In mid-August 2015, the state government of Illinois began to “technically default” on payments it owes on its outstanding debt, joining the fiscally troubled U.S. territory of Puerto Rico in the hall of debt shame. Writing at Business Insider, Certified Financial Advisors Michael Comes and John Mousseau describe how that happened and what that…
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As we recently noted, the California Department of Transportation employs 3,500 full-time engineers who do little more than sit at their desks. The state’s Legislative Analyst wants to cut these positions, but Caltrans executives cried foul. So did union boss Bruce Blanning, executive director of Professional Engineers in California Government. Blanning told reporters the…
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When the economy gets rocky, investors often turn away from riskier alternatives to the world’s safest and most risk-free investment, the debt securities issued by the U.S. federal government, in what is often described as a “flight to quality.” The same phenomenon holds true for the world’s central banks, where the primary financial institutions…
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As Lawrence McQuillan has noted, unfunded pension liabilities have soared to $4.7 trillion nationwide and California accounts for $550 billion to $750 billion of the total. A case outlined by Brad Branan in the Sacramento Bee shows why California is a leader in this field. In Loomis, near Sacramento, town councilman Brad Wheeler was…
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The troubled Environmental Protection Agency has a lot of problems, but according to Adam Andrzejewski of Open the Books, a lack of military-style weapons for the agency’s 200 environmental law enforcement agents isn’t among them. The Washington Times reports on Andrzejewski’s findings of how the agency has spent millions of dollars over the past…
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Not long ago, we featured a creative visualization of data developed by Jeff Desjardins of Visual Capitalist showing how all the money owed by all the governments of the world is broken up between them. Desjardins has surpassed himself with a new world debt infographic, which digs into the ability of the world’s nations…
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Arne Duncan is stepping down as federal Education Secretary, but the Washington Post news story of almost 3,000 words left out some key details. Duncan, one of the president’s Chicago pals, has been the federal point man against school choice. As we noted, the current president, like Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter before him,…
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Politicians and pundits like to decry predatory lending, the practice of private banks and credit card companies preying on poor and vulnerable people. Indeed a new federal agency, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, was recently established to ride herd on private lenders. As Brad Branan of the Sacramento Bee shows, the worst offenders would…
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Last week, we considered what your share of your state’s debt is. Today, we’re going to find out which state is in the worst situation with respect to its debt! Before we go any farther, let’s consider what we mean by worst off. While having the largest debt per capita is not a good…
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The following chart appeared in a Bloomberg article several weeks ago comparing the size of all-but-completely-bankrupt U.S. territory Puerto Rico with the 50 states. You might want to click on the image to see a larger one to see how your state ranks. Bloomberg explains the numbers: Puerto Rico’s debt per capita of $15,637…
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