California Politicians Slimier than Ever

So the folks here in dreamland have cooked up a way to fix the $26B budget defecit:

* $16B in cuts, except that six $B of that is really just borrowing from the school budget and must be paid back eventually, to the tune of $11B
* $2B in revenues legally belonging to municipalities diverted to state coffers, also to be repaid with some unspecified level of interest -- This isn't the first; if I were a mayor I wouldn't be holding my breath.
* $4B by accellerating withholdings by 10%, temporarily increased taxes that get paid back later come tax-time. Except: by the time you're getting your refund you've already gotten zapped with the latest withholdings. This's the slimiest it's-not-a-tax tax I've ever heard of.
* $1.5B of robbing Peter to pay Paul (at the state level: the municipal level's already been robbed)
* Moving a payday out from this calendar year into next year so that the state workers lose the float on the money and so the payment doesn't have to be calculated in this year's payouts.
* Other unspecified gimmicks.

So while claiming, to great fanfare, that they've finally fixed the problem, California's politicos have done what they've always done: kicked the can down the road so their mess will be Somebody Else's Problem. You know the old joke that you can tell a politician is lying if his lips are moving? Our current pandererspoliticians are doing their part to make even the folks in Beijing and Brussels look honest.

Simple Q&A

Q: What's the difference between Venezuela and Zimbabwe?
A: Ten years.

Nuff Said: The Economist on TX vs CA Economies

The editor at the Economist adds in some faint praise for CA just to sound civil, but from an economic perspective, TX's fiscal conservatism wins hands-down.

The Newest Deal

Obama just announced that they'll allow the government agencies responsible for financing the housing bubble to try to prop that bubble up by allowing refis of up to 125% of the house's "value" (original price?). I can't imagine who'd buy such an instrument from them, but just a word to the wise, don't do it if it tempts you.

Refis are 2nd mortgages and are recourse loans; unlike 1st mortgages, if you default on a refi, they can take the house, then come after you for the rest.

Economics for the Citizen

Just a link post; I'd call Walter Williams my favorite economist, but I don't really have any favorites except for not-Krugman. But anyway, Walter Williams freakin' rocks, and he has small class notes for an intro econ course he teaches called Economics for the Citizen. It's both really good and also nice & short too. I highly recommend it.