While I am blogging

Has anyone found any Democrats in California willing to fight for our ten Senate seats? You mean all Democrats are oligarchal cowards? Say it isn't so!

Grover Norquist, welfare bum

In a 2011 interview with The Washington Post editorial board, Norquist appeared to suggest that not renewing tax cuts doesn’t constitute a violation of the pledge. Here’s how it was written, from July 2011: In other words, according to Mr. Norquist’s interpretation of the Americans for Tax Reform pledge, lawmakers have the technical leeway to bring in as much as $4 trillion in new tax revenue — the cost of extending President George W. Bush’s tax cuts for another decade — without being accused of breaking their promise. “Not continuing a tax cut is not technically a tax increase,” Mr. Norquist told us. So it doesn’t violate the pledge? “We

What is going on? Norquist and his friends are big on defense welfare, they live on government handouts from the defense industry, they are welfare bums, as are most Republicans.

So, CA hispanics, what say we secede and join Mexico?

Mexican boom While California’s economy is in the doldrums with 10.1 percent unemployment, Mexico’s economy is booming with only 5.0 percent unemployment. The Mexican business climate is benefiting from strong production growth and increasing job opportunities. More than 1.4 million Mexicans — including about 300,000 children born in the United States — returned to Mexico from the United States between 2005 and 2010. Net immigration to the U.S. dropped to zero since 2008, while American immigration to Mexico is thriving. UCLA predicts that California’s employment growth will average less than 2 percent for the next three years. The Economist magazine expects the Mexican boom to continue; since manufacturing costs are more competitive in Mexico than in China: “Mexico is already the world’s biggest exporter of flat-screen televisions, BlackBerrys and fridge-freezers, and is climbing up the rankings in cars, aerospace and more. On present trends, by 2018 America will import more from Mexico than from any other country. “Made in China” is giving way to ‘Hecho en México’.” A key competitive factor, according to accounting research firm KPMG, is Mexico’s #1 international ranking as the best place to do business from a tax burden point of view. Cal Watch

So all you deranged CA hispanics, how is it that Mexico runs their nation better than California? If Mexico is doing so good, then why aren't you all demanding CA independence from DC. After all, they have more democracy in Mexico, a better economy and smarter politicians. Wassa matter? Independence for California scare you?

Another CA city going under?

SAN BERNARDINO (CBSLA.com) —  The city attorney of San Bernardino is under scrutiny for telling residents to “lock their doors and load their guns” during a city council meeting.

The official explained that because the city is bankrupt and slashing public safety budgets people will need to start protecting themselves.

City Attorney Jim Penman said he doesn’t regret what he said.

“You should say what you mean and mean what you say,” Penman said.

The city attorney said approximately 150 residents came to a council meeting to voice their concerns about recent crimes in the area, including the murder of an elderly woman last week.

“You could tell the swell of frustration was coming over a lot of folks. They did not feel like they could get an officer out as quickly to some of the quality-of-life issues that they were dealing with as they would have preferred,” said City Councilwoman Wendy McCommack, who organized the meeting and was present that night. http://losangeles.cbslocal.com/2012/11/30/city-attorney-tells-san-bernardino-residents-to-lock-their-doors-load-their-guns-because-of-police-downsizing/

Compton, now this. The bankrupt creature is approaching LA for the kill.

Fake growth for election purposes

I knew the recent growth spurge was simply government moving forward purchases for election bribes. Zero Hedge shows us the numbers.

So what drove "growth" in Q3? Nothing short of the most hollow and worst components of GDP: Government Spending, which soared to 0.67% of the annualized number, the first positive print in years, and of course, Inventories, which were responsible for 30% of the headline number.

Most of us knew that Obama used government debt to win the election, oligarchs pull this crap and fake economists push the lie with happy talk during the election. Now watch us pay for that spending with a growth rate near zero.

This time is different

Fitch cut its long-term rating for Argentina to "CC" from "B," a downgrade of five notches, and cut its short-term rating to "C" from "B". A rating of "C" is one step above default, AP reported.

US judge Thomas Griesa of Manhattan federal court last week ordered Argentina to set aside $1.3bn for certain investors in its bonds by December 15, even as Argentina pursues appeals. Telegraph

Argentina does fiscal management by default. It works, but is a little inefficient.

Islamic Belt Bomber assumes dictatorial powers in Egypt

The Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt has called for a mass demonstration in Cairo this week to show support for the embattled President, Mohamed Morsi, who is facing widespread protests over his controversial decree granting him extensive new powers.INDY

Boys are just out of Africa, not yet adapted to real democracy

Faking it with Felix

Felix tells whoppers today:

The fiscal cliff has already found at least one victim, the WSJ reports: “half of the nation’s 40 biggest publicly traded corporate spenders have announced plans to curtail capital expenditures this year or next”. Felix the Fake 

Not quite so, and the WSJ article he refers to disagrees. Corporate earning are down, we just had the termination of the tech bubble, Google, Apple, and Facebook all facing much lower earnings. Exports are down, as the article referenced shows. The minor down turn we are experiencing is only modestly related to Congressional fiscal cliffing. Congressional riscal cliffing is most likely related to the finally acknowledged problem that multipliers are less than 1.0. Growth rates way below 2%, and the bond market is not sure that Congress can go one more round of borrowings without killing off the middle class. Felix failed to get the memo, mthe Romer multipliers greater than one story is false, bogus research. Felix, pay attention. I suggest you read Mark Thoma's blog, he follows the developing research.

Cal news today

Mainly trying to get California data as I think the state has contracted. Mainly two things, the tech earning are down, the current tech bubble seems to be over. The pension monster is hitting LA sooner than we expected, and we have three tax hikes to worry, state, fed, and a global warming fee, courtesy of Jerry Brown. I will try to get early data and make a prediction before the taxes really hit us. The LAO office in California is saying things look rosy, but they ignore agglomoration effe3cts as in:

Uncertainty Surrounding Federal Fiscal Policy. There is great uncertainty surrounding the federal “fiscal cliff,” the combination of tax increases and spending cuts set to take place under current federal law in 2013. These policies, if left unchanged, would have a significant effect on the economy and could result in economic conditions differing materially from our forecast. As discussed in Chapter 2, our forecast makes a number of assumptions regarding the federal fiscal cliff and its effect on the California economy. In general, we assume that federal policy makers take actions to avoid virtually all major near–term effects of the fiscal cliff. LAO

In other words, ignore the LAO report. Wages in California will re-agglomerate to avoid the sweet spot for double taxation, and I think this causes a contraction. If we get a bit of contraction then the LA bankruptcy moves up two years, happening in 2013. So, a bunch of stuff needs to be resolved.

Also, I noticed the unemployment rate in Fresno has risen a point, seasonally adjusted,  compared to a year ago. 

More California economic news

Ballooning Pension Costs What has rapidly perpetuated financial woes for the city is that payouts for retirement benefits have increased in recent years, thus crowding out services the city provides. A study released in early April by the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research found that, for the city of Los Angeles, “Pension costs increased from 8.5 percent of total city expenditures in 1999 to 13.7 percent in 2011.” For fiscal year 2011-12, estimated pension costs look to have climbed to “15.4 percent of city expenditures.” http://www.calwatchdog.com/2012/11/13/los-angeles-teeters-on-the-brink-of-bankruptcy-2/

Same in Fresno. Stockton is now a concentration camp, barbed wire everywhere. Oakland will need a federal takover of the police.