California budget nightmare – in 1970 California took in 28 percent of state revenues from personal income taxes. Today, the state pulls in 52 percent from personal income taxes. Massive shift to service oriented state.
The problems for the California state budget are deep and significant and will provide fodder for another politically charged year. California faces a $19 billion budget deficit brought on by falling fund revenues and expenses that still reflect a time of better days. The Governor last week announced that 200,000 state employees would see their [...]
5 charts showing deep embedded problems in the banking and financial sector – banking data shows that recession is still going with 5.64% of all loans as non-performing. Banking charge-offs at record levels.
The new motto for banks should be “look at what I do, not as I say” because bank balance sheets are still worsening. If bad debt is any indicator of financial health or of the stability of a bank balance sheet, banks are extremely ill even after the enormous amounts of money pushed into their [...]
Why strategic defaults benefit the dialog on housing. Strategic defaults moving faster than HAMP modifications. The movement for stronger mortgage requirements.
I know many of you have strong opinions regarding strategic defaults. People have a hard time blending in moral and financial obligations. It really is a fine balance and public discourse gets muddied with emotional arguments to a somewhat obvious economic issue. The housing market has not been normal for over a decade. Even today [...]