Category: Finance
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Another Foreclosure Wave Arrives
Half a decade into the deepest U.S. housing crisis since the 1930s, many Americans are hoping the crisis is finally nearing its end. House sales are picking up across most of the country, the plunge in prices is slowing and attempts by lenders to claim back properties from struggling borrowers dropped by more than a…
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How Retirement Benefits May Sink Illinois
We’re national news again. … Indiana’s debt for unfunded retiree health-care benefits, for example, amounts to just $81 per person. Neighboring Illinois’s accumulated obligations for the same benefit average $3,399 per person. Illinois is an object lesson in why firms are starting to pay more attention to the long-term fiscal prospects of communities. Early last…
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IL Legislators Should Give-up Pensions
Illinois lawmakers ought to give up their state pensions. Legislators are part-time employees, but they make nearly $70,000 a year and in some cases can qualify for a pension after as little as four years in office at age 62. If they were elected before 2011, they can retire at 55 and collect a pension…
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lllinois Moves Toward Insolvency
We’re now making national news: After trying to tax Illinois to governmental solvency and economic dynamism, Pat Quinn, a Democrat who has been governor since 2009, now says “our rendezvous with reality has arrived.” … Illinois was more heavily taxed than the five contiguous states (Indiana, Kentucky, Missouri, Iowa, Wisconsin) even before January 2011, when…
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Food Stamps & Taxes Suggest We’re Nearing the End
A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves largesse from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates promising the most benefits from the public treasury with the result that a democracy always collapses…
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European Markets Tank
European markets took a big hit today, obliterating any hope generated by yesterday’s rally. Contagion is back, baby! … Italy and Spain led the downward trend, with the latter index briefly down over 4 percent. Yields on Spanish government bonds continued to push 6 percent, but did not exceed that benchmark level. via Business Insider.…
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Is the Fed Promoting Recovery or Desperation?
A lengthy beating to the Fed begins: On Friday, the Department of Labor reported that March non-farm payrolls increased by 120,000, falling well short of consensus expectations in excess of 200,000. … On the payroll front, our present expectation is that April job creation will deteriorate toward zero or negative levels. Immediately after the payroll…
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Fioretti: Not So Fast Rahm
Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s plan to have five financing giants bankroll $1.7 billion in Chicago infrastructure projects ran into opposition Monday from aldermen concerned about “hidden fees” and long-term leasing of city assets. During closed-door briefings with aldermen, sources said Chief Financial Officer Lois Scott stuck to the script and talked only about the $225 million…
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Illinois Teachers’ Pension Troubles
It’s important to note that this fund do NOT include CPS teachers. Illinois public school teachers and retirees could have reason to worry about the kinds of pension checks they will be getting down the line. … The Springfield State-Journal register reported over the weekend that pension director Dick Ingram sent a memo to his…