Posted on 01/17/2016 10:47:05 AM PST by MtnClimber
As Wilbur Ross so eloquently noted, for Puerto Rico "it's the end of the beginning... and the beginning of the end," as he explained "Puerto Rico is the US version of Greece." However, as JPMorgan explains, for some states the pain is really just beginning as Municipal bond risk will only become more important over time, as assets of some severely underfunded plans are gradually depleted.
But, as JPMorgan details, Muni risk is on the rise for US states, but broad generalizations do not apply (in other words, these five states are 'screwed')...
The direct indebtedness of US states (excluding revenue bonds) is $500 billion. However, bonds are just one part of the picture: states have another trillion in future obligations related to pension and retiree healthcare. In the summer of 2014, we conducted a deep-dive analysis of US states, incorporating bonds, pension obligations and retiree healthcare obligations. After reviewing over 300 Comprehensive Annual Financial Reports from different states, we pulled together an assessment of each state's total debt service relative to its tax collections, incorporating the need to pay down underfunded pension and retiree healthcare obligations.
While there are five states with significant challenges (Illinois, Connecticut, Hawaii, New Jersey, and Kentucky) , the majority of states have debt service-to-revenue ratios that are more manageable.
(Excerpt) Read more at zerohedge.com ...
I suspect CA and NY are worse than they seem. You can play games on pension investment return rates and future expected contributions.
Yes, too bad some patriotic American investor can't build factories there to manufacture high quality semi automatic firearms for sale to American patriots all over America, and train Kentuckians to manufacture them, just for a start.
You are correct regarding automation. And it will only get worse in the next 20 years. McDonald’s will get rid of $15 per hour cashiers and install kiosks.
Yes, Moonbeam (should have flushed it) Brown has hidden all unfunded (state government employee) liabilities from being included in the budget thereby falsifying a black ink bottom line.
Although voters need to get rid of state politicians who either do not know how to manage state social spending programs or abuse such programs, state revenues that could be used for such programs are being stolen by the feds though unconstitutional federal taxes imo.
”Congress is not empowered to tax for those purposes which are within the exclusive province of the States.” - Justice John Marshall, Gibbons v. Ogden, 1824.
If state lawmakers quit sitting on their hands and put a stop to unconstitutional federal taxes then the states would probably have more state revenues to work with imo.
Voters need to support their states by supporting Trump, or whatever conservative they elect as president, by also electing a new, state sovereignty-respecting Congress that will work within its constitutional Article I, Section 8-limited powers and limited power to approprate taxes to support the president.
The war on coal hurt Ohio,Pennsylvania,Indiana and some western states too.
The people leaving Illinois and New York are the productive.The welfare addicts aren’t going anywhere.
During my 26 year Army career I was stationed in Panama, Honduras, El Salvador and Puerto Rico. There is corruption in Central America but they are little league compared to PR.
0bama will replace the coal power with unicorns running on bid hamster wheels. Maybe the coal mines can be replaced with unicorn farms.
Remember, New York City already got one federal bailout. So they should be in better shape than the hogs that haven’t bellied up to the trough yet.
Here comes the bailout.
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The states’ financial problems will be swept under the rug until after the election. Then the bailouts will start.
I’d say that Illinois’ problems are worse then they look, because people are simply leaving the state.
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There are Illinois license plates all over Florida. Lots of them are snow birds, but many will probably decide to stay there.
I forgot about that one.
Of course, it probably got spent in minutes at the time.
I don’t think states can declare bankruptcy.
The smarmy idiot didn't learn a thing. I hope President Cruz or Trump doesn't bail these failed states out.
Bevin will be a good start to getting us on the right track.
I can’t believe CT. Its location gives it so many advantages. Growing up in the ‘50s and ‘60s, it was a wonderful place to live. It is a place that has been destroyed by government, and it still is.
Puerto Rico would be a perfect place to build over-55 retirement communities for middle income retirees, of course with proper security. A tropical climate without leaving the US. Think of what all the retirement checks would do for the economy.
It was just in the news that GE is moving from Connecticut to Boston due to tax increases; it must be bad if Boston is a sanctuary. NJ certainly belongs on the list; we have a bloated government workforce that costs a ton. So much money is directed towards them (current and former employees) that little is left of current revenues to fix or maintain anything.
Would you move somewhere if your taxes were going to pay people who retired 10+ years ago?
The Welfarians will follow taxpayers if the freebies shrink or the ‘hoods become uninhabitable. As I understand it, Minneapolis ended up with a lot of the Welfarian population of the upper Midwest as surrounding states tightened their public assistance policies.
If enough federal dollars are involved, some areas are quite content to attract unproductive parasites; see the fight by some states to take in Muslim “refugees”. The politicians that do this never think they will be the ones carjacked, raped, robbed, or blown up by airliners in office buildings - and they don’t care that this might happen to the people who voted them into office.
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