States Facing 'Sleeping Cancer' in 96% Unfunded Retiree Benefits - Bloomberg - Darrell Preston - March 10, 2012 -- The near-failure by U.S. states to fund rising retiree health-care costs for millions of government workers threatens to produce budget crises similar to the one that pushed Stockton, California, to take a step toward bankruptcy last week. States haven't financed almost 96 percent of the $627.4 billion they were projected to owe for future retiree benefits in 2010, according to Bloomberg Rankings data. The estimated deficit grew from about 95 percent in 2009 as governors coped with lower general-fund revenue and rising demand for services following the longest recession since the Great Depression... Delays in containing such expenses just widen the funding gap, said Glen Volk, an actuary for Itasca, Illinois-based Gallagher Benefit Services Inc., a consulting firm. States also may face higher borrowing costs as well as more pressure to cut services to pay for promised retiree benefits, he said. Most states cover such expenses on a pay-as-you-go basis, yet per capita U.S. health-care spending rising an average 5.8 percent annually for the 10 years through 2009 has made covering required payments increasingly difficult. Stockton, confronting a $417 million unfunded liability for retiree medical benefits, took a step toward Chapter 9 bankruptcy Feb. 29 when the City Council voted to enter a 60-day mediation with creditors.
Will 2012 begin the unclogging of 6,000,000 distressed properties? Over 40 percent of the 2 million active foreclosures stand with no payment in over two years and some with three years and more. Foreclosure starts surge 28 percent in last month of data. Mid-tier markets in Los Angeles and Orange County contract severely in 2011. - Doctor Housing Bubble.com - March 8, 2012 - The housing market is clogged like backed up plumbing in an old building. The shadow inventory is still very present even though visible inventory declined last year. It seems like we are diving back into the rabbit hole where information is disguised and bad news is spun as being good. Take for example the number of homes actively in foreclosure. Early in 2009 we had roughly 2,000,000 homes actively in foreclosure. The number today? 2,000,000. The Catch 22 of the giant bank bailouts and financial shell game was the bet (hope) that housing prices would have gone back up after five years especially with trillions of dollars funneled into the banking sector. I mean what can go wrong when you trust banks with housing right? The reality is sinking in that home prices are going nowhere but down unless household incomes rise and that is why we saw foreclosure starts surge last month. The shadow inventory is coming online and that means lower prices. Don’t think this is a shell game? Over 40 percent of the 2,000,000 foreclosures have not had a payment in two years. This isn’t even factoring in the 4 million delinquent loans that are working their way into the REO side of the equation.
No. 414: Hyperinflation Special Report 2012 - U.S. Hyperinflationary Great Depression Moves Ever Closer - U.S. Government and the Federal Reserve Effectively Have Destroyed - Global Confidence in the U.S. Dollar - Systemic-Solvency and Economic Crises Have Not Abated - Precursors to Ultimate Dollar Disaster Are in Place;2014 Remains the Outside Timing for Same - Shadow Government Stats.com - January 25, 2012 - Hyperinflation 2012 is the fifth in a series of related writings going back to 2006. It updates and replaces the Hyperinflation Special Report (2011) of March 15, 2011, which preceded: the U.S. government’s demonstration of a lack of political will to address the country’s long-range insolvency; the downgrade of the “AAA” rating of U.S. Treasury securities; an ensuing U.S. dollar panic, dollar support operations and extremely unstable U.S. and global financial markets; a temporary shift in market focus to Euro-era issues; and growing recognition of the ongoing and deepening economic and systemic-solvency crises. Nonetheless, the outlook has changed little. With the passage of 10 months since the last report (updated circumstances have been covered regularly in weekly Commentaries), events just have continued to move this pending ultimate financial crisis into much closer time proximity.
U.S. Still Down 6 Million Jobs - Smart Money.com - Sarah Morgan - March 9, 2012 - ...The economy added 227,000 jobs in February, more than the 204,000 economists expected, the Labor Department reported this morning. The unemployment rate remained unchanged at 8.3% from last month. But while the economy has added more than 200,000 jobs for three straight months, the damage to employment done by the Great Recession is still far from repaired.
Between December 2007, when the recession officially started, and February 2010, when the Labor Department’s reports show employment hit bottom, the economy lost more than eight million jobs. Between then and now, we’ve added back more than two million jobs. With that big of a gap yet to fill, it’s extremely unlikely the unemployment rate will fall to a more “normal,” pre-crisis level of 6% by the end of this year, says Robert Johnson, the associate director of economic analysis at Morningstar. A rate below 8% — last seen in January 2009 — is possible by the end of the year, however, Johnson says...
U.S. Unemployment Up in February - Underemployment is 19.1%, up from 18.7% in January - Gallup - Dennis Jacobe, Chief Economist - March 8, 2012 - U.S. unemployment, as measured by Gallup without seasonal adjustment, increased to 9.1% in February from 8.6% in January and 8.5% in December. The 0.5-percentage-point increase in February compared with January is the largest such month-to-month change Gallup has recorded in its not-seasonally adjusted measure since December 2010, when the rate rose 0.8 points to 9.6% from 8.8% in November. A year ago, Gallup recorded a February increase of 0.4 percentage points, to 10.3% from 9.9% in January 2011. In addition to the 9.1% of U.S. workers who are unemployed, 10.0% are working part time but want full-time work. This percentage is similar to the 10.1% in January, but is higher than the 9.6% of February 2011.
Bank of America In Trouble? - Rolling Stone.com - Matt Taibbi - March 2, 2012 - ...It’s a very bad sign that a bank is in a desperate cash crunch when it tries repeatedly to gouge its customers. David Trainer, an analyst for Market Watch, a WSJ publication, wrote that the new fees are a sign of series trouble at BAC. He writes:
In my opinion, there are four actions taken by financial services that signal the company is headed to serious trouble.
1. Management shake-up and major layoffs - lots of layoffs over the past year
2. Exploiting accounting rules to boost earnings - SFAS 159
3. Drawing down reserves to boost earnings: to the tune of $13.3 billion in 2011 and 2012
4. Bilking customers with new fees: tried it before and trying it again
Bank of America has taken all four steps. Bilking customers with new fees is a desperate measure of last resort because it requires exploiting the one asset the bank has left, namely its customers.
Gerald Celente on Goldseek Radio - March 9, 2012
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