reuters reports.”

http://rt.com/business/us-treasury-debt-limit-exceeded-629/

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Obama, Republicans gear up for bruising U.S. budget fight

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“Another dramatic showdown between Republicans and the White House over federal spending looks inevitable this fall, with scary talk of government shutdowns and default on government debt. While Capitol Hill analysts are not predicting catastrophe, they have several reasons to worry that the conflict just weeks away could be even worse than usual. Obama and Congress face two fiscal deadlines in quick succession. They must agree by October 1 on a stop-gap measure to keep the government funded or face a shutdown.  And in early November, Congress must raise the legal limit on the country’s borrowing authority or risk an unprecedented default.”

http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/07/26/us-usa-congress-fiscal-analysis-idUSBRE96P05L20130726

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Senator Wyden Warns Against the Surveillance State

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“There are only two limitations to the growth of the surveillance state: practical and economic. From a practical standpoint, just who is going to sort through the nearly immeasurably large amount of data being collected? At present, as smart as computers are, and as sophisticated as the software that drives them is, it ultimately is going to take a human being to find the dangerous needle in thousands of haystacks. The manpower required to do that is incomprehensibly large and infinitely costly. The second limitation is economic: at some point deficits will become so large that funding them through debt will no longer be an option.”

http://thenewamerican.com/usnews/constitution/item/16104-senator-wyden-warns-against-the-surveillance-state

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Civil Liberties and Security in an Age of Terrorism

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Civil Liberties and Security in an Age of Terrorism

“Civil Liberties in an Age of Terrorism: A special evening with our ‘Challenge of Liberty Summer Seminars’ students and featured by C-SPAN’s Book TV. Watch this eye-opening, timely discussion on the recent revelations of systematic government spying—including NSA accessing of phone records, USPS photocopying the exterior of all mail, and the dangers posed to liberty and security by these and other such unchecked and unconstitutional powers.”

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Afghanistan Audits Reveal Billions in U.S. Taxpayer Waste

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“As the U.S. prepares to withdraw troops from Afghanistan, the government watchdog charged with overseeing nearly $100 billion in contracts to reconstruct the country has found almost $2 billion in potential waste, fraud and abuse in the last three months alone — some of which has likely led to the deaths of American servicemen and women, according to the agency’s reports. The string of alleged violations includes phantom projects, improperly awarded contracts, aborted projects, deserted construction, a general lack of transparency to comprehensively oversee projects and, in one instance, building a $34 million military facility that will never be used.”

http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2013/07/afghanistan-audits-reveal-billions-in-u-s-taxpayer-waste/

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Ageing population pushes welfare bill to crisis point

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“In a report released tonight, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development said that the proportion of GDP spent on jobseekers’ allowance, pensions and other ‘public social spending’ stood at 23.8 per cent — the same as it was in 2010. The Paris-based think tank warned that unless action was taken to cut the cost to the state of Britain’s rapidly rising elderly population, the health and pensions systems could collapse. Ddespite broadly positive signs, economic activity is still well below the level enjoyed before the financial crisis and Britain faces years of austerity and uncertainty.”

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/10203402/Ageing-population-pushes-welfare-bill-to-crisis-point.html

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