UhOh...........Where is that Mommy Czar?

What's the worst thing that could happen having an arty ex-pat Austrian strongman as your leader?

O's Cali Plan

No
NO
NO
NO
NO
NO
NO
NO
NO
ABSOLUTLEY NOT

ok Here's 150 billion

"These policymakers continue to watch the situation closely and do not rule out helping the state if its condition significantly deteriorates, a senior administration official said."

........there's the "out".

Re Austrian ex-pat Governator: a toothbrush moustache does not a revolution make.

O.k. So, the administration feels CA can hold out longer...how long? 2 or 4 weeks before mob rule?

--bh

FED to Cali : "Sorry we're TARPed out"

I'd like to take this time to bag on Austrians...

Not only were they responsible for World War 1, but they also get the blame for kicking off the Great Depression as well. Arnold looks like he'll be following suit.

TII,R?

Infllation in the things you need, deflation in the things you cannot afford.

Dawg, I got pigged. Again.

I used to hold that view. But it's not happening, at least in my life. Things I want are definitely going down. Way down in many instances. But the things I need such as food, energy, shelter, insurances are no longer increasing as quickly. In fact, many of my needs are decresing in cost.

Is this permanent? I don't know. But looking at the behaviour of those around me, I don't see people rushing to spend their money in order to beat price increases. Just the opposite. People are economizing in all area - needs and wants.

Demand is on the ropes imo. That's not inflationary against a backdrop of over-capacity.

Grant California the authority to print its own currency. Great as a canary for the rest of the nation that already does.

The state could hold out a bit longer for . . . what? I believe Washington continues to anticipate a 2H09 recovery. It's like a talisman or an act of faith.

I note the WaPo coverage treats Cali's revenue problems but, like most, doesn't want to go into the budgetary morass.

Up here in the Pacific Northwest (PNW) there would be heck to pay if Obama bailed out CA. WA and OR are in just as much trouble on a per capita basis, but have done what is necessary to balance their budgets. So the Feds should bail out CA because they are too irresponsible to manage their own affairs?

....LOL.......one more thing and I'll go feed & clean.......c'mon, lets hear it: ........."If we only legalized "pot" and taxed it, all our worries.........

snark/off

.............later

Prop 13 is the only thing saving the State. Ventura County has seen property tax revenues rise every year for 30 years until 2009 when revenues declined 4.5% about the same as 2007. A stable growing revenue source that has essentially remained flat in the face of 40% declines in the underlying asset value. If everything were as well designed and implemented there'd be no budget crisis.

I fully expect a last minute financial pardon of the governator by the powers that be. If they could shovel $50 billion into a corpse like GM, why stop there?

Could we cue up Bohemian Rhapsody by Queen

. . . federal officials are worried that a bailout of California would set off a cascade of demands from other states.

No kidding.

The Administration made the right decision

@Mel - I applaud the decision, though expect it to be reversed in a month or so. In addition, I'd call on the admin to extend the concept of balanced budgets for the States to the Fed. gov't too, starting with the current fiscal year. Shouldn't be a problem, right?

Yes, we can!

"If they could shovel $50 billion into a corpse like GM, why stop there? "

The difference is the Feds need a new income stream available through business profits as they can not tax much more as much needed to function in the future. It won't work but that is the idea. Cali government will never provide a revenue stream but a new dependence on the Fed.

If they could shovel $50 billion into a corpse like GM, why stop there?

GM doesn't have any electoral college votes.

@Ben - unless the gov't is planning on taxing losses, they're not going to get squat out of GM or Chrysler for the foreseeable future.

It's cute the way the Feds and the other 49 are pretending they have a choice whether to bail out California.

/snip from the article
These policymakers continue to watch the situation closely and do not rule out helping the state if its condition significantly deteriorates, a senior administration official said. But in that case, federal help would carry conditions to protect taxpayers and make similar requests for aid unattractive to other states, the official said. The official did not detail those conditions.
/snip

Interesting: How will we protect taxpayers? What is a warrant on a State? How do you protect the 9 out of 10 other taxpayers from the 1 out of 10 benficiaries? This seems odd at best.

How do we make aid unattractive?

If you accept this aid, you must wear this dress and do a little dance,...now let me get my camera...

???

-bh

How will we protect taxpayers?

Nationalize the California prison system.

Hooray for O-! Stick to your guns, man!

Yes, 'Summer of Love' it may be, with welfare cut off in July.

Good thing my son and I took our 'Defensive Shotgun' class on Sunday.

We are ready for the unrest here in La Jolla, now. I sense some growing unease in the penny loafer crowd, here.

Who in Cali ever thought that the 'big one' was going to be along de(credit)fault?

How many hours before they reverse the decision?

TARP,

Agreed. that's why I said.

"It won't work but that is the idea."

How is the muni market reacting?

sportsfan,

No problems, no worries, we'll just print more...as long as we have checks in the checkbook.....

The only question is where will Barack hang his 'Mervyn King' award.

"Grant California the authority to print its own currency."

Ojai, CA might create it's own local currency. Kind of silly, but who knows.

Group in Ojai looks into local currency» Ventura County Star

Independent Californians coined their own money from 1849 to 1854, so there is precedence...

lost-confused,

It goes the other way. Fed refuses to bail-out CA, CA decides that the USG has abrogated its responsibilities to the states and begins process for recognition as a new country to the U.N. 11th largest world economy, distinct culture, oppressed by US. CA gets immediate recognition from Russia, Venezuela, and Cuba, with China to follow shortly.

Should be interesting. Or maybe we'll just bail them out, but Hollywood can make the movie (TM'd to blackhat).

--bh

Suckers. We have all the cards. If we miss one bond payment, the house of cards collapses.

And we never, ever, call it "Cali".

TARP: Who in Cali ever thought that the 'big one' was going to be along de(credit)fault?

TARP, I have been noting and logging monthly California (and Florida) tax receipts for three years, now. If one believed that housing was in a bubble here on the Left Coast and that the bubble would pop, one could easily figure that big hits to tax receipts would result (from falling employment).

California tax receipts were last positive, year over year, in December '07.

Burn, baby, burn!

Sow the seeds for the Libertarian revolution!

California needs a Californiathon, is Jerry Lewis available?

Bankers are our friends. People... not so much.

As an outsider, I would like to see CA default, and how the courts would react. We need a state bk law, and until we have one, the game is interesting if your seated far from the court.

As for prop 13, with the average house changing hands every 6 or 7 years(?) most homes catch up with more current tax valuations. As Rob points out, property tax revenue is more stable as the big downturns are not significant. The best part of prop 13 is that it does protect people who are planning for retirement and need some stability in their future liabilities. In effect they pay more during their productive years and less in retirement when they are actually using less services (think education, half of the CA budget). So some businesses get away with low property taxes...that may be the one incentive to operate a large business in CA. Better yet, it rewards long term businesses the most.

Blackhat,

sorry no independent status for CA...We can not handle our finances as it stands...We are looking for someone to rewrite our state political system...Who? UN? Mexico?

By the way, CA residences have relatives throughout the US....

Man, this is not Texas, a providence of Mexico...This is a state in the US...

We are all Contra Costa Feedom Fighters now...

Predictably, RD offers his mindless defense of Prop 13, ignoring as he always does the unintended consequences it has had for corporate landowners.

peterb, that was the INTENDED consequence of Proposition 13.

The whole point was to get the dumb suckers to vote in favor of the biggest corporate tax relief in history.

I campaigned against it. People refused to understand the significance, but liked Howard Jarvis.

This is on topic, so I'll post the link again:

UCLA Forecast Says State Worker Layoffs Could Top 60,000

Carnage.

How come RD hasn't reminded us, correctly, that Cali has a SPENDING problem, not a .. O never mind..

-K

Here's what one of the PimpCo funds thinks... started cliff-diving about a week ago:

PCQ: Basic Chart for PIMCO CAL MUN INC FD - Yahoo! Finance

@Mel - revoke federalism - I was thinking if CA gets bailed out we're on the way to seeing the United STATE of America, under the consolidation act of 2012.

Economically, Cali is going to get the bailout, after they posture through making a few billion in 'less growth' cuts. Taking too many billions out of the borrowed economy would just require another federal stimulus package anyway.

sportsfan, there are no 'corporate taxes'; such are all borne, ultimately, by individuals as higher prices, reduced dividend checks, or reduced capital gains.

When Chevron pays lower taxes, you as a shareholder get a bigger dividend check or a higher stock price, or you as a consumer get a lower price at the pump.

"I was thinking if CA gets bailed out we're on the way to seeing the United STATE of America, under the consolidation act of 2012."

And what's sad about that (if it actually happens) is that most Americans would not understand its significance. Most people aren't well educated in the matters of the State.

peterb, sorry about your families predicament. Maybe you can help answer these questions.

Why has education spending in CA continued to grow even as enrollments are dropping?

Why are they building new schools that are now sitting empty or being mothballed (at least here in Ventura and LA counties)?

Why are the teachers so upset about cutting the school year 6 or 7 days when my kids are watching movies and playing board games for the last two weeks of the year? I let them stay home the last week because they were doing absolutely nothing at school. This is at a school with API scores of 911 this year.

Is the problem really that the money does not work it's way down to the classroom from administration?

Woah. Interesting error message from Hoocoodanode:

From Drupal:

"If you are the maintainer of this site, please check your database settings in the settings.php file and ensure that your hosting provider's database server is running. For more help, see the handbook, or contact your hosting provider.

The mysqli error was: User dev1 already has more than 'max_user_connections' active connections."

Bullshit. I ride a bike and the subway. If Chevron pays lower taxes I pay more.

solohedger:

And we never, ever, call it "Cali".

Term of endearment. I like the place, and I like the people.

If Chevron raises the price at the pump because of higher taxes, consumption will go down, and so will their profits.

Blackhat,

It does appear that CA's constitution needs to be re cast...Who will do it? Californians will not budge until there is a total shutdown of the govt....My suggestion about the USG stepping in seems to be the only realistic solution, short of total collapse of CA govt...

jmho...

Counterpointer ... in your previous post about the Fed when you linked to Ecstasy of of Gold I
thought here we go - famous fight scene in the desert at the end of the great silent movie 'Greed'
but alas, my hopes were dashed when it turned out to be a mere song by Metallica ...
a band that will not be remembered as long as Erich Von Stroheim ...

So the official Federal line is, "We have all the money it takes to send to private banks in need, but no money for our states."

No one is going to accept that.

There is no chance whatsoever that CA doesn't receive funds at the time they're needed.

Note: I don't agree with any bailouts, even California. But this is the moral hazard the Federal government has undertaken by giving institutions like BAC and C billions of dollars.

Well I have to admit the economy in my area is quite busy, especially in the Guns and Ammo sector.

Attempted to post, finally came thru, however, has anyone heard of Drupal...web page that stated that this webpage was not accepting any comments.

just curious...

I don't see how California can fix itself without dumping its outrageous retirement packages for state workers. The only way out is to declare bankruptcy, right? All this hemming and hawing is just delaying that necessary action. Same goes for New Jersey and other states in hock to their state workers.

Legislation to let polluters buy and sell carbon-dioxide emissions like pork bellies is the outgrowth of Richard L. Sandor, founder of the Chicago-based network of people trading pollution permits from Beijing to Brussels known as Climate Exchange. It doesn’t hurt that the six-year-old market got $1.1 million of seed money from the city’s Joyce Foundation, whose board included a little-known state senator named Barack Obama. Now the 44th president is determined to enact America’s first limits on greenhouse gases.

That the 67-year-old Sandor finds himself working with Henry Waxman, the California Democrat sponsoring the bill to cap emissions from refiners, utilities and manufacturers, is a belated recognition that Chicago-style pragmatism may prevail in the battle between business and environmentalists.

**who says it isnt about making a profit in the "private sector".

Have a good morning, folks!

Here is a very little bit of waste that could be trimmed with a car allowance or use the mileage tax deduction. It would cut the BS use by family and friends.

Legislators' cars cost taxpayers $3.2 million in three years - Los Angeles Times

"Can we get our local National Guard back from Iraq now? We may them here shortly."

I remember after the L.A. riots in the early 90's, the National Guard showed up, but it was a different National Guard back then...

They were just regular Joes and Janes, that played soldier a few days a month-not jaded participants in far-off wars. They were a different kettle of fish compared to now.

w,

Are you aware that California ranks just above Mississippi at the bottom of the nation in per pupil spending?

No one is building schools in the Bay Area. They are closing and consolidating them to save money. And cutting programs that weren't already gone years ago.

Actually, school teachers would probably accept a shortened school year (or cutting a day per month over the school year) as a way of accepting their burden of the load. The problem is the school districts and, apparently people like you, believe they are to blame for the situation. However, you are aware that this would have a direct impact on the quality of education the children of CA receive, right? The school year in the U.S. is already the shortest among most nations with which the U.S. competes. Take a look at Sweden, for example. This is one reason why our kids score so poorly against children in Asia and Europe.

Yep, the old administrative overhead argument is well-worn and is always trotted out when it comes times to screw the teachers.

Sadly, they weren't silent: they were railing against Tom Daschle, the Dixie Chicks and the dirty hippies who opposed the war and Bush's imperial policies.

Did I mention it was all Clinton's fault?

Just don't expect any honesty, consistency or integrity out of the rightwing shills, and you won't be disapoointed.

Private schools refuse to take special ed kids because they cost to much and require very specialized teachers.

The special ed kids will just have to stay home with their unemployed parents.

It's the aged, blind and disabled who will die first . . . quietly . . . in their homes . . . . when no one comes.

60,000 out of 250,000 is a good start.

Comrade-Dope jg (profile) wrote on Tue, 6/16/2009 - 11:04 am

Yeah, yogi, you pay full price (i.e., cover the full cost) for that subway ride.
Nah, it is Chevron and us car drivers who pay a good part of your bill.

I think this is a specious argument, or at least one that will end with tail-chasing cries of moral superiority / victory from both sides.

The indirect costs of automobile usage could be toted up in any number of ways and "prove" they were more heavily subsidized.

This will quickly devolve into people waving spreadsheets and shouting about the comparative size and number of large flowing body of water crossings per hectare, and how each side is cheating on capacity and cost overrun figures. What a miserable exercise.

I for one would be much more comfortable if these choices were openly made on irrational or strategic grounds, because attempts to cloak them in figures to give them a patina of rationality isn't going to change the fact that everyone came to the table with the outcome in mind.

"Sadly, they weren't silent: they were railing against Tom Daschle, the Dixie Chicks and the dirty hippies who opposed the war and Bush's imperial policies."

I wish i'd had my camera with me, when I was working out at the gym in early April 2003, as pro-war demonstrators were on PCH with signs and bullhorns as the rain was falling down on them...

I lived in CA in '78 when then Gov Jerry Brown did not take Prop 13 as seriously as he should have,
at least from what I read in the papers he didn't seem to think it had much chance of passage and
did not get out on the hustings to defeat it....

that's what a Jesuitical education will do to you...

peterb, why so nasty? I asked valid questions and think you might have insight from the teachers side.

Those rankings on teacher/pupil spending can surely be manipulated by both sides to create soundbites so I refuse to believe them.

Teachers are not screwed. In Ventura County the average teachers earns almost exactly the average FAMILY income amount of $60,000 a year. On top of that they have incredible benefits that most of us only dream of.

So, if CA has one of the lowest states in per pupil spending does it follow that they are one of the lowest paying states for teacher wages ?

"Unfortunately, in the real world we have loopholes and offshore havens. "

Not to mention oligopolies.

You tell me now?

//"Those revenue projections turned out to be wildly optimistic, but nobody was predicting the October collapse of the financial markets,"//

CC gave us this a link with this info:
This is on topic, so I'll post the link again:

Carnage.

That's it?

Whom will lose their job? Of course they'll do scare tactics (Prisons, welfare, fire, police, roads, etc.) But can they really cut services to the middle class and keep a working population?

To say the least, interesting times ahead.

Oh, Prop 13 was a shot across the state's bow to control spending and not tax everyone to death. Remember how many people were being taxed out of their homes? This is a HIGH TAX state! High income, utility, corporate, and other taxes. The only tax you can moderate is property tax. Should Prop 13 be modified? Sure. But if this state raises taxes too much, you will see an exodus. Spending is out of control that delivers very few services to the middle class (compared to other states). Say otherwise? Where are the transportation improvements?

The state must brutally cut spending.
Of course, I'm waiting to see the consequences of the newest foreclosure moretorium. That is just stupid...

Got Popcorn?
Neil

I thought Clinton deserved the term "slick Willie". But like so much else Obama has out done Bill Clinton , Everything he says needs to be read closely - there is always an out and the headline rarely matches the text. He combines the worst of lawyers and journalists with the charm of Ronald Reagan,

Talking of which how is what Krugman is suggesting (and Obama is following) any different to the voodoo economics of Reagan? If we spend more money we will balance the budget in the long term. As I recall Reagan offered tax cuts and increased defense spending as the way of getting to a balanced budget.

BTW I voted for campaigned for and donated to Obama.

So, when we inevitably bail out California, will we get an equity stake? Perhaps every US citizen could get a voucher good for one bit appearance in a Hollywood production, or a free bottle of wine?

never did figure that out- why the Blue state liberals would be such fans of the Federal government. It seems to me that the winners of downsizing the Federal government and moving power and money back to the States helps the blue states and hurts the Red states.

Attitudes and beliefs die hard.

Hedge-Fund Startups Sprout as Roc Gathers $1 Billion (Update2)
Hedge-Fund Startups Sprout as Roc Gathers $1 Billion (Update2) - Bloomberg.com

By Saijel Kishan and Katherine Burton

June 16 (Bloomberg) -- Arvind Raghunathan, former head of Deutsche Bank AG’s global arbitrage business, will open his new hedge-fund firm next month with more than $1 billion, a sign that investors are trickling back after record losses last year.

Roc Capital Management LP’s assets will include $500 million in a separate account from Deutsche Bank, according to people familiar with the New York-based firm, who asked not to be identified because the information is private. It’s the largest hedge-fund startup this year, one of at least eight expected to raise more than $250 million each, according to brokers who provide credit and lend securities to managers.

The ventures are being set up by

Juvenile Delinquent,

Parking cars at the port is the most expensive storage option available. Over time, the logistics staff at the OEM's would have made arrangements to move the cars somewhere else where the storage charges (per day) were lower. The initial backup was cause because the OEM's are not organized to store large amounts of cars. They're organized to sell large amounts of cars.

Based on my last flight into Ontario airport, I would guess a fair numbers of these cars are parked in the Inland Empire.

But I know that them bad guys are bad and stupid.

//Matter for consideration: When considering providing area suppressive fire into a potentially occupied structure in the United States, are there "bad guys" inside absent judicial action?//

Thanks for the report, RockyR.

We had a big spike of usage there that seems to be down now. I also found two bots that were probing the site, shut them off. Let me know via feedback if you see any more of these messages.

Is it possible, that all the new cars are headed to the only viable marketplace for chariots currently?

China.

lost-confused, yes, having a surge of usage that I'm trying to track down. The error messages are somewhat cryptic, sorry.

Will they willingly take a pay and influence cut?

//Cut administrator pay, require higher standards to become an administrator (a nationally certified teacher should be a requirement, and people should only be administators at the end of their teaching careers).//

Environmentalism does not help them build new projects either.

//California has the added whammy of being in the midst of a 3 year drought and the powers that be aren't letting on how bad it's gonna be, because like matters financial, most Californians are so far removed from where the water comes from, that they have no idea what's really happening...//

Building new reservoirs for non-existent supplies of H20 wont help matters. The opening of a desalination plant near San Onofre has been stalled by a Surfrider group. They hardly qualify as environmentalists.

As desal uses a ton of electricity, it's imperative that it be hooked up to a nuke, and there's only a few nuke plants in California.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Technical analyst Robert Prechter on Monday said he sees the United States losing its top AAA credit rating by the end of 2010, as he stuck by a deeply bearish outlook on the U.S. economy and stock market.

Prechter, known for predicting the 1987 stock market crash, joins a growing coterie of market heavyweights in forecasting the United States will lose its top credit rating as the government issues trillions of dollars in debt to fund efforts to bail out the economy.

Fears about the long-term vulnerability of the prized U.S. credit rating came to the fore after Standard & Poor's in May lowered its outlook on Britain, threatening the UK's top AAA rating. That move raised fears that the United States could face a similar risk, with the hefty amounts of government debt issued in both countries to pay for financial rescues causing budget deficits to swell.

BR,

Speculate to your heart's content.

But honestly, the socio-economic, racial, gender, religous, sexual preference or dietary preferences of the "bad guys" never entered my thoughts. They were supposedley firing on police officers, that makes them "bad guys" in my book.

No offense intended. Dropping subject now.

Byzantine_Ruins,

A lot of people ignore the obvious problem- If you treat an identifiable group of people poorly, they may not play your game.

black dog,

VA has its problems. Check out the pension funds also. I already see the state setting up its HOV roadblocks on I-66 for those 1st time offense $500 tickets.

It is over. Just the slide into squalor.

Finally, a benefit to living in Michigan!
The refugee masses from California won't want to live here, either.
mm

JD-Surfrider is a little more aware of the ocean ecosystem than you I believe....

Re: CA water shortages, unemployment.

Why do we not tie our immigration numbers (legal immigration!) to the environment and to unemployment levels?

Right now we are still bringing in about 100,000 legal immigrants a month though unemployment is skyrocketing.

Right now we bring in over a million legal immigrants a year, a large portion go to california where there is a water crisis brewing.

How exactly is this massive legal immigration that is blind to environmental impact and unemployment fair to U.S. citizens and the immigrants?

Or is legal immigration not supposed to be fair to U.S. citizens?

It is time for California-Aid!

A concert for California. It's all about the Children!

Ken,there was a link to CR in an LA Times article that was linked to at "Raw Story" which might have prompted the spike.as far as California,CR noted that CA government is completely dysfunctional.His statement is not hyperbole and California is FUBAR.Politically this is one hot potato.I have heard more than one person say "$180 Billion for AIG,zip for California,what does that tell you?"....A nice bullet point for someone.The argument has progressed beyond whether or not we face systemic risk to a point where the question now is "Do we face a complete collapse of society?".

@peterb - My mother is a retired teacher with a Master's degree, and from what I know having grown up around teachers, there are a great many of them who definitely are just in it for the money, more time off a year than most other professions can even dream of, and for really great, indexed pensions.

Hopefully, your wife, like my mother, was in it for the kids, but I'd contend that is the exception, not the rule.

Thanks again, KCoop, for keeping one of the best blogs up and running!

Lucifer,

Yes, you didn't know we average 1 million + legal immigrants a year?

Thats legal immigrants. Thats 100 million new people a century, not including their kids born here over that time. Thats a huge population increase, in an increasingly employment and environmentally challenged land.

JD-Surfrider is a little more aware of the ocean ecosystem than you I believe....

Kilgore: You either surf or you fight.

"Raccoons are in vogue at the moment.
"I thought that hunting small animals for foods was the biggest benefit of living in Michigan.""

/runs, hides!

Ah, I remember Michigan in the summer of my youth. The locals who strung cables across paths to catch the dirt bikers and other assorted low lifes who were not locals. Me and my cousins getting hammered. My cousin dying when a car full plowed into a tree drunk. My uncles talking about the Ni##ers. Grandma talking about setting a shotgun up with a trip wire at one her windows.

cancel the drought..it's raining in So cal. today....

Ciao
MS

M wrote:

The biggest problem with public schools is cronyism and incompetence among ADMINISTRATORS.

Do you know any school administrators? Do you know what any of them do? As in any organization, more so any government organization, there is incompetence and dead wood, but many school administrative jobs are necessary given current legal requirements for reporting, NCLB compliance, etc. The cost of administration in most districts is very small compared to the cost of the teachers. Just sayin'.

"Facts" can be altered and manipulated by "experts".

//Why cant we make an immigration policy decision based on today's facts rather than yesterday's mistakes?//

I find it interesting there are jobs where it appears to be okay to be openly interested in grubbing for money but other jobs where the individuals are perceived in a negative light when looking after their salaries, sometimes in quite modest ways.

This moral condemnation of the concern about payment for work in some professions but not others is even more amusing given that most of our political and economic leadership have constructed a ideology/system, the foundation of which is that we are all a bunch of rational money grubbers.

illegals in Cali state prison..

Lawmaker to Feds: Reimburse California for Illegal Immigrants |
NBC Los Angeles

Easy solution- Pay Mexico 10K per year to house an illegal prisoner in their system, if they are released no 10K..revenue for them, savings for us....

c'mon...we've thrown the banksters a few trillion. Whats' another 150 billion or so among friends?

"...the foundation of which is that we are all a bunch of IRrational money grubbers. "

fixed that for you.

Kilgore: If I say its safe to surf this beach Captain, then its safe to surf this beach. I mean I'm not afraid to surf this place, I'll surf this whole fucking place!

the state I grew up in, Indiana, was involved in the scheme to extend the Erie Canal all the way to St Louis, I believe,
so the state issued bonds and the project fell apart due to the advent of the railroad... (can still find the half finished canal
in parts of southern Indiana)... so who bailed Indiana out... as I remember our state went BK... and later passed a
new constitution that did not allow the state to deficit spend until that was amended in the early 90s under Gov Bayh... (I think)...

My mother is a retired teacher with a Master's degree, and from what I know having grown up around teachers, there are a great many of them who definitely are just in it for the money, more time off a year than most other professions can even dream of, and for really great, indexed pensions.

Honestly, I don't know how anyone could possibly be in that profession for the money. True enough, the summer off has always been a plus, particularly during the years we were raising our kids.

I'm not sure about your mother, but for my wife the school year involves long days and weekends. Grading papers and prepping lesson plans and conferencing with parents.

<sarcasm>Then of course, there is the appreciation from the public at large for the hard work she does. Which is reward in and of itself.</sarcasm>

Coinz-

In a previous life I worked with quite a few school districts (at the board level) and almost every single one of them were worried about spending more than the previous year's budget so that they could get a bigger one next year. Replacing furniture at the district office seemed to be the big line item in almost all them. Total circle jerk mentality.....

Ciao
MS

Consider the lack of private schools how can anyone know it the public school system has any balance? They generally consume lots of tax money.

"There were some stories about police officers asking Marines to cover them while they approached a residence. In one case this resulted in the Marines laying down covering/suppressing fires on an apartment building when the police received fire from inside. Don't think the bad guys were expecting the 600 rounds per minute they were receiving from the SAWs."

The marines fired 30 rounds, no? Then they stopped because the police told them to. Assuming the weapons were set at semi-automatic - 45 rpm - the rounds were probably fired by one or two men. Eh?

"The school year in the U.S. is already the shortest among most nations with which the U.S. competes. Take a look at Sweden, for example. This is one reason why our kids score so poorly against children in Asia and Europe."

........lets take an average 1960s report card & school district and rollback curriculum, teacher levels, schedules, ratios of administrators vs. classroom personnel and see what shakes out.

peterb,

One attitude...

The Movie, "Summer School", with Mark Harmon in BH high school...IIRC

lol, great flick...

Chainsaw (profile) wrote on Tue, 6/16/2009 - 11:34 am

Speculate to your heart's content.

That's my job.

They were supposedley firing on police officers, that makes them "bad guys" in my book.

And thus, delivering area suppressive fire on a structure in a built-up area was okay?

Highlights some problems with the gendarmification of both the police and the military, don't you think?

Highlights some problems with the gendarmification of both the police and the military, don't you think?

About the time when cops began to look like paramilitary troopers was when I realized the world had changed.

@MS and M,
Both of those anecdotes go against my experience, but I would not be too surprised since there is a lot of quality variation among districts. For 3 years, I worked in a midsized school district and we managed the budget pretty conservatively. There were a few exceptions to prudent spending, but usually those cases had to do with grant money or funds that could only be spent on certain programs. Pain in the ass. I would just caution you against painting with such a broad brush and especially about comparing costs of private schools to public.

"`E.T.-Like' Salamander Species Uncovered During Ecuador Forest Expedition"

This previously unknown species is seen riding through the sky on a new Schwinn Stingray banana seat..........

....later.

Republicans block any meaningful budget action due to the 2/3 rule.

THURSDAY: Watch Bernanke - The Market Ticker

I remember when this happened in September...I sent out emails to about 400 "journalists" asking why the Fed was taking money from a system that supposedly needed it so badly. The only person to respond was Pimm Fox (B'Berg) and he ran a story on his show about it( I even got my name mentioned!)-that was good for a few phone calls!!!

It appears that it may happen again...it, at the very least, is looking likely.

Ciao
MS

Most teacher here get free time at work to do preparation and score tests. Semi paperless schools would be a smart cost savings and cut scoring tests time.

@nova

yea, the games are beginning. I've been in business 20 years and have NEVER been late with my monthly sales tax remittance. Well, last month they flagged me for being delinquent - 10% penalty + interest.

Someone who was present during the Ironbound riots in Newark NJ during the 60s told me that National Guardsmen - kids really - brought machine gun fire to bear on a housing project. A colonel came running up, yelling at them to hold their fire, and then had all their ammo taken away from them. They had been firing at the echoes of the own shots.

OT:

China's holding of US bonds drops first time in 11 months

"Other emerging powers Russia and Brazil have also trimmed their US bond holdings, the US Treasury said in its monthly international capital data report.....On the whole, foreigners decreased holdings of Treasury bills by 44.5 billion dollars in April, the data showed.....On the whole, foreigners decreased holdings of Treasury bills by 44.5 billion dollars in April, the data showed."

AFP: China's holding of US bonds drops first time in 11 months

@shill

I know someone who works at the local heating oil/gas company and he commented the same. Said people are digging deep to find money to pay their bill.

@Lobbyist Ben Dover: Semi paperless schools would be a smart cost savings and cut scoring tests time.

I was thinking about this when I was talking with a true idealist who was co-author of a major medical text. He really wanted to be able to send CD-ROM copies of it to 3rd world countries. The notion that the textbook company might have a problem with this never really entered his mind.

But then I started thinking, why don't schools and such use things like Kindles for textbooks? Certainly easier to update the information and edit, but again you cut out the lucrative textbook sales and so I doubt that it would ever get going.

I must admit that I like having a book to be able to reference and turn pages over but perhaps that's antiquated for "kids these days."

California is the pretty white girl who gets abducted. All media - all the time. Meanwhile NJ, Ohio, and others will get buried in paupers graves...

One last time...
The first recorded tax-break: Gen. 47:22,26

"Only the land of the priests bought he not, for the priests had a portion from Pharaoh, and did eat their portion which Pharaoh gave them; wherefore they sold not their land. "

"And Joseph made it a statute concerning the land of Egypt unto this day, that Pharaoh should have the fifth; only the land of the priests alone became not Pharaoh's. "

on Old Kingdom Egypt:
"Eventually, the priesthood became a tremendous bureaucracy numbering thousands of men....At the top of the hierarchy of priests was the high-priest, ...While normally such a man would have risen to his position through the ranks, it was the pharaoh's prerogative to place whomever he wanted in that office."

When they escaped from the ensuing slavery and set up their state, the Israelites made some radical reforms: priests could collect a10% tax, but could not own land.

Joshua 18:7
"For the Levites have no portion among you, for the priesthood of the LORD is their inheritance; "

It took a while, but the rabbis phased them out. Tax breaks should come with a heavy burden.

as of 2002 california spent approximately 300,000 per classroom K thru 12 and they spend more now. california teachers are the fourth highest paid in the nation. (in some places like LA that's ok with me). i used to play raquetball with a retired school administrator. he was in his late 50's and lived in a beautiful home in the hills overlooking the lights of sacramento. he knew he had a gotten a great deal from the state and shrugged his shoulders sheepishly when we discussed it. hey, if they're willing to pay it why shouldn't i take it type of attitude. i can't blame him.

however, lets get real; there is no, (and i mean nada) correlation between academic funding and educational achievement. in that regard, educational funding is like gun laws; simply feel good legislation with absolutely no measurable effect. on the other hand, there is a huge correlation between academic achievement and parental attitudes about education. and that in a nutshell is the problem with california. it's the culture stupid! california is full of people which are simply not good citizens. compare the bathroom stalls at LAX with those at Minneapolis Saint Paul. which airport has higher maintenance costs and why? repeat this for every aspect of life in california where government expenditures are required.

let me say it again so those who are having problems with the concept. CALIFORNIA IS THE HIGHEST TAXED STATE IN THE NATION. and what do we for the highest taxes? the best roads? hell no. the best schools? yes if you count the phsical plant but no if you count the students. the best health care? give me a break, last summer i was in the emergency room in la habra with my 12 year old with a broken arm. eight hours to get it set. what the f**K? this is what i get for my taxes? low crime? the indian take away two blocks from my home shut down after shooting. the starbucks a block away; armed robbery. our car, stolen out of our driveway. my kids having to watch other kids shake down the employees at taco bell for free food. a half dozen home invasion robberies within walking distance. and can i carry concealed for my own protection. noooooo! that would be dangerous. f' em all.

and some of you say the solution is to raise my taxes. we already have the highest taxes. i repeat, we do not have a revenue problem!!

figured you'd like that one.... LOL....

shill wrote:

2 1947 walking liberty half's and a 1878 Morgan silver dollar...she actually asked me If i wanted them as change....I made money while spending

The fruit of a teenage B&E

California's highest marginal income tax rate is 10.55%. The sales tax in many areas (like San Francisco's 9.5%) are among the highest in the US. The state tax on Corporations is about 9%. With tax rates already high, this is a spending problem.

nova: I remember Michigan in the summer of my youth.
sounds like the summers of my youth in Indiana

El Cliffo, I thought our sales tax was high. Seattle and Chicago are both 10%+.... Shocked me....

Scrooge:

I think Brad Setser at CFR has kept a pretty detailed running narrative on this, including some good detail. If I came away with the correct understanding, the shrinking trade balances will be reflected in a reduction in foreign Treasury holdings.

Nervous Rex: Shouldn't we be constructing giant rock heads or something?

Indeed!

Fla counties are saying they are gonna raise taxes on homestead properties by raising millage.

I guess this makes sense. Homestead affects value, not millage. Some are saying over my dead body.

250 same pink slips went out for teachers in Broward County--just north of Miami-Dade.

Pavel,

We're way OT here but you asked why I qualified with "supposedley". I heard this through the USMC grapevine 18 years ago. I don't remember seeing it in the press. Probably an urban legend which I shouldn't have even raised.

I'm not sure what authority was referenced to order the Marines in to LA to support civil law enforcement, but that definitely did happen.

Chainsaw,

I'm interested in this story because some posters here regularly invoke the possibility of future urban unrest because of the economic crisis. I know there has been some discussion in the past in Marine Corps publications of applying small war doctrine to internal US situations. I don't believe that there is more than minority interest in that possibility, though my info is also way out of date.

I believe that there was some fire in the incident. Sometimes, in the heat of the moment, things happen which are not strictly speaking legal.

I saw tanks in the late 80s on the Baltimore Washington Parkway headed for DC. 14th Street was
burning at the time.

It never occured to me that this was illegal.

We were close enought to hear the shouting in the Balto riots then, and for a whle there were
soldiers on the corners. Young kids armed to the teeth. They made me nerviouser than the
rioters, but there were no incidents that I ever knew of.

Just looking at some historical data on Cali budgets. Is this correct - state expenditures jumped from $80B in '04 to $105B in '07? That is an enormous rate of increase - what were they spending it on?

Not clear to me this isn't a bit of a....manufactured...crisis.

So this new SDR basket is going to be comprised of a bunch of export heavy countries. Who are they going to sell their products to again?