Charmin Posted October 28, 2009 Report Share Posted October 28, 2009 Another week goes by.... ...and FRONTLINE hits it out of the park again Recession special about folks that are out of work.... fascinating Video Here ------> FRONTLINE Summary We are witnessing the systematic destruction of business, yet there are excesses still needing to be destroyed. I'm sure the government will do a good job of destroying the remains. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
K Wave Rider Posted October 28, 2009 Author Report Share Posted October 28, 2009 After reading the article I made some calls and got additional information. I am not sure that this matters in the big scheme of things, but here again there is a split between cash and accrual accounting. The debt and the obligations mentioned in the article are considered to be all due now (accrual basis accounting perhaps), but the city may be on a cash basis and thus the full amount of the obligations are not all due at this time. Again I am not sure this discrepancy between cash and accrual is even important in bankruptcy court. I do have some reason to believe in the comments quoted in Mish's article. I am writing this only in response to the several comments on this board and to once again mention cash and accrual basis accounting problems highlighting how messed up things are.. I have a hard time believing that that any competent auditor would say "Oh you're bankrupt because you don't have enough cash on had to pay off your bonds and future pension liabilities right now." If that is what you are implying. I am sure they looked at the current portion of those liabilities due over the next few years, and said you don't have enough revenue coming in to cover them. The biggest problem with nearly all these morons in government budgeting offices, is that they don't account for the business cycle. They just extrapolate revenue from the good times forever into the future and then sit there with their thumbs up their asses wondering what the hell went wrong when the downturn does indeed arrive. Californicated has already done that twice in one decade. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BusKow Posted October 28, 2009 Report Share Posted October 28, 2009 Out of curiosity, what are those signals based upon? Price rate of change and common cycle periods (FWIW) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jimbo Posted October 28, 2009 Report Share Posted October 28, 2009 NO BID FOR BIDU It seems the leading active issues are rolling over. Government Sach's black box must have reversed direction. TARP TWO will save the day!!! :ninja: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Slappy Posted October 28, 2009 Report Share Posted October 28, 2009 After reading the article I made some calls and got additional information. I am not sure that this matters in the big scheme of things, but here again there is a split between cash and accrual accounting. The debt and the obligations mentioned in the article are considered to be all due now (accrual basis accounting perhaps), but the city may be on a cash basis and thus the full amount of the obligations are not all due at this time. Again I am not sure this discrepancy between cash and accrual is even important in bankruptcy court. I do have some reason to believe in the comments quoted in Mish's article. I am writing this only in response to the several comments on this board and to once again mention cash and accrual basis accounting problems highlighting how messed up things are.. I think what they're doing is not funding their pension fund. If you shorten the long sentences by cutting out the details it reads: Apparently the City has no idea as to what --will transpire this fiscal year -- on the full accrual basis of accounting. But even on the modified accrual basis -- (essentially cash basis) --the $236.8 million fund balance in the City?€™s general fund -- would not exist except for the City having deposited the proceeds of pension obligation bonds into the City?€™s general fund instead of depositing them in their -- pension plans?€™ bank accounts. Either that or, they are using the proceeds of maturing pension fund bonds to run the General Fund, i.e. raiding the pension fund.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
K Wave Rider Posted October 28, 2009 Author Report Share Posted October 28, 2009 I think what they're doing is not funding their pension fund. If you shorten the long sentences by cutting out the details it reads: You left out the illegal part.....slightly important detail... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Drano Posted October 28, 2009 Report Share Posted October 28, 2009 NO BID FOR BIDU It seems the leading active issues are rolling over. Government Sach's black box must have reversed direction. TARP TWO will save the day!!! :ninja: BIDU up 1.78 in after hours session Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Drano Posted October 28, 2009 Report Share Posted October 28, 2009 AAPL up 5.11 after hours, which is the amount it was down today. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jimi Posted October 28, 2009 Report Share Posted October 28, 2009 I think what they're doing is not funding their pension fund. If you shorten the long sentences by cutting out the details it reads: Either that or, they are using the proceeds of maturing pension fund bonds to run the General Fund, i.e. raiding the pension fund.... To my cursory view, I saw both - a pension fund raid and insufficient pension funding. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mdporter Posted October 28, 2009 Report Share Posted October 28, 2009 California's budget is already $3 billion in the red, and we haven't even made it to the end of the calendar year. One bad Christmas shopping season and the state/cities here will be in even worse shape. :ph34r: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mdporter Posted October 28, 2009 Report Share Posted October 28, 2009 California could solve it's budget problems by raiding the pension funds and telling the funds "tough luck". If the taxpayers can be on the hook for fund losses, then we should be able to take from those funds when the state gets in trouble. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
K Wave Rider Posted October 28, 2009 Author Report Share Posted October 28, 2009 AUD NZD getting nuther big leg down.....EUR and CHF may follow shortly when Euroland opens....would make a nice clean 5 waver on hourly charts... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jimi Posted October 28, 2009 Report Share Posted October 28, 2009 Another week goes by.... ...and FRONTLINE hits it out of the park again Recession special about folks that are out of work.... fascinating Video Here ------> FRONTLINE Summary As the U.S. unemployment rate hits a 25-year high and the Dow Jones Industrial Average hits a six-year low, award-winning FRONTLINE producer Ofra Bikel chronicles the recession's impact on one unlikely American neighborhood -- New York's Upper East Side. In Close to Home, Bikel sets up her cameras in the hair salon she's patronized for 20 years. It's an intimate space where she has come to know well the surprisingly diverse clientele -- from athletic trainers and housewives to high-end bankers, actors and opera singers. Despite expectations that this neighborhood is a secure bastion of privilege, these days, when clients get in the chair, they offer a window into the country in recession: Some are broke, others don't have a plan, and they're all looking to commiserate. Watched it. Very good & very sad. Been there: I was unemployed during the 2001/02 recession. It was a humbling, difficult, ferocious, painful experience. I love my wife so much for many things, but her support through it was something else. My former employer laid off 40% of its employees the past year (I set out on my own two years ago), including my former anal cyst. Kid out of college laid off from her first job - figured it would be fun to take summer off and then find work, maybe in strategic consulting. About August, she begins to sweat it - she begins to understand that this is going to take longer than she expected. Tells me she may be facing moving home. I take her to lunches to make introductions as I can. I also start subcontracting analysis to her - costs me some, but it puts some needed cash in her pocket. She pulled down a job yesterday as a treasury anal cyst at a publicly traded firm. Not what she wants to be doing, but it's a job, and she understands & appreciates that. She is so grateful to me for all my support these past few months - the work, the encouragement, the lunches. I tell her that I know what it's like - and that it's horrible. I tell her if she wants to pay me back that in ten or twenty years down the road, when the economy hits a rut, to find some young person and take them under her wing as best she can... to pass it forward. I know she will. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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