California Budget: California has Run out of Money, Starting Monday. $42 billion deficit and Economic Problems and Future Issues. Investment Forecast for the State.
The California housing and finance driven economy is coming to a destructive end. On Monday February 2nd 2009, California’s chief accountant will start delaying payments totaling approximately $4 billion. In this pot of money, the state will be postponing income tax-refunds, college grants, and welfare checks. Now we really see the pickle of this budget [...]
Cram Downs: A Bad Bank and Cram Downs are Diametrically Opposed Ideas.
While the market is intrigued by the nearly $1 trillion fiscal stimulus plan, a mortgage cram down bill has already passed the House. It is amazing that it has taken this long to even get this thing going if the true premise of the politicians and policy makers was to save homeowners from losing their [...]
Federal Reserve and U.S. Treasury Fleece the American Public: Total Market Cap of TARP Participants is $336 Billion, We Can Buy Them Out Completely: Enough with TARP and Nationalize NOW.
As we now are realizing in growing agony, the first $350 billion in TARP funds were poorly managed and did very little to improve the economic conditions of this country. In fact, I have argued that the U.S. Treasury and Federal Reserve through various market actions have taken actions to make saving money a very [...]
Orange County Jobs: The Real OC, Companies Cutting Jobs Since the Recession Started in California.
Southern California’s most expensive area, Orange County is not immune from the current economic downturn. The employment situation is dire across the state with the current unemployment rate spiking to 9.3% in December from a rate of 8.4% in November. The speed of job losses is increasing in a state with a deeply troubled housing [...]
Art Nadel: Art Nadel the new Bernard Madoff? 76 Year Old Financial Swindler. Disbarred Early in his Career for taking client money to pay off Loan Sharks.
Art Nadel, if you haven’t heard, is another financial swindler in the similar vein of Bernard Madoff. Of course his $350 million swindle doesn’t hold a light to Madoff’s $50 billion Ponzi scheme but this does tell us one thing, where there is one roach there will be many more. And that is why we [...]
Bankrupt Consumer: Chapter 7 Bankruptcies up. Credit Card and Consumer Credit Crisis: Americans were Using Consumer Credit as a Lifeline and it is now drying Up Pushing Bankruptcies Upward. $2.5 Trillion in Loans at Risk.
Credit cards have been around for many years with Bank of America creating the BankAmericard in 1958, which eventually evolved into the modern day Visa system. MasterCard has been around since 1966 and received significant backing from Citibank. These names are familiar with the current credit crisis. Credit cards have been one component of the [...]
Saving Nation: You Know you Have a Fiscal Problem When Saving Money Actually Becomes a Detriment to the Health of our Economy.
In George Orwell’s dystopian 1984, doublethink was the ability for someone to hold two mutually contradictory beliefs, and accepting them both. We have now entered into the world when Americans actually saving money is bad for the health of our consumption economy. War is peace. Saving is spending. Our Ministry of Truth is the Federal [...]
Fiscal Situation of 50 States: Combined Budget Gaps Estimated at $350 Billon for 2010 and 2011.
It is simply stunning that 44 states are facing shortfalls either for this fiscal year, or will come up short in 2010 or 2011. This puts virtually the entire country in a difficult financial situation. It is hard to understand how the media feels that the federal government is somehow better able to get money [...]
Homeownership: Is a High Homeownership Rate Good Policy? No. Examining 3 Cycles of Homeownership Data over 100 years and Implications for the Economy.
The current housing crisis has left us with an opportunity to examine the driving issue behind a high homeownership rate. Is it really worth it to push for an economic policy that champions a high homeownership rate? The problem with blanket statements is they usually play into herd mentality and feed into group think. One [...]
Fiscal Stimulus: Does Government Investment help the Economy. Examining the Impact of Monetary and Fiscal Stimulus.
The economic difficulties facing our country have for the first time, made the Federal Reserve and U.S. Treasury seem powerless in regards to starting the economic engine once again. For nearly 100 years, the school of thought was that monetary policy was the driving force for everything. If inflation was picking up, all you needed [...]
