Greeks will riot to protest your car running out of gas, it’s just their culture.
However, we won’t be immune. The $800 Billion Stimulus, it turns out, was used to prop up state governments. State government coffers have been falling due to decreased tax revenues from the Recession.
Here in Alabama, 40% of our 2010 state budget is federal Stimulus money. It’s unheard of. 40%! The last federal Stimulus payment to state coffers nationwide is October 1.
After October 1, bureaucrats are referring to their budgets as going over “the cliff” because unemployment is too high (greater payouts in state unemployment benefits), lower income/property/sales taxes, and no more federal Stimulus money.
So it turns out that the 2nd Stimulus wasn’t a Stimulus at all...the money was misused to keep state bureaucrats in their jobs, rather than to create new jobs.
And after October, the fun is over for states. Essentially, they can hide the looming state budget crisises nationwide, save for the worst hit states like California and Illinois, until after the November elections due to the lag in reporting.
Well, here’s a newsflash: government jobs are staffed in disproportion by the people most likely to riot when their jobs/pay are cut.
And the grand state budget coffers of old are gone. They aren’t coming back. The Baby Boomers are hitting retirement age, 30% of global wealth is gone, and 50% of the available consumer credit has been lost since 2006.
Which is to say, economies have to adjust to a smaller reality...and as do economies, so will staffing.
Joe Weisenthal
Mar. 12, 2010, 8:32 AM
February retail sales jumped .3%, which is well above the decline analysts were expecting.
Ex-autos they soared .9%.
Stocks are heading higher, once again.
We're back!
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