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I started the debt clock some years ago and I still think it's a good reminder that the government shouldn't continue its spending spree. In the most recent update I added taxes with all figures projected forward to today based on 2008 Stats Canada numbers. Oh, and just to be clear, this clock measures the total of federal, provincial and municipal debt & tax.
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Debt, Government & Economic News
[More Stingy News: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | Send Us A Link]
| Seven states of energy debt | ||
| "I've identified seven large US states by four criteria that are sure to cause trouble for Washington's political class at least for the next 3 years, through the 2012 elections. These are states with big populations, very high rates of unemployment, and which have already had to borrow big to pay unemployment claims. In addition, as a kind of Gregor.us kicker, I've thrown in a fourth criteria to identify those states that are large net importers of energy. Because the step change to higher energy prices played, and continues to play, such a large role in the developed world's financial crisis it's instructive to identify those US states that will struggle for years against the rising tide of higher energy costs." [02/08/10], Government | ||
| Emergency in Nevada | ||
| "Nevada's budget is so far out of balance that by one account the state could lay off every worker paid from the general fund and still be $300 million in the red. The economic downturn has hit so hard that prisons may be closed, entire colleges shuttered and thousands left without jobs." [02/08/10], Government | ||
| Could California really default? | ||
| "One reason these investors had fled new issues, of course, is because munis are supposed to be conservative investments that offer only a modest return to their holders in exchange for being able to sleep peacefully at night. A loss of confidence in this market doesn't occur quickly but is a long-term process, and politicians can exacerbate the uncertainty when their rhetoric becomes more and more bombastic and their assurances steadily more unrealistic, something that's now becoming commonplace among California officials." [01/27/10], Debt | ||
| Leviathan stirs again | ||
| "The gap between American public spending and Canada's has tumbled from 15 percentage points in 1992 to just two percentage points today." [01/25/10], Government | ||
| Paul Volcker | ||
| "In mid 2009, he joked that the only useful recent banking innovation was the invention of the ATM; by late last year, this was no longer presented in jest and he was deploring excesses in risk-taking and bonuses." [01/24/10], Government | ||
| Better off deadbeat | ||
| "While most Americans with unpaid bills dread the collector's call, Cunningham sees them as lucrative opportunities. Many collection and credit card companies, intentionally or not, violate little-known consumer rights laws, and Cunningham's favorite pastime is catching them doing so and then suing them. In fact, it's a profitable side job." [01/21/10], Debt | ||
| Illinois enters a state of insolvency | ||
| "The sharp rise in pension payments is the biggest factor pushing Illinois toward what a legislative task force last November called "a 'tipping point' beyond which it will be impossible to reverse the fiscal slide into bankruptcy." The little-noticed report on the state's pension problems warned that "the radical cost-cutting and huge tax increases necessary to pay all the deferred costs from the past would become so large that many businesses and individuals would be driven out of Illinois, thereby magnifying the vicious cycle of contracting state services, increasing taxes, and loss of the state's tax base."" [01/19/10], Government | ||
| The disposable worker | ||
| "When employment in the U.S. eventually recovers, it's likely to be because American workers swallow hard and accept lower pay. That has been the pattern for decades now: Shockingly, pay for production and nonsupervisory workers - 80% of the private workforce - is 9% lower than it was in 1973, adjusted for inflation." [01/09/10], Economy | ||
| Government replaced jobs | ||
| "In the just-so story of the evolution of our economy, our old manufacturing based economy has been replaced by an innovative knowledge economy. That's not quite true." [01/06/10], Government | ||
| What's a bailed-out banker worth? | ||
| "How people are paid at the top in a free-market system has always been a contentious issue, especially in bad times. Babe Ruth.s most famous quip was not about baseball but about salaries. When asked in 1930 if it was right that he should be making more money than President Hoover, he replied, 'I had a better year than he did.'" [01/03/10], Government | ||
| A map of vanishing employment | ||
| "The economic crisis, which has claimed more than 5 million jobs since the recession began, did not strike the entire country at once. A map of employment gains or losses by county tells the story of how those job losses first struck in the most vulnerable regions and then spread rapidly to the rest of the country." [01/03/10], Economy | ||
| The states and the stimulus | ||
| "Remember how $200 billion in federal stimulus cash was supposed to save the states from fiscal calamity? Well, hold on to your paychecks, because a big story of 2010 will be how all that free money has set the states up for an even bigger mess this year and into the future." [01/03/10], Government | ||
| Loan effort adding to housing woes | ||
| "The Obama administration.s $75 billion program to protect homeowners from foreclosure has been widely pronounced a disappointment, and some economists and real estate experts now contend it has done more harm than good." [01/02/10], Government | ||
| Michigan forces owners into unions | ||
| "It's telling that in several states that have gone down this road, state and federal subsidies are the source of the union dues. In Michigan, the scheme is essentially throwing a cash lifeline to unions like the UAW, which are hemorrhaging members." [12/26/09], Government | ||
| How big a problem is moral hazard? | ||
| "Do I think that we have a moral hazard problem in our system? Indisputably. The continued existance of Citibank defies belief, unless you factor in implied guarantees." [12/26/09], Government | ||
| California's in trouble | ||
| "Without wishing to be overly dramatic, it is this sort of legislative impasse that has enabled many dictators in the past to come to power" [12/26/09], Government | ||
| The government that stole Christmas | ||
| "The science of trans-fats is not settled, but even if it were, surely a rational and humane exception must be made where it's a choice between imperfect foods and going hungry." [12/26/09], Government |
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