The state of California is issuing IOU's to pay its obligations. Seedy operators on Craigslist will pay you pennies on the dollar for the IOU since the major banks (JP Morgan Chase, B of A, Wells Fargo) are refusing to honor the IOUs. What was all the TARP money for again? The federal stimulus plan, which is too small and whose effects are spread well into next year gets to bounce into a state and local government fiscal situation that is truly dire. With the region's unemployment rate in the 14-15% range, voters are going to be looking for someone to blame:
Just a thought: Do you want to be a senator or congressman running for office next year with unemployment nearing 11% (my estimate), with all of the problems mentioned above, and with a record of having voted for the largest unfunded deficits in history? It is going to be a very interesting election cycle.
It would be ideal if we could get beyond the "bump in the road" rhetoric so willfully on display by our local media outlets and get down to the brass tacks. And it sure feels like the political class has run the numbers already, and determined that unemployed folks don't vote anyway. Instead of a vibrant debate, what we're given is mind-numbing stories fixating on candidates' apparel choices. It's amazing what the downtown Vancouver business community tends to focus on, but there you have it.
Me? I’m waiting for the candidate with the style sense to take the leisure suit off the hanger and return us to 1970’s unemployment rates.
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