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On Tuesday, the military will start destroying $32 million worth of planes sitting in storage in Hondo. "We've looked at all the options. This is the best option. This option costs the government no money," said David Smith, communications chief for the Air Education Training Command. Unless one counts the $60 million taxpayers originally paid for these 110 T3a Firefly planes parked at Hondo. The fleet was left to sit for nine years, after three fatal crashes at the Air Force Academy, despite numerous efforts to buy them. "We had buyers offshore for the entire fleet, and could have turned...

  Asia-Pacific China July trade surplus hits record $14.6bn BEIJING (Reuters) - Aug 10, 2006 China's trade surplus set a record in July for the third month in a row, the government said on Thursday, underscoring growing concerns among policy makers about China's economic imbalances. The customs administration said the surplus rose to $14.6 billion from $10.4 billion in July 2005.Economists polled by Reuters had expected the surplus to be unchanged from June's $14.5 billion.Cheng Manjiang, an economist with Bank of China International in Beijing, said the surplus may peak this quarter, especially if the government makes good on...

N.Korea 'Spending Hand Over Fist While People Starve' A Grand National Party lawmaker and member of the National Assembly's Intelligence Committee on Friday said North Korea’s budget structure means it can pour money into its missile program while its people are starving. The comments from Chung Hyung-keun came at a meeting of leading party members a day after the North slammed the South’s refusal to continue food aid until it returns to disarmament talks. "We understand that North Korea intends to build up to 17 more Taepodong-2 missiles,” Jung said. "Some people say each Taepodong-2 costs W60 billion (US$1=W954), but...

OLYMPIA - Try as he might, Victor Moore couldn't completely suppress a smile. For months, the state's budget director has cautioned that the surplus enjoyed today could be washed away in red ink next year. He initially figured that the supercharged economy couldn't keep generating enough cash to pay government's rising costs. On June 15, he learned differently. The economy can, and will, keep cash rolling in for a while longer. ChangMook Sohn, the state's chief economist, said there would be hundreds of millions of dollars more in revenue for the next budget than he had previously predicted. Enough, it...

Budget forecast looks sunny State expects nearly $2.8 billion more in 2007-09 than it now collects JOSEPH TURNER; The News Tribune Published: June 16th, 2006 01:00 AM When the Legislature comes back to the state capital to write a budget for the next two years, lawmakers should have plenty of money. Chang Mook Sohn, the state’s chief economist, said Thursday that his outlook for tax collections for the 2007-09 biennium shows ever-increasing revenues that lawmakers use to pay for public schools, colleges, prison and most other state programs. Despite $3-per-gallon gas, consumers are still on a spending spree, Sohn said....

China raking it in China's trade surplus hit a monthly high in May. The surplus is on pace to surpass last year's record. May exports jumped 25.1% from a year earlier to $73.11 billion, picking up from a 23.9% increase in April, according to customs figures issued yesterday. Imports rose a more modest 21.7%. The trade surplus, the excess of exports over imports, surged to $13 billion for the month, 44% higher than in May of last year. Low-tech, labor-intensive goods like footwear and toys haven’t been great performers this year, but China’s booming electronics sector and its growing prowess...

The federal government ran a monthly budget surplus of $118.85 billion in April, as tax receipts came in stronger than the same period last year. Buoyed by income during the spring tax season, government ledgers in April swung into the black following March's deficit of $85.47 billion. Receipts in April were $315.09 billion, up 13% from $277.61 billion a year earlier, and the second highest on record, just below the $332 billion in April 2001. The April total budget surplus was the fourth highest monthly surplus on record... The Treasury estimates the U.S. government ran a budget deficit for the...

Surplus? What surplus? That was the message from legislative leadership this week as the hands came out for a piece of the unexpected tax revenues. The state so far has collected billions in revenues above this time last year. And yet, everyone seems to be talking about fiscal restraint. "The increased revenue more allows us to dodge a bullet than really move forward," said Assemblyman John Laird, D-Santa Cruz, chairman of the Assembly Budget Committee. The surplus revenue quickly disappears when one starts to add up the state's pending obligations and shortfalls, Laird said. These include $330 million for midyear...

For the month of April 2006 the Federal Government took in $315 billion and had a surplus of $118 billion. That $315 billion sets a record for monthly receipts. And the previous record surplus (years 1981 - 2006) was $189 billion under President Bush in April of 2001. April 2006: http://fms.treas.gov/mts/mts0406.txt Monthly Receipts, Outlays, and Deficit or Surplus, Fiscal Years 1981 - 2006 http://fms.treas.gov/mts/mts.pdf

With the May revision of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's proposed budget for 2006-2007 due out in just days, he is facing a new issue: What to do with the surplus of tax revenues currently flowing into the state treasury? With history as his guide, he must focus some of that revenue on essential one-time projects that do not plunge California into ongoing commitments that could jeopardize California's current fiscal stability. The governor could hit another home run for Californians by allocating a portion of the state revenue increase to levee repair -- something we have all become too aware is a...

One year ago, the chorus of the consensus told America that the dollar’s exchange rate was due to fall in 2005. Under relentless assault from cheap Chinese imports and facing a record trade deficit, the dollar had nowhere to go but down. The influential Economist magazine went so far as to say, “[t]he deficit is unsustainable: sooner or later it will need to shrink, and that will involve a cheaper dollar.” Politicians and pundits predicted economic trauma at the hands of outsourcing. Time has proven them wrong. What the U.S. needed then and needs now is to stick to the...

County median home price reaches $604,000 San Luis Obispo County’s median home price inched past the $600,000 mark last month, reaching $604,170, according to data released by the California Association of Realtors. This was a 2 percent gain from January and a 21.7 percent gain from February 2005, when the median price was $496,430. February’s median was still lower than the record set in November 2005 of $605,160. The county saw an 8.1 percent increase in the number of sales of single-family detached homes compared with February of last year. During the same period, the median price of an existing...

Finally, light at the end of the tunnel for the non-reloading shooter of 7.62 NATO chambered Mil-Surp rifles< Federal 308 Winchester Low Recoil Power Shock round on leftSouth African 7.62 NATO Mil-Surp on right The following paragraph is a quote from a previous article published at Surplusrifle: “Here at Surplusrifle.com, we recommend in the strongest possible terms that you do not fire .308 Winchester ammunition in any Mil-Surp rifle chambered for the 7.62 NATO round.”    It recently came to the attention of Surplusrifle.com that there may be ONE exception to the above statement.  Federal Cartridge Corporation has introduced a “low...

Flush With Cash, States Make Pricey Plans Tax cuts, new cash to health care programs, blueprints for new roads and schools — states have jumped into 2006 with ambitious plans to spend the money pouring into their coffers, a windfall that's just in time for governors and legislators as they start re-election campaigns. The spending spree is the clearest proof yet that the gloomy days of cuts and budget-tightening that dominated the first half of the decade are over, even as some urge caution and others say states have yet to fully recover from the downturn. Lawmakers are arguing for...

Tax cuts, new cash to health care programs, blueprints for new roads and schools — states have jumped into 2006 with ambitious plans to spend the money pouring into their coffers, a windfall that's just in time for governors and legislators as they start re-election campaigns. The spending spree is the clearest proof yet that the gloomy days of cuts and budget-tightening that dominated the first half of the decade are over, even as some urge caution and others say states have yet to fully recover from the downturn. Lawmakers are arguing for tax cuts in Alabama, Arizona, Hawaii and...

Chinese tiger runs towards the trap The Daily Telegraph 02/14/06 author: Ambrose Evans-Pritchard China's trade surplus surged 46.7pc in January year-on-year as the emerging giant continued to shoot up the technology ladder, becoming a net exporter of cars for the first time. Copying the export models of Japan and South Korea, China is now building auto production plant at breakneck speed, with plans to double its current capacity of 8.7m vehicles a year. Analysts warn that China's industrial strategy is leading to rampant over-investment, unmatched by growth of internal demand. The mix is posing an increasing threat to the global...

Google the term "budget deficit" and there are 30,000 entries. There have barrages of articles on this worrisome topic warning us of all of the dangers it poses. Yet, Friday Reuters slipped a one sentence reference to a January federal budget surplus into a daily stockmarket report and that has been the only mention of this very good economic news. " The U.S. budget registered a surprisingly big surplus of $20.99 billion in January as strong receipts outweighed spending, a Treasury Department report showed." Actually, I heard one mention of a surplus last month, so that makes two months in...

WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) -- The U.S. federal surplus widened to $21 billion in January from $8.6 billion a year ago, the Treasury Department said Friday. The government typically runs a surplus in January when corporations and individuals make quarterly tax payments. The January surplus was $3 billion less than the $24 billion surplus expected by the Congressional Budget Office in its monthly budget outlook. The difference came mostly on the outlay side Receipts rose 13.7% year-over-year to $230 billion. It's a record for receipts in the month of January. Outlays rose 7.9% year-over-year to $209 billion, also a record for the...

We all know and understand that budget management and leadership requires flexibility, common sense and cooperation. Representing common principles and conviction, Republicans and Democrats were elected to positions of trust and have sworn to serve their constituents. Somehow, many in Sacramento have forgotten their pledges, or ignored them altogether. I am speaking about our state budget fiasco, irresponsibility and double talk we have sadly grown accustomed to. We all remember the golden “surplus years” in California. California Republican Governors have historically; overcome huge and impossible budget deficits. They proceeded to prepare for the future and to protect a golden surplus...

The Postal Service is in a position not many Americans can claim: debt free. But even a projected surplus won't stop next month's postal rate increase, which the service says is needed to a congressionally mandated expense. Once $11 billion in the red, the post office paid off the remaining $1.8 billion of its debt in 2005, postal Chief Financial Officer Richard Strasser said Tuesday. It's the first time the Postal Service has been without debt since it was organized from the old post office in the 1970s. Overall, the Postal Service finished fiscal 2005 with a $1.4 billion surplus...