What could California look like in a couple years? Maybe even the U.S.? Have you seen what’s been going on in Greece, lately? (And just around the bend – Portugal, Spain, Italy, etc.) For now, the “
European Aid Plan Propels U.S. and Global Markets,” but it’s just kicking the can down the road…
Coming to a California street near you?Add Greece: "
What we're seeing in Greece is the death spiral of the welfare state, and virtually every advanced nation, including the United States, faces the same prospect."
As Tim Cavanaugh writes: “
California: The American Greece -What do Europe’s most bankrupt nation-state and America’s most bankrupt united state have in common, aside from being bankrupt? In what is undoubtedly a coincidence noticed only by free-market fundamentalists, it turns out that Greece, that sun-drenched paradise on the Aegean, and California, that sun-warmed El Dorado on the Pacific, are the worst places to do business in their respective economic zones. . . . The insidious thing about an unfriendly business climate is that it takes a long time for the effects to show up in the government’s inability to pay its bills. So long, in fact, that when the sovereign bankruptcy comes, it’s easy to draw the conclusion that tax rates are too low. Both California and Greece are going through a variety of this type of denial right now. But with the governor of California and the prime minister of Greece both promising to turn over a new leaf, this is a good time to remember that you can’t take people’s money if you prevent them from making money in the first place.”
Speaking of things going badly in California: To no one’s surprise at all, “
expect a bad-news budget Friday – [Gov. Arnold] Schwarzenegger's revised plan likely to include ‘harsh spending reductions’ after revenues come in far below projections.”
He's a funny, funny man...Add Schwarzenegger: "I was also going to give a graduation speech in Arizona this weekend. But with my accent, I was afraid they would try to deport me” (quoted by the
Atlanta Journal Constitution, at a graduation speech at Emory University.)
Elsewhere in California: while the state continues to drown in debt, the boondoggle known as the “California High-Speed Rail Project” clips right along – despite the fact it will never roll. The latest news – the director of the effort will in all likelihood be
pulling down in excess of $400,000 per year. Meanwhile, state unemployment figures rose last month and the budget deficit is now approaching an estimated $40 billion…
California's High-Speed Rail: look carefully - this is as real as it will ever get...Meanwhile over on Spring Street (address of the
L.A. Times):
The newspaper “explains why it will not endorse Jerry Brown, Meg Whitman, Steve Poizner or Barbara Boxer in the primary, saying of the latter ‘she displays less intellectual firepower or leadership than she could.’ Of Poizner, who the paper endorsed for insurance commissioner in 2006, the editorial board writes: ‘Poizner has become an adept baiter of illegal immigrants, state employees, human service recipients and all the rest of the right's imagined evildoers. If he truly believes his new talking points, we're unable to support him now. If he has latched onto them as part of a cynical bid for political advancement, we can't support him now.’”
Meg vs. Steve - clash of the (corporate) titans...Finally, you've got to wonder where California’s very own Babs has been: “[U.S. Sen. Barbara]
Boxer Promotes Wall Street Reform”… (Nothing like a day late and a few billion dollars short, eh?)...
She wants you to call her "senator"....Hat tip/sources: NY Times, San Francisco Chronicle/SFgate, LAObserved.com, KCBS, Taegan Goddard’s Political Wire, the Atlanta Constitution-Journal, Reason, Instapundit, CBC, Moonbattery.
