http://endoftheamericandream.com
http://albertpeia.com/americanmunicipaldebtcrisis.htm
‘Is
The frightening thing is that all of this is happening at a time when we are
supposed to be having an "economic recovery".
So what will things look like when the economy gets even worse than this?
If hundreds of cities, towns and counties are barely able to keep their heads
above water financially right now, what is going to happen when the next
recession hits?
That is frightening to think about.
The following are 10 signs that
#1
Moody's has downgraded
The city received a
downgrade to B2 from Ba3 for its $553.1 million in outstanding general
obligation unlimited tax debt and also a downgrade to B3 from B1 for the $486.4
million in outstanding general obligation limited tax debt. Both ratings fell
two points.
#2 The city of
#3
#4 The city of
#5 Some cities are slashing expenses dramatically in an attempt
to stay afloat. The following is one example from California....
Costa Mesa, a city of
110,000 south of Los Angeles, has slashed its payroll from 611 to 450. It is
selling its police helicopters and has hired a neighboring city for air
patrols. It's also pursuing a controversial effort to convert to a charter city
from a general law city, which would give City Hall more power to outsource
more work, said councilman Jim Righeimer.
#6 In
New York, state officials are deeply concerned that city
and local governments are paying their pension obligations by borrowing from
the state pension fund. This is essentially like making your minimum
monthly payment on a credit card by borrowing more money on that same credit
card....
And now, their fears are
being realized: cities throughout the state, wealthy towns such as Southampton
and East Hampton, counties like Nassau and Suffolk, and other public employers
like the Westchester Medical Center and the New York Public Library are all
managing their rising pension bills by borrowing from the very same $140
billion pension fund to which they owe money.
Across
#7
Pension problems are catching up with a lot of cities all over the nation. For
example, CBS News reported recently that the city
of
For years, city officials
promised robust union contracts and pensions without raising revenue to pay for
them. Last August, the math caught up with them. Central Falls
was broke, its pension fund short $46 million. It declared bankruptcy.
"My daughters grew up
here, went to school here. It's all gone," said Mike Geoffroy,
a retired firefighter.
He said he could not make
the payments on his house after his pension was cut by $1,100 a month.
#8 Last
November,
#9 Several other
The
#10 In all, there have been 21 municipal defaults so far in
2012. The grand total of those defaults comes to 978 million dollars.
Of course a lot of state governments are experiencing massive budget
problems right now as well.
For example, in
And we all know that the biggest debt problem of all is the U.S. national debt.
Professor Antony Davies of Duquesne University has put together a great YouTube video that shows
how the U.S. national debt crisis could get wildly out of control if interest
rates start going up by even just a little bit....
It is no wonder why so many Americans are so pessimistic about our future.
One new survey has found that 63 percent of all Americans believe that
the
Things did not have to turn out this way, but they did.
As a nation, we did not have to get absolutely addicted to debt, but we did.
Now we are going to pay the price and it is going to be extremely painful.’