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For Shorty:

 

California State Teachers' Retirement System (Calstrs) said it recorded a $42.6 billion shortfall, hurt by investment losses and up from $22.5 billion a year earlier.

 

Calstrs posted the funding strategy report of its flagship Defined Benefit Program, to be presented by chief executive Jack Ehnes on Feb. 5, on its website.

 

"Given the 25 percent loss in investments in 2008-09, however, the funding situation has gotten much worse," Calstrs said in the report.

 

The funding shortfall would reduce the Defined Benefit Program's funded ratio to about 77 percent, according to the report.

 

If all the losses from 2008-09 were recognized, the shortfall would increase further to about $78 billion and would reduce the funded ratio to 58 percent, the fund said in the report.

 

The fund will need to seek increases in contributions to offset the impact of the investment losses, it said.

 

Source

 

This week a whole bunch of CA school districts announced big shortfalls and layoffs, the SF transit district is millions in the hole, the SF school districts is $113 million short, the Sacramento transportation authority is millions in the hole and will lay off 300 peeps, etc.

 

Everywhere you look budgets are blowing up and more people are losing their jobs. The state here is raising fees all over the place. Bridge tolls her in the Bay Area just got raised again another 25%. $5 to drive over a bridge, more depending on the time of day.

I miss 4shzl. He had interesting things to say about CA pensions.

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Foxie, there has not always been prosperity in the US especially in the states of the old Confederacy. In fact there was extreme poverty in much of the old south until after WWII.

I agree things will be a lot worst, but life will go on.

I agree with you.

The northeast money would be unhappy.

But the Midwest would weather it on agriculture and Texas on oil. Hearty people in both places.

 

Californians?

 

They'd riot and kill each other.

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I tried listening to the youtube embed.

 

It stops and starts, stops and starts, stops and starts.

 

Pretty much chronic for me with youtube links these days, either accessed here or directly.

 

Anyone else finding youtube has begun to suck royally rendering it worthless?

 

Or is it just my ISP or something?

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All these underfunded state and federal pensions make me wonder if these pensions will one day be taken into the Social Security program. I'm guessing it would have to be voluntary on the part of the recipients in order to be legal. But that would be pretty easy I think. The pensioners would be asked: "Do you want nothing, or close to nothing, to retire on (because your pension fund is SOL and there aren't enough employed folks left, who could be taxed, in order to bring the money back), or do you want Social Security?"

 

Cap

 

That's probably one of your more insightful comments.... B)

 

Answer=Yes

 

USA=F**king Disaster

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More Dollar Strength?

 

“The Federal Reserve will also be working with its central bank counterparties to close its temporary liquidity swap arrangements by February 1.”

 

By providing these currency swaps with other central banks, the Fed helped to inject dollar liquidity into banks around the world.

 

In panel A, while the Fed and other central banks were cutting benchmark interest rates to the bone (the white line), the Libor rate (the orange line), or the rates at which banks make short term loans between themselves, was going in the opposite direction.

panelAandB.gif

 

Subsequently, when the dollar swap lines were rolled out, you can see in panel B how this divergence was reversed.

what these currency swaps did was increase the supply of U.S. dollars in the global markets — a negative drag on the value of the dollar.

 

So with the Fed announcing that it will close its currency swap lines with foreign central banks by February 1, the unlimited access to dollars by foreign central banks has come to an end.

 

So what does this mean for the US Markets as the cost increases for those trading in non-dollar currencies?

And what about the cost of US exports?

Would this have an effect on interest rates?

:unsure:

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various ethnicities not meant to live together? sorry, but that is an idiotic statement. (foxie, you are not an idiot--much respect for you and your posts, but i don't buy this at all).

 

two historic examples in this country. first, our great civil war. the ethnic makeup of virginians and pennsylvanians was pretty darn similar. even mississippians and new yorkers shared common ethnic characteristics. the civil war was many things, but it was not white on black, or split along any kind of ethnic lines. and that one killed as many as a million out of a total population of roughly 30 million.

 

second, the ethnic makeup of the mobs in the most recent civil disturbances were quite diverse. the seattle wto riots featured a rainbow of protestors, a mirror of drano's 9/11 story. even the rodney king verdict riots featured white and black kids looting side-by-side in downtown la districts.

 

when californians riot and kill each other, it'll be black brown and white together.

 

even the race riots of the 60s and rodney king lasted just a few days, and resulted in small numbers of fatalities, compared to serious ethnic and religious clashes and wars elsewhere on the globe (darfur, rwanda, kosovo for recent examples). this is one example of american exceptionalism that has (thus far) been confirmed by our short history--that people of various ethnicity can live together. and i don't see any signs of the ethnic conditions having changed significantly in this country to foster a sudden ethnic schism. geez, look at the president just elected by millions of white people. the biggest ethnic split we've had recently was over the oj verdict. no one was gonna start a race war over that.

 

the prospect race war in the us is today as it always has been, since john brown, an extremist fantasy. race and ethnicity remains today a key factor in each and every facet of american life; i would never deny that. sure, an angry mob storming goldman sachs headquarters (ok, i have my own extremist fantasies) will have more dark-skinned folks on one side than the other, but that won't make it an ethnic conflict.

/rant. cue diana ross 'reach out and touch somebody's hand'

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various ethnicities not meant to live together? sorry, but that is an idiotic statement. (foxie, you are not an idiot--much respect for you and your posts, but i don't buy this at all).

 

 

the prospect race war in the us is today as it always has been, since john brown, an extremist fantasy. race and ethnicity remains today a key factor in each and every facet of american life; i would never deny that. sure, an angry mob storming goldman sachs headquarters (ok, i have my own extremist fantasies) will have more dark-skinned folks on one side than the other, but that won't make it an ethnic conflict.

/rant. cue diana ross 'reach out and touch somebody's hand'

 

A race/ethnic war is a remote possibility in the US because of the great amount of integration in the culture.

Other countries have not integrated their populations, so you have ethnic wars. Granny is polishing her Uzi in the town square because the guys in the next town over slaughtered her town in the 1600's. France is desperately trying to integrate it's growing Muslim culture before it's too late. The Netherlands is learning what happens when you don't.

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A race/ethnic war is a remote possibility in the US because of the great amount of integration in the culture.

Other countries have not integrated their populations, so you have ethnic wars. Granny is polishing her Uzi in the town square because the guys in the next town over slaughtered her town in the 1600's. France is desperately trying to integrate it's growing Muslim culture before it's too late. The Netherlands is learning what happens when you don't.

 

Interesting comments regarding this social issue here. I agree that when different races are not integrated or used to each other & don't think they have any reason to want to understand each other & have no common goals or interests, there are often conflicts. Prosperity can be one of the reasons to get along, but there are many others. And diverse ethnic groups that have been mixed together for a long time like in the U.S. often find numeroous common interests or goals. Even having a friendly community where you can easily talk to each other about your shock about such events as natural or man-made disasters, can be a common goal. The biggest common interest in the U.S. may be prosperity. But freedom may be a close tie. Many folks come here for that, as least as much as for prosperity. A woman I knew who was a high-tech worker who grew up in an Arabic country, surprised me when the subject of religion came up. She stated that she was an atheist, because she had experienced religion causing so much conflict and pain between people. She would not have found it so easy to be free to choose atheism as her belief system in the Arabic country where she grew up. A Chi Gong master and teacher who grew up in China, whose excellent classes I attended, told me that he came here also for the freedom, more than the prosperity.

 

Psychological research shows that when you throw groups together that have historically had conflict, then they tend to continue it-- unless they find a common goal or interest. Even wanting to get along & have peace can be a common goal. or interest. The longer groups are mixed together and get to know one another, in a fairly peaceful environment, the more common interests they are likely to discover.

 

Also, in a peaceful environment where groups are mixed together, people can be brought together by their differences, as well as by their common interests & goals. That is, people of different ethnic backgrounds are sometimes fascinated by our different cultural backgrounds & have long interesting conversations about them. Artists compare painting styles. Musicians compare instruments & musical styles etc. And when we are young & hormonal, opposites often attract. That exotic looking person whose skin tone & facial structure are different from ours, may seem like they would be interesting to date, or even eventually to marry. Two of the married couples I know are a an Italian man married to a Norwegian woman, and a Jewish woman married to an Arabic man.

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I tried listening to the youtube embed.

 

It stops and starts, stops and starts, stops and starts.

 

Pretty much chronic for me with youtube links these days, either accessed here or directly.

 

Anyone else finding youtube has begun to suck royally rendering it worthless?

 

Or is it just my ISP or something?

 

it worked great for me. we have comcast....

 

try a speed test to isolate the problem: http://www.speedtest.net/

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I quit my government job a couple years ago, and for the most part have loved being self-employed. I left because I could not bear the thought of spending 25 more years in an environment that rewards incompetence and inertia.

 

2 points I really enjoyed making to people in response to the "how can you walk away from the pension question?" were:

1) it is entirely possible that this county's pension system will fail be before I am able to collect on it.

2) even though I was the top technical person in the group, there was another fella who started just before me and, therefore, had seniority. In the worst case scenario, I would be let go before, regardless of merit. (of course I made this point subtly because he was a nice guy).

 

In the two years since leaving, I have worked nearly every effing day.... weekends, evenings, while on vacation. When the kids get sick, I just find a way to keep the work on track....

 

Anyway, my capabilities are much greater than they were two years ago when all that free time was dragging me down. :lol: :lol: :lol:

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I quit my government job a couple years ago, and for the most part have loved being self-employed. I left because I could not bear the thought of spending 25 more years in an environment that rewards incompetence and inertia.

 

2 points I really enjoyed making to people in response to the "how can you walk away from the pension question?" were:

1) it is entirely possible that this county's pension system will fail be before I am able to collect on it.

2) even though I was the top technical person in the group, there was another fella who started just before me and, therefore, had seniority. In the worst case scenario, I would be let go before, regardless of merit. (of course I made this point subtly because he was a nice guy).

 

In the two years since leaving, I have worked nearly every effing day.... weekends, evenings, while on vacation. When the kids get sick, I just find a way to keep the work on track....

 

Anyway, my capabilities are much greater than they were two years ago when all that free time was dragging me down. :lol: :lol: :lol:

 

Good on you, Francisco! It seems that when we are about to make some choice that makes our lives more meaningful, we often are surrounded by folks who say "But how can you..?" Congratulations for finding the courage to move forward with your dream, despite being around folks who didn't understand what you were doing or how important it was.

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