Seeking Alpha says never mind Greece, Portugal, Spain and Ireland… we’ve got 7 states here that are larger and in bigger trouble…
My seven states of energy debt represent a full 35% of the total US population. As with other US states, they face looming policy clashes between protected state and city workers on one hand, and the growing ranks of the private economy’s underemployed on the other. The recent circus at the LA City Council meeting was a nice foreshadowing that the days of unlimited borrowing by governments–against future growth based on cheap energy–is coming to an end. Washington can print up dollars and fund these states for years, if it so chooses. But just as with the 70 million people in Portugal, Italy, Greece and Spain, the 108 million people in these seven large states are probably facing even higher levels of unemployment as austerity measures finally slam into their cashless coffers, and reduce their ability to borrow.
Government and its employees are our public enemy #1.
February 10th, 2010 at 11:42 am
We have an easier solution than the Greeks – free movement of labor. We had such a movement in the 1970s from the Rust Bowl to the Sun Belt (also known as the Bible Belt). What a boon for the sun states! Rent-a-Trailer would pay you to haul a trailer from Texas to Pennsylvania. But when the oil price crashed, the Red River wetbacks went back North. Our labor mobility might be even better if we had not encouraged labor to sink roots into the ground by owning a house. Be careful how you design public policy!
February 10th, 2010 at 11:44 am
Your party wants to nationalize the job killing unions and taxes that are killing these 7 states.
February 11th, 2010 at 9:26 am
Don’t forget the other whacko rats stirring the poison brew.
http://marchhareshouse.blogspot.com/2009/07/unions-vs-environmentalists-and.html