Posted on 12/21/2009 6:57:06 AM PST by george76
Nah. The solution is traditional bankruptcy. But it's important to appoint the right conservator. How about hiring those folks on the far side of the pond? They've shown they know how to get an economy humming without the impediment of a legislature!
Which “pond”?..................
The power to coin money is the key to controlling taxes & trade. Once the respective states begin to create their own script, initially for inter-state purposes like Calif IOUs (eg property taxes, etc), then we will begin the irrevocable process of de-federalization.
The world (USA) will end not with a bang, but with a whimper. Once governments at all levels can no longer pay the military, police and other security services, the power of the state collapses.
Forget Japan - we are going to experience dissolution similar to the USSR. Once sovereignty is returned to the respective states, they can determine to what extent they wish to participate in common defense, etc.
USA 1.0 is dead. It will be up to USA 2.0 to restore legitimacy.
I DO know that patriots should work to make the ensuing crisis as transformational as possible.
For example - public employee union "contracts" are obviously invalid on their face, and should be outlawed. No executive authority can spend, or promise to spend, money beyond appropriations - and no legislature can bind a future legislature to spend or to tax - with the possible exception of appropriations provided by Congress for the Navy.
I'm sure there are many other things that can be done when California defaults that are now impossible. Let's get busy making a list - a long one.
DW would be screwed for sure. But no more or less screwed than if she'd worked in the dreaded private sector and invested in her employer's stock only to see it go bankrupt. Stupid board of directors, stupid voters. If you depend too much on either, you lose!
Depending on a state pension is an example of a basic investing mistake: lack of diversification.
Public employee pensions should be abolished. Government employees should be in the same boat with the rest of us — defined contribution
(aka saving and investing), not defined benefit
.
* DC real estate is gonna crash - when the spigot of fiat money turns off, perhaps as early as spring 2010, there won't be anything to sustain the region.
* Concurrently, the respective state capitals should see a significant resurgence as control over security services, banking/finance laws & regs, etc return to the states.
* Since there won't be a Fed with central banking authority, we'll return to state currency and free banking practices - gold backed of course.
* Collapsing currencies will presage a flight to states/regions that grow food. Inter-state currencies won't have a ready exchange market, so if you want to eat, it might be best to be in a state that actually grows food.
What happened to the USSR is pretty much the blue-print for what is going to occur here. It requires incredible amounts of resources to hold something like the USA together. We simply no longer have sufficient economic output in which to afford a national gov't.
Obama Money soon be here.
If California defaults, the illegals go without freebies and welfare and will be rioting in the streets and streaming back to Mexico. It could be a good thing.
*ping*
That is all well and good for you to say with 20/20 hindsight.
Just two years ago state obligations were touted as gilt-edged and very, very secure. The real catch-22 is that if she had chosen a different, private university we could and actually would, have invested the extra money in a diversified portfolio.
Fortunately, I worked for a private employer and did invest in a diversified portfolio, so we will weather the storm, but being screwed by our government is not what we had in mind for our "golden years".
THE CALIFORNIA COWS CAN SHOVE IT! (With all due respect to the good peole who live there like our Mr. Robinson & fellow Freepers)!
“We can sell it to Mexico....................”
They GAVE it to Mexico.
I want one - preferably with a nuc reactor.
Our department laid off 85 percent of its workers. It never rehired or expanded since. I survived the cuts, but it was tough, as the work still had to be done.
Believe me, this is what needs to be done at all levels in California.
Is that just a pipedream, or were any actually made (seems kinda wide)?
This messagethread may be of interest to you — it’s my third ping to you today of earlier messagethreads with subject matter similar to the piece by Sorcha Faal.
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