Running on empty

Last month, Ed gave us the rundown on the financial status of the Motor City. The prognosis wasn’t good, what with Detroit having billions more in outstanding bills than it could possibly generate in revenue. If anything, that doom and gloom outlook might have still been a bit on the rosy side, as the city’s [...]

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"Haircuts" coming.

In other words, Kevyn Orr has reached the same conclusion as just about everyone else, outside of Detroit’s entrenched bureaucracy and political establishment.  In a report to be delivered to Michigan’s Treasurer today, the city’s emergency manager offers a “sobering wake-up call” that declares Motor City “insolvent,” with no ability to borrow further to meet [...]

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"Just about everybody has an unfunded liability."

So, here’s the deal. Stockton, CA ain’t got no money, and has filed for bankruptcy, like San Bernardino before it. Stockton has 300,000 residents and was recently named one of America’s most dangerous cities because it turns out that being mismanaged into blowing all its money and more on promises it can’t keep isn’t all [...]

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Stalled out.

Our federal government sure knows how to pick ‘em. Fisker is an electric car company, founded in 2007, which holds the dubious distinction of producing the only car to ever break down during its Consumer Reports test drive. It was supposed to be an American leader in new technologies, with a revamped factory in Delaware [...]

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Shortfall.

The bankrupt city of San Bernardino, CA voted last week to slash its fiscal-year budget by $26 million, to close up a $52.4 million shortfall.  No, $26 million isn’t enough, and we’ll get to that in a minute.  But the $26 million will have a significant impact on the operating budget for police and fire, [...]

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Divisions.

A perfect follow-up to the last post insofar as both demonstrate betrayals, in different ways, of the Hopenchange brand circa 2008. Back then, Senator Above The Fray scolded people about small, divisive politics. Today, President Above The Fray runs ads on Big Bird and binders and openly describes his opponent as not “one of us.” [...]

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The fate of taxpayer-funded clean energy.

The erstwhile solar company Solyndra, you’ll remember, received a more than $500 million loan guarantee from Obama’s Department of Energy clean energy program and was touted as a poster child of the burgeoning clean energy movement, only to fail miserably at taxpayers’ expense last year. Via Joel Gehrke, PJ Media has the scoop on the rather [...]

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Not so much "roaring" back as crawling back...

And I quote: “When the American auto industry was on the brink of collapse, more than one million jobs at stake, Gov. Romney said, ‘let’s let Detroit go bankrupt.’ I said, I believe in American workers, I believe in this American industry, and now the American auto industry has come roaring back. And GM’s number [...]

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California in a nutshell.

Want to know how California finds itself in debt at the state level by tens of billions each budget cycle?  Why three of their cities have already declared bankruptcy this year, and more may be on the way?  Here’s a cautionary tale from Stockton, one of the three Golden State cities to shield itself from [...]

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Oblivion.

In yet another in our series of posts on what the hell is wrong with my native state, San Bernardino voted yesterday to declare bankruptcy — the third city in California in the past two weeks to do so.   The city of 209,000 was about to renege on its payroll, but as the LA Times [...]

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This is getting really old.

Breaking news: The Obama administration has once again demonstrated a phenomenal knack for trying to pick economic winners and losers, and invariably picking losers. It’s shocking, I know. (Hint: If the government feels the need to “invest” in a venture, because the private sector hasn’t or won’t… right away, wrong.) This time, it isn’t solar, [...]

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The Minus touch.

In my first full-time job, I sold men’s clothes on commission for a small regional chain called Silverwoods in Southern California, a subsidiary in Hart Schaffner & Marx’ retail division (long since defunct).  Some days, I could meet my quota in a couple of hours, and on some days, I couldn’t have sold heaters in [...]

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