Mike “Mish” Shedlock is an American investment advisor and financial commentator. He operates the blog MishTalk.com, offering economic trend analysis. Shedlock is a registered investment advisor representative for Sitka Pacific Capital Management, an asset management firm whose goal is strong performance and low volatility, regardless of market direction. He is also a contributing “professor” on Minyanville, a community site focused on economic and financial education.
Last month writers were all aglow on the state of finances in California. For example … The Christian Science Monitor reported Surprise! California has a budget surplus Reuters reported California Governor’s budget has surprise: a surplus Accounting Anomaly Today we learn the surprise $5-billion bump in revenue in January is likely an accounting anomaly as...
Obamacare, officially known as the “Affordable Care Act”, is quickly proving to be so unaffordable that neither businesses nor labor unions want anything to do with it. In increasing numbers, US business complain about ‘Obamacare’ costs (but they are not the only ones). David Dillon, chief executive of the Kroger supermarket chain, told the Financial...
Here’s an interesting email from John Tillman at the Illinois Policy Institute, a non-partisan watchdog of the ongoing mess in Illinois. Tillman’s source is an excellent article on Illinois Review written by Ben VanMetre, a Senior Budget and Tax Policy Analyst at the Illinois Policy Institute. Please consider a repost of Quinn’s Illinois: regulations and...
Editor’s Note: In this report by Mike Shedlock, which provides details from the recent Texas State Comptroller’s report entitled “Your Money and Local Debt,” you can see that in Texas, state and local government total outstanding debt combined equals $233.2 billion, which equates to nearly $9,000 for each and every one of the 26 million...
Those looking for excellent news in the midst of a clearly-souring global economy can find it in Wisconsin, where a Federal appeals court upholds Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker’s restrictions on public unions A federal appeals court on Friday upheld Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker’s contentious law stripping most public workers of nearly all of their collective...
In Social Security Trends and Data there are numerous charts showing the unsustainable nature of the system as it is currently structured. But ensuring the solvency of Social Security is not that difficult a problem (at least in comparison to Medicare or public sector pensions). Numerous things could be done to put the system in the...
Editor’s Note: If you want links to core data on Social Security finance, this post by UnionWatch contributor Mike Shedlock is a good place to start. Shedlock correctly notes that during the most recent 12 months the Social Security program ran a deficit for the first time in history. The 2013 resumption of full 6.25%...
Courtesy of the Weekly Standard, please check out the following union thuggery: Pro-Union Activist Threatens the Michigan Governor: ‘We’ll Be at Your Daughter’s Soccer Game’ A speaker at a protest against Michigan’s right-to-work legislation said that Republican governor Rick Snyder will “get no rest” from pro-union activists if Snyder signs the bill into law. “Just...
California revenue is up from a year ago. Unfortunately, California revenue is not up as much as expected, while spending is up way more than expected. Please consider California Finances in November 2012 by state controller John Chiang. November’s tax receipts fell 10.8% short of expectations contained in the 2012-2013 State Budget, although they were...
On Tuesday voters in California went the wrong way on three propositions. Voters approved Proposition 30 “temporarily” increasing the state sales tax and income tax on individuals making over $250,000. They voted against Proposition 31 that would allow the governor to cut the budget in fiscal emergencies. They voted against Proposition 32 that would prevent...
I just finished slogging through a 69 page PDF by the State Budget Crisis Task Force outlining the dire state of affairs in Illinois. I knew in advance that pension funding is the biggest issue facing Illinois. The task force shows exactly that. Here is a summary. Pension Funding Levels Teachers Retirement System (TRS) –...
The California hit parade keeps on rolling as yet Another California city scrambles to avoid bankruptcy. Atwater, a city of roughly 28,000 in California’s Central Valley, may declare a fiscal emergency as soon as next week, but it is trying to avoid becoming the fourth California city to file for municipal bankruptcy this year, its...
A summary of California State Finances for August 2012 looks like this: Except for corporate income taxes (down a whopping 71.5% vs. projections), the state is doing better in August than budgeted. However, compared to a year ago, revenues are down, sales taxes are down, and corporate taxes are down, all by significant amounts. Moreover,...
The average teacher in Chicago makes $76,000 a year for nine months of work. They were offered 16% salary increase spread over four years. Given the system has a $665 million deficit this year and a bigger one next year, I am wondering why there should be a raise at all. Nonetheless, the New York...
a new form will got here