Posts about California’s Budget Deficit as of October 16, 2009

  Let’s take a walk through today’s newspaper and see what there is to see. First I see an article about the US deficit dilemma. We see that the deficit this fiscal year is about $1.4 trillion dollars or 9.9% of GDP, bigger than any year since 1945. Of course the current administration blames the previous administration, things like cutting taxes, the wars and the Medicare drug benefit (a benefit by the way that is being significantly improved in one of the pending health care “reform” bills before Congress).

1) Pension funds stand to lose $600M in Manhattan venture “California’s two largest pension funds face total loss of their investments in a Manhattan real estate deal that is collapsing under its own debt.” 2) (Mish) Time for Baltimore to “Pull a Vallejo” and Declare Bankruptcy 3) Foreclosures in 3rd quarter up nearly 23% from 2008 “A large number of adjustable-rate loans are slated to reset, which means they can bring higher monthly payments for homeowners.

When critics of the N.H.L. try to explain what they feel is wrong with the league, they often say the league does not market its stars in the United States as other pro sports do. Showcase their personalities, the argument goes, and the N.H.L. will rise in popularity.Whether or not that is true, whether or not it is realistically possible and whether or not it would have an an appreciable impact is the subject for another post, but one thing is certain — as the Coyotes failure to sell tickets by making Wayne Gretzky their coach demonstrated — promoting the personality of someone other than a player is not likely to advance a team’s or a league’s profile.

More from Bob Chapman via The International Forecaster. “Our view is that the elitists are currently buying time for the dollar, and stalling the rally in precious metals, by weakening other currencies until they are ready for the big stock takedown/correction.  This process of supporting the dollar is becoming extremely expensive and difficult, so they had to take the Dow down 200 points on Thursday to start some stock contagion in Asia and Europe to flush some money into dollars and treasuries.

Amazon’s Kindle e-reader cannot be manufactured in the U.S. and that’s a cause for concern. Even though the Kindle’s key innovation — its electronic ink — was invented and is being made, at least for now, in the U.S., Asian manufacturers are capturing the vast majority of the value added by manufacturing the e-reader itself. Even more worrisome, the U.S. is almost certain to lose control of the e-paper display technology and the future innovations that spring from it.

Picture this: You’re driving across the Mojave Desert and your car breaks down. You left your phone at the hotel, so you can’t call for help. You have a bottle of water, and you think you’re nearing the end of the desert, so you get out of the car and start walking.

BRITNEY SPEARS DEBUTS ON TOP According to Billboard, Britney Spears is the first artist in over three years to debut at number one on the Hot 100, with her new single “3.”  The track off her upcoming hits set, The Singles Collection, sold over 255-thousand downloads in its first week of release.  “3″ is the first title to debut at number one since Taylor Hicks’ American Idol-winning song “Do I Make You Proud” bowed at the top spot back in 2006.  Britney Spears’ debut single, “…Baby One More

Los, Angeles, California (WiredPRNews.com) – Maria Shriver, wife of California Governor, Arnold Schwarzenegger, has been singled out for violating a state law. As reported by the Associated Press (AP), Shriver was caught on camera driving while using her cell phone, which entertainment news site TMZ posted online. The act is reportedly a violation of a law signed by the governor.As noted in the report, although Shriver’s office refused to comment on the situation, the governor commented about the photographs on Twitter to Harvey Levin, founder of TMZ.

Since overall prices declined throughout 2009, the social security administration announced that there will be no cost of living increases for recipients next year : The Social Security Administration makes it official Thursday: There will be no cost of living increase for Social Security recipients next year, the first year without one since automatic adjustments were adopted in 1975.

When everything is stripped away, that’s what the Democrats’ health care proposals consist of. The Cato Institute’s Michael Tanner makes a compelling argument to start over in this USA Today op-ed . The first thing that caught my attention was this cautionary note: Problematic as our system often is, it is possible to make things worse.

I get confused by the news quite often. Here are five anomalies that make no real sense. 1)   Football as Ethical Sermonizing. Most watch football as a release from anxieties, work, and even the race/class/gender obsessions of our age, and see players in non-racial terms. And I think viewers put up with the growing hypocrisies, pretensions, and repugnancies of the NFL—star players involved in drugs, assaults, shootings, (even the creepy  base cruelty to animals), the dubious origins of some