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A bill that would allow the U.S. territorial government of Puerto Rico to restructure its debts has passed in the U.S. House of Representatives, where it now needs Senate and Presidential approval to become law. The Wall Street Journal describes the main goals of the bill that passed in the House with bipartisan majorities….
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Last week, based on estimates published by the U.S. Treasury Department, we indicated that Saudi Arabia owns at least 0.6% of the U.S. government’s total public debt outstanding. But that leaves at least two really big questions unanswered: How much is the total national debt of the United States now? And who are the…
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As we noted back in January, the California Coastal Commission, the most powerful land-use agency in the nation, fired executive director Charles Lester. Since high-level bureaucrats seldom lose their lucrative jobs, this move hinted at the prospects for improved accountability. That didn’t happen, however, and the firing of Lester, an appointee beyond the reach…
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By definition, waste is an act or instance of using or expending something carelessly, extravagantly, or to no purpose. In practice, the existence of waste means that costs get run up while nothing of benefit is produced. As an example, the U.S. federal government is extraordinarily wasteful. In fact, Investors Business Daily reports that…
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From 2002 to 2008 Fred Buenrostro, a former deputy director of the state Department of Personnel Administration, was the chief executive of the California Public Employees Retirement System (CalPERS), the nation’s largest pension fund. In 2008 CalPERS paid Buenrostro an annual salary of $238,992, but that wasn’t enough for the government pension boss. As…
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In April 2016, we considered the use of national debt as a weapon through Saudi Arabia’s threat to sell off its large holdings of the U.S. national debt and other assets. The threat comes in response to the possibility of the U.S. Congress acting to declassify 28 pages of a report about the role…
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When taxpayers count the cost of government, they would do well to include the tab for waste, fraud and abuse by the government monopoly K-12 educational system—particularly abuse. As Richard Winton and Howard Blume of the Los Angeles Times report, the Los Angeles Unified School District, second-largest in the nation, missed a series of…
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