Jesse Berney: Top Six Revelations in the Call Between Fake David Koch and Governor Scott Walker
by ilene - February 28th, 2011 1:24 pm
The really sad story is that this is what our political system has become. It has nothing to do with representing the people and working on their behalf. Obviously, to anyone who is not a corrupt and lying a******, something needs to be changed dramatically if our country is ever going to reclaim its greatness. – Ilene
The call made by a Buffalo blogger pretending to be billionaire right-wing activist David Koch to Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker is quickly making an impact on the news cycle. (You can listen to the call on YouTube: Part 1 | Part 2.)
Walker is extremely frank with the man he believes to be an important financial supporter, both of his own campaign and right-wing causes. Below are the six most important revelations we learn from listening to the Governor speak his mind.
1. Walker and the Senate Republicans are conspiring to withhold Democratic lawmakers’ paychecks.
A minute into the call, Governor Walker describes a plan by the Senate Majority Leader to institute a new rule that would stop automatic deductions of lawmakers’ paychecks if they do not appear in the Senate for more than two days. It would require lawmakers to appear in person to collect their checks.
Walker describes this as part of a plan he is working on with GOP Senators: "Each day, we’re going to rachet this up a little bit."
2. Walker sees billionaire David Koch as "one of us."
Read the rest here: Jesse Berney: Top Six Revelations in the Call Between Fake David Koch and Governor Scott Walker.
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Stock World Weekly 2-27-11
by ilene - February 27th, 2011 8:22 am
Here’s the latest edition of Stock World Weekly: Irresistible Forces Meet Immovable Objects. - Ilene
Excerpt:
On Saturday, February 27, the Security Council of the United Nations (UN) voted unanimously to institute sanctions on Libya, including travel bans and freezing the assets of Muammar al-Gaddafi and others associated with his regime. Protests have dragged into their twelfth day, and protestors refuse to yield in the face of utterly horrific retaliation by Gaddafi’s loyal forces. U.S. ambassador to the UN, Susan Rice said, “When atrocities are committed against innocents, the international community must act with one voice – and tonight it has.”
The Telegraph reported over the weekend that Gaddafi apparently made good on his threats to trigger a civil war, using irregular forces largely composed of hired mercenaries to launch a counterattack against protesters. “Anywhere we go there is danger,” said one woman, a 28-year-old mother of four who asked not to be named. “All we want is food and fresh water for our children but it is impossible to find. Security is the only concern of the authorities.”
An accurate report of the death toll is impossible to obtain at this time, but on Wednesday, Italy’s Foreign Minister, Franco Frattini said, “We believe that the estimates of about 1,000 are credible.” The situation in Libya has deteriorated since then. Multiple stories coming in from all over the country have cited dozens to hundreds of casualties in each city. It appears that Libya has slipped into the abyss of complete social breakdown and civil war.
This is just one example of the tide of popular unrest that has been unleashed in the wake of the Federal Reserve’s and other central banks’ inflationary policies. The chart below shows the U.S. Adjusted Monetary Base increasing from $1.75Tn in 2009, to $2.0Tn in 2010, and now nearing $2.3Tn, an increase of $300Bn in just two months! This represents an increase of 35% in less than 18 months. (The U.S. Monetary Base is the total amount of currency that is circulating in the hands of the public or in the commercial bank deposits held in reserves of member banks of the Federal Reserve System.)
Another revolt of a more peaceful nature took place in Ireland. The long-dominant Fianna Fail party was brutally rejected by Irish voters, taking just 15.1% of the vote and losing…
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Mort Zuckerman Is Back, Blasting American Socialism; Or How America’s Public Servants Are Now Its Masters
by ilene - September 10th, 2010 1:08 pm
Good article from Zero Hedge making a point I agree with — the conflict between public sector and private sector employees is an artifact of a greater issue – the conflict between the American people and it’s "criminal ruling elite." While government workers came out of the last round a lot better off than the average private sector workers, they are not the source of the core problems in our economic-political system, and focusing on government workers, and Unions, is a distraction from deeper, more pervasive corruptions. – Ilene
Mort Zuckerman Is Back, Blasting American Socialism; Or How America’s Public Servants Are Now Its Masters
Courtesy of Tyler Durden
The man who has rapidly emerged as the most vocal Obama critic, Mort Zuckerman, has just penned his most recent scathing anti-administration missive, this time focusing on the schism in US society between "preferred-status" public and shunned private-sector employees, concluding that "Americans cannot maintain their essential faith in government if there are two Americas, in which the private sector subsidises the disproportionate benefits of this new public sector elite." Is this most recent split in US society being cultivated to take the place of the Wall Street – Main Street dialectic, which even Obama is now forced to realize is a fight he is set to lose (just imagine how anti-Obama Cramer would get if stocks drop by 0.001% during the teleprompter’s next media appearance)? Certainly, in a society that exists simply on the basis of a simple ongoing "us versus them" distraction, while the true crimes continue unabated behind the scenes, this is not an impossible assumption. Here’s a suggestion to Mort and whoever else wishes to peddle more such diversions: how about framing the next conflict where it rightfully belongs: as that between America’s people and its criminal ruling elite?
Full Op-Ed below:
America’s public servants are now its masters, first published in the Financial Times
by Mort Zuckerman
There really are two Americas, but they are not captured by the standard class warfare speeches that dramatise the gulf between the rich and the poor. Of the new divisions, one is the gap between employed and unemployed that President Barack Obama seeks to close with yet another $50bn stimulus programme.…
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Labor Day Insanity from Clinton’s Secretary of Labor
by ilene - September 6th, 2010 4:10 pm
Mish disagrees with Robert Reich’s lessons of Labor Day… – Ilene
Labor Day Insanity from Clinton’s Secretary of Labor
Courtesy of Mish
It’s Labor Day. The markets are closed. Those working for government, banks, schools etc have the day off. All totaled, 17.3 million citizens do not have a job today nor a job they can return to on Tuesday. Another 8.9 million will not work as many hours as they would like, this week, next week, or the week after that.
How NOT to End the Great Recession
In a New York Times Op-Ed, Robert B. Reich, a secretary of labor in the Clinton administration, and professor of public policy at the University of California, Berkeley comes to all the wrong conclusions about where we are, how we got here, and what to do about it. (Robert Reich’s "The Real Lesson of Labor Day" here.)
Please consider How to End the Great Recession
Reich: THIS promises to be the worst Labor Day in the memory of most Americans. Organized labor is down to about 7 percent of the private work force. Members of non-organized labor — most of the rest of us — are unemployed, underemployed or underwater.
Mish Comment: When organized labor is at 0%, both public and private, we will be on our way to prosperity. Organized labor in conjunction with piss poor management bankrupted GM and countless other manufacturing companies. Now, public unions, in cooperation with corrupt politicians have bankrupted countless cities and states.
Reich: The Labor Department reported on Friday that just 67,000 new private-sector jobs were created in August, while at least 125,000 are needed to keep up with the growth of the potential work force.
The national economy isn’t escaping the gravitational pull of the Great Recession. None of the standard booster rockets are working: near-zero short-term interest rates from the Fed, almost record-low borrowing costs in the bond market, a giant stimulus package and tax credits for small businesses that hire the long-term unemployed have all failed to do enough.
That’s because the real problem has to do with the structure of the economy, not the business cycle. No booster rocket can work unless consumers are able, at some point, to keep the economy moving on their own. But consumers no longer have the purchasing power to buy the goods
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Oregon Tax Revenue from Measure 66 is 50% Short of Predictions; Oregon Grants Unions 4.75% Pay Hike
by ilene - September 1st, 2010 1:44 am
Oregon Tax Revenue from Measure 66 is 50% Short of Predictions; Oregon Grants Unions 4.75% Pay Hike
Courtesy of Mish
From the dysfunctional state of Oregon comes news that Measure 66fell about 50% short of its revenue predictions. Balance that with 4.75% pay hikes and it adds up with a continuing refusal by Oregon to address its problems.
Oregon Grants Unions 4.75% Pay Hike
5 percent pay increase for Oregon state union employees begins Wednesday
A step pay increase of nearly 5 percent for Oregon state workers represented by unions goes into effect Wednesday. The 4.75 percent increase will cost the state as much as $16 million through the end of the two-year budget period.
Measure 66 Falls Short
Oregon tax revenues from Measure 66 coming up short of predictions
Early indicators suggest the state won’t receive nearly as much as officials expected from a tax increase on wealthy Oregonians — raising questions of whether January’s bitterly fought election was worth it.
The latest numbers show Measure 66, which set higher tax rates on households making more than $250,000 a year, and on individual filers making half that, has brought in about $70 million in additional collections to date.
"We’re thinking we’re right around half of what we expected about this time," said Paul Warner, head of the Legislative Revenue Office.
Here’s the deal. Oregon raised taxes for the benefit of unions and now they have to raise taxes again because the state only got half as much revenue from the tax hike as expected. When does the madness stop?
I have written about Oregon a lot recently.
Dysfunctional Oregon
August 22, 2010: Dysfunctional Oregon
Sight unseen, I am willing to state that Oregon should get rid of all 64 state boards, no matter what they are supposed to do. Sight seen, it’s time Oregonian voters relegate Gov. Ted Kulongoski to the ash heap of history.
Overoptimism Oregon Style
August 18, 2010: Oregon Wins Blue Ribbon for Unfounded Optimism; Everything "Weaker than Expected"
In July of 2009 state revenue projections were $222.8 million to the plus side. Now just one year later, smack in the midst of a "recovery", a $577.2 million June 2010 deficit is too optimistic by as much as another $500 million.
Congratulations of sorts go to Oregon for winning the blue ribbon for unfounded optimism.
Oregon has already cut state spending by
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California Approaches “Fiscal Meltdown”; Schwarzenegger Declares Fiscal Emergency; Fort Worth Texas Ponders Scrapping Defined Benefit Pension Plans
by ilene - July 29th, 2010 7:04 pm
California Approaches "Fiscal Meltdown"; Schwarzenegger Declares Fiscal Emergency; Fort Worth Texas Ponders Scrapping Defined Benefit Pension Plans
Courtesy of Mish
Governor Schwarzenegger has once again furloughed workers, declaring California is in a fiscal emergency. Excuse me for asking but when has California ever not been in a state of fiscal emergency?
Bloomberg reports Schwarzenegger Orders Furloughs Amid California Budget Impasse
California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger ordered more than 150,000 state workers to take three days of mandatory unpaid time off to conserve cash.
The executive order, effective Aug. 1, stipulates that the furloughs will end when a budget for the fiscal year that began July 1 is enacted, the governor’s press secretary, Aaron McLear, said in an e-mail. It comes after government workers endured furloughs over almost 12 months that ended June 30.
California began its fiscal year without a spending plan after Schwarzenegger and Democrats remained deadlocked over how to fill a $19.1 billion deficit. Controller John Chiang has warned he may again need to issue IOUs to pay bills if the impasse continues into September.
“Every day of delay brings California closer to a fiscal meltdown,” Schwarzenegger said in a statement today. “Our cash situation leaves me no choice but to once again furlough state workers until the Legislature produces a budget I can sign.”
Fiscal Emergency California Style
The Business Spectator reports California state of fiscal emergency: Schwarzenegger
California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger declared a state of emergency over the state’s finances yesterday, raising pressure on lawmakers to negotiate a state budget that is more than a month overdue and will need to close a $US19 billion ($A21.3 billion) shortfall.
The deficit is 22 per cent of the $US85 billion general fund budget the governor signed last July for the fiscal year that ended in June, highlighting how the steep drop in California’s revenue due to recession, the housing slump, financial market turmoil and high unemployment have slashed its all-important personal income tax collection.
In the declaration, Schwarzenegger ordered three days off without pay per month beginning in August for tens of thousands of state employees to preserve the state’s cash to pay its debt, and for essential services.
California’s budget is five weeks overdue, joining New York among big states with spending plans yet to be approved, and Schwarzenegger and top lawmakers are at an impasse over how to balance the state’s books.
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Emergency Press Conference on Newark Budget Gap; Massive Service Cuts; No Toilet Paper for City Offices; Newark is Bankrupt
by ilene - July 23rd, 2010 1:57 am
Emergency Press Conference on Newark Budget Gap; Massive Service Cuts; No Toilet Paper for City Offices; Newark is Bankrupt
Newark Mayor Cory Booker and the city council are fighting over ways to balance a $70 million budget hole. Literally everything is under discussion except the one thing that needs to be done: declare bankruptcy.
Please play this video. It is pretty enlightening.
CNN Money reports Newark mayor: No toilet paper for city offices
In a desperate attempt to fill a $70 million budget hole, Newark’s mayor is taking a chainsaw to the town’s budget — even going so far as to cut toilet paper from the 2010 budget.
"Every single contract that does not go to the core function of our city in providing safe streets, providing fire protection, or other things to keep our city afloat will now be cut," Booker said during an emergency press conference Wednesday.
The reductions include not buying toilet paper for city offices, cutting the work week to four days for non-uniformed city workers, which is equivalent to a 20% pay cut, scrapping city holiday decorations, and closing city pools. These extreme measures, most of which will take effect beginning in August, are expected to save the city between $10 million and $15 million.
The city came to this impasse after the city council deferred a vote to create a Municipal Utilities Authority, a key component of Booker’s method of balancing the budget. Because Newark could issue bonds on the Authority, it would have cash inflow to cover the immediate deficit. Without that infusion, the mayor said they can’t make ends meet.
Municipal Utilities Authority Idea is Sheer Madness
I applaud the decision by the council to reject Mayor Booker’s Municipal Utilities Authority.
It is time for cities and states to address issues now, not raise taxes and not float more bonds that cannot and will not be paid back unless sugar daddy Congress steps in with taxpayer sponsored guarantees.
The Blame Game
As you might expect, finger-pointing is now running rampant. Please consider Newark council slams Mayor Booker for ‘savage’ proposed budget cuts.
Donald Payne Jr., Newark’s council president, and four of his colleagues today put up a united front to counter Mayor Cory Booker’s roll out of "savage" budget cuts, accusing him of political gamesmanship for trying to thrust responsibility on the
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Illinois Leaps Ahead of California in Default Risk, Better than Iraq, Worse than Portugal; Pension Fraud in Milwaukee
by ilene - June 23rd, 2010 3:20 pm
Illinois Leaps Ahead of California in Default Risk, Better than Iraq, Worse than Portugal; Pension Fraud in Milwaukee
Courtesy of Mish
CMA data shows Illinois and California are in the top ten list of sovereign default risks, with Illinois leapfrogging California in terms of increasing risk.
Please consider CMA Market Data as of Wednesday, 23 June 2010.
Sovereign Default Risks
Illinois is ranked a better risk than Iraq, but riskier than Portugal and California.
The countries (or states) are ranked by their cumulative probability of default (CPD), which gives the market’s assessment of an issuer’s likelihood of default over the life of a CDS contract.
9,111 retired California government workers receive pensions in excess of $100,000
Here is the CalPERS Top Ten list
Bruce Malkenhorst is the top recipient making over half-a-million dollars a year in pension benefits. Is that insane or what?
Please click on previous link to search the entire CalPERS list.
3,090 retired California teachers and administrators receive pensions in excess of $100,000
Here is the CalSTRS Top 10 List
Please click on previous link to search the entire CalSTRS list.
Ironman Competitor Deemed "Permanently and Totally Incapacitated" Collects huge pension benefits.
Dave Orlowski, 54 years young, is fit enough for multiple "Ironman Competitions" but amazingly collects $53,063 disability benefits a year plus full health benefits because the Milwaukee police union deems him "permanently and totally incapacitated for duty."
Please consider Fit enough for Ironman but not for the MPD
Dave Orlowski can swim 2.4 miles. He can bike 112 miles. He can run 26.2 miles.
In fact, the 54-year-old athlete can do all of these one right after the other – several times a year. He completed six Ironman triathlons last year, has done three so far this year and hopes to compete in yet another one in Klagenfurt, Austria, on July 4.
Orlowski can also play a round of golf, as he did recently at a fund-raiser for the Make-A-Wish Foundation of Wisconsin.
But this is something the guy won’t do:
He won’t work for the Milwaukee Police Department.
That’s because the former homicide detective has been declared "permanently and totally incapacitated for duty."
As an injured ex-cop, Orlowski has been paid nearly $500,000 in tax-free pension checks by the city since 1999. He is currently receiving $53,063 a year from the city Employees’ Retirement System, plus
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Central Falls Rhode Island – Bankrupt – Goes Into Receivership
by ilene - May 20th, 2010 7:14 pm
Very sad state of affairs. How many more cities will declare bankruptcy before this is over? – Ilene
Central Falls Rhode Island – Bankrupt – Goes Into Receivership
Courtesy of Mish
It’s the end of the line for Central Falls, Rhode Island. Central Falls had been perpetually spending more than they take in. That’s about to change.
Please consider $3 million in debt, Central Falls in receivership.
Declaring fiscal insolvency, city officials Wednesday persuaded a Superior Court judge to appoint a receiver to take over municipal finances, a process that could end up with new contracts imposed on the city’s unions and vendors.
Receivership is the state-law version of federal bankruptcy. The court-appointed receiver has the power to approve or reject purchases and payments and, if the court approves, change contracts with unions and vendors and hire and fire municipal employees.
City Solicitor John T. Gannon said the city is in the middle of all its municipal employee union contracts. Mayor Charles D. Moreau has been trying to negotiate concessions, he said, but without success.
Central Falls’ slogan is “A City with a Bright Future,” but the present has been pretty grim. Its high school, where 96 percent of its 800 students live in poverty, was targeted for a state-ordered reorganization because of consistently low scores and graduation rates. The entire teaching staff was threatened with dismissal until the administration and the teachers union reached an agreement last weekend.
In its petition to the court for appointment of the receiver, the city administration said it has an anticipated deficit this fiscal year of $3 million on a city budget of about $18 million and an anticipated deficit $5 million in the budget year beginning July 1. The officials said the shortfall could not be covered by austerity measures.
Beside the budget shortfall, the city’s pension fund for its police and fire retirees has $4 million, way short of its accrued liabilities of $35 million. Gannon said the city pays out $2.2 million a year in pension benefits from the fund.
In addition to unilateral cuts in pay and benefits enacted by the East Providence School Committee in January 2009, the city has also cut benefits for police officers and school custodians, laid off municipal custodians and threatened major changes in the firefighters’ contract. The Fire Department pact is in the midst of
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Schwarzenegger’s Budget Addresses Few Structural Issues
by ilene - May 15th, 2010 10:32 am
Schwarzenegger’s Budget Addresses Few Structural Issues
Courtesy of Mish
Tonight, with much fanfare, Schwarzenegger released his proposal to fix California’s $19 billion budget deficit. It was a huge disappointment.
Schwarzenegger had a golden opportunity to propose radical changes like privatizing the prison system, privatizing work in general, sending illegal aliens home, or getting rid of defined benefit plans. Instead, Schwarzenegger wimped out on many key issues.
Budget at a Glance
Please consider some highlights from Schwarzenegger’s revised state budget at a glance
Close the $19.1 Billion Deficit Through:
- $12.4 billion in spending cuts.
- $3.4 billion in federal money.
- $3.3 billion in other measures, primarily through borrowing from other state funds.
Spending Cuts Breakdown
- $1.1 billion through the elimination of CalWORKS, the state’s primary welfare program, which serves 1.4 million people, two-thirds of them children.
- $750 million in unspecified cuts to the state’s in-home supportive services program for the disabled, achieved through reductions in wages and services.
- Cuts $532 million from Medi-Cal, the state’s medical program for the poor, by reducing eligibility, limiting doctor’s visits to 10 per year, reducing funding for hearing aids and other medical equipment, and increasing copays.
- $811 million reduction in prison health care expenses by making the system more efficient and reducing funding.
- About $360 million in savings by shifting nonviolent offenders out of state prisons and into county jails and by reducing the juvenile prison population and closing the facilities that house them.
State Employees
- Payroll reductions of 5 percent across all state departments, except for constitutional offices, which already achieved 5 percent reductions. The administration says much of the payroll reduction can be achieved by departments not filling current vacancies.
- A 5 percent pay cut for all state workers and a 5 percent increase in their pension contributions. The administration says this will save $1.6 billion.
Media Reporting
As soon as Schwarzenegger released the budget, the media was all over it. The LA Times headline says it all: Schwarzenegger’s budget deals blows to the poor.
Proposing a budget that would eliminate the state’s welfare-to-work program and most child care for the poor, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Friday outlined a stark vision of a California that would sharply limit aid to some of its poorest and neediest citizens.
His $83.4-billion plan would also freeze funding for local schools, further cut state
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Philip R. Davis is a founder Phil's Stock World, a stock and options trading site that teaches the art of options trading to newcomers and devises advanced strategies for expert traders...
Ilene is editor and affiliate program
coordinator for PSW.