Posted on 05/21/2012 6:18:05 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
LONDON — This island off the course of northwest Europe is turning out to be an excellent viewing platform for three blockbuster shows this summer: Queen Elizabeth’s 60th anniversary Jubilee, the London Olympics and the implosion of Europe.
The group of countries using the euro as a joint currency is “a burning building with no exits,” says Britain’s foreign minister William Hague. The Europeans with flames lapping around their ankles are the Greeks, but the whole continent is about to feel the burn.
Yoking most of Europe together with a single currency has proved as unstable as Napoleon or Hitler trying to lasso it with a single army. The euro project was doomed from the start, when the expert economists and Ph.D.s and we-are-the-world Eurocrats almost unanimously agreed that pushing through monetary union without fiscal union was a sound idea. It turned out to be like giving alcoholics the keys to the liquor store.
Panicked Greek voters, who haven’t been able to elect a government with a working parliamentary majority, are about to have a second round of elections in June. The most popular party in polling is the far-left Syriza outfit, led by a 38-year-old former communist named Alexis Tsipras, who has labeled Greece’s latest bailout and austerity package as “criminal.”
If he takes over, he vows to default on Greece’s loans, launch a new spending spree and dare the Eurozone to throw his country out. That would cause or, more likely, be preceded by, a run on Greece’s banks as Greeks hoard euros against the inevitably weak drachmas that would replace them.
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
________________________________
California contains about one-third of the nation’s welfare recipients (despite having 12% of the nation’s population) and is planning a high-speed rail system that will cost an estimated $68 billion, including $4 billion on a section The Los Angeles Times dubbed a “train to nowhere.” Its pension costs for public employees, 85% of them unionized, rose 2,000% in the first decade of this century, which is 1,976% more than revenues increased. A CEO survey in April ruled that California was the least business-friendly state in the US.
In 1999, when the state was flooded with dotcom tax revenue, it set in place a law, SB 400, that assumed the good times would continue forever and allowed government workers as young as 50 to retire on 90% of salary they earned in their final year, when they would ramp up the overtime. In order to cover these commitments through the CALPERS investment fund, the Dow Jones Industrial Average would have to be over 25,000 by now.
Pension and health-care spending for retirees are set to triple this decade. More than 12,000 state and local workers are collecting more than $100,000 a year in pensions. Even convicted felons can collect pensions. Greek and Californian politicians made the same mistake:
They wanted union backing so badly that they promised far more than they could ever deliver. They knew that they’d be long gone before the crisis kicked in, or maybe it would solve itself. Either way, they didn’t care. They were happy to use tomorrow’s seed corn to buy themselves power. California’s pension plans face a $500 billion hole in unfunded promises.
CLICK ABOVE LINK FOR THE REST
“California’s pension plans face a $500 billion hole in unfunded promises.”
And so California is dragging down America? What about the unfunded liabilities of the federal Government? $100Trillion plus.
Leave it to the English to change a perfectly good word. The word "jubilee" means 50 years, not 60.
How can California drag US down if we don’t bail them out? I don’t want one penny of my tax dollars going to support those condescending, hip Commies who think they invented paradise. They need to suffer for their sins.
It would be the best thing for the sensible, responsible people in that state.
” They need to suffer for their sins.
It would be the best thing for the sensible, responsible people in that state.”
Well then... by the same reasoning, the best thing for the sensible people of the US is to suffer for the sins of those who gave us the National Debt.
“Well then... by the same reasoning, the best thing for the sensible people of the US is to suffer for the sins of those who gave us the National Debt.”
###
Since there is absolutely no alternative, that IS what is going to happen, whether you like it or not.
Besides sensible, responsible people have ALREADY paid out trillions of dollars for the criminal folly of our government.
That's still about 45%, albeit dwindling, and they are suffering. Very sad, and as an ex-Californian I can attest that it was a great state, maybe the greatest at one time. Ruined by bubble-headed liberals.
“Very sad, and as an ex-Californian I can attest that it was a great state, maybe the greatest at one time.”
###
I don’t think there is much question that California was gifted by God with so much bounty, that it was truly the exemplar of American possibilities and promise.
As testament to its formidable economic prowess, it has taken the idiotic Communists literally decades to destroy her, and it still retains much strength.
Concisely, my original point was, the damage is done, and the quicker the medicine is taken the better.
And now California, when it was the envy of the world:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JVctxM_zgzI
If the other 49 states want to do something besides complain, they’ll demand Federal legislation that forces California into bankruptcy.
We can’t help ourselves, thanks to welfare recipients from your states moving here and overwhelming the voter rolls — there aren’t enough taxpayers left to make a difference at the ballot box.
If we were forced into bankruptcy, on the other hand, all our public union contracts would be abrogated. We could renegotiate with the prison guards (fifty grand a year instead of a hundred grand), the teachers... all state workers.
One of out twenty Californians works for the government. We could fix that, too: three-quarters of you are fired.
I’m sure someone would still be around to cash my property tax check, car registration fees, etc. Money would still be coming in.
Oh, and while you’re at it? Send in the Marines, please, and repel the invaders/occupiers that have also crippled us financially. And by extension, the entire country.
What’s the downside to a state declaring bankruptcy?
California just needs an enema to get rid of the Democrats.
The entry and exit point is San Francisco.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.