local government

New Jersey Governor Chris Christie declared a “fiscal emergency” for the state of New Jersey today, announcing massive cuts to schools and hospitals.  The issue is less the budget for this year, which itself shows a deficit of $2.2…

Last week I showed you a chart from ProPublica in my post State unemployment insurance insolvency: 50 little Hoovers which demonstrated how states are being killed by the financial strains of unemployment insurance.  Well, this week…

If you have been watching the news flow in the last month, you would certainly have the impression that there are an increasing number of large layoffs – Sam’s Club being a notable one.  Before January, the jobless claims numbers…

This problem is going to be solved via tax increases a la Oregon or spending cuts a la California before FY 2011 hits in July. (hat tip Gregor) (click image to enlarge) Source Unemployment Insurance Tracker - ProPublica

This is not just about California. Come Summer 2010, the most severe gaps will be closed via budget cuts or tax increases unless the Federal Government can pull a rabbit out of the hat. Source Policies for Increasing Economic Growth…

Employees of US states and cities have much better pension plans than do Average Americans and this is creating some serious budgetary problems, one reason to be very careful in assessing municipal bonds, particularly general revenue ones.…

Hat tip Prieur du Plessis. Source Chip Bok, 28 Dec 2009 - Comics.com

Remember when I said the following: GDP as reported From my view point point, the interesting bit about GDP is NOT inflation (i.e. real vs. nominal GDP), but rather the fact that the number which is reported is a first…

Last week after the Thanksgiving holidays, the Supreme Court started to hear oral arguments in Stop the Beach Renourishment v. Florida Dep't of Environmental Protection, a case of eminent domain.  This is the biggest case since the…

Unemployment claims dropped dramatically to 466,000 this past week. This is the best data on the unemployment front we have seen in a long time. The prior week’s claims were also downwardly revised for the first time in a while. These…