"It's crazy. It's really just unbelievable," said Scott Pattison, executive director of the National Association of State Budget Officers, and called the states' revenue situations "close to unprecedented."
They don't know the half of it. Just wait till 2010 rolls around and all that commercial property comes off the state tax rolls.
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This from the Market Ticker:
Barney Frank, the Massachusetts Democrat who is chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, said in an interview that the defaults were, in essence, worth it.
“I don’t think it’s a bad thing that the bad loans occurred,” he said. “It was an effort to keep prices from falling too fast. That’s a policy.”
Got it? It's a policy to screw the state and local governments.
Huh, you say? It's simple, really: State and local governments rely on property tax revenues. Yet defaulted mortgages don't pay property taxes. Yes, there's a lien on the property but this doesn't help the municipal budget now.
Want to know more? Click here.Tax revenues used to pay teachers and fuel police cars continue to trail even the most pessimistic expectations, despite the cash from the economic stimulus plan pouring into state coffers.
"It's crazy. It's really just unbelievable," said Scott Pattison, executive director of the National Association of State Budget Officers, and called the states' revenue situations "close to unprecedented."
If this wasn't enough to worry about. . .
Check this out from Naked Capitalism via Washington's Blog:
You know all about the subprime, alt-a, option arm, and commercial real estate crises.
You’re well-aware of the house of cards built with credit default swaps, securitized assets and other exotic investments.
You’ve heard about the massive debt overhang threatening individuals, companies and the country as a whole, and the massive de-leveraging which is still to occur.
You’re aware of the soaring unemployment rate, the tapped out consumer, and many other economic problems.
But do you know about the demographic crisis?
What Demographic Crisis?
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This from Contrarian Profits:
Credit Watch: $400 Billion in Leveraged Loans About to Go “Pop”
Most investors’ eyes are on stocks right now. And for many stock optimists the credit crunch is ancient history. Not so, says global finance insider Simon Mellon.According to Simon, we may be looking at another serious credit blow-up in a dark corner of the credit markets known as leveraged loans. So if you think the credit crisis is over, think again.
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