December Reading:
- My 13 Favorite Investment Books - Holiday Gift Ideas
- ECRI Calls for Revival of US Economic Growth
- State Street Investor Confidence
at 97.5 finally moved up in a big way. It has not been this high since April 30 when it was 99.4
Bob Brinker's Moneytalk Show Summaries for
- November 28, 2010
Lynn Jimenez Fill-in Host
- November 21, 2010 Show Summary, Excerpts and Commentary
- Brinker said: "I'll tell you what, interest rates are rock bottom."
- November 14, 2010 Show Summary, Excerpts and Commentary
- Honeybee: Brinker is bullish on the stock market and has remained fully invested since March 2003. For new stock market money he recommends dollar-cost-averaging at the present time. His current S&P target range is 1300 - 1350.
- November 7, 2010 Show Summary, Excerpts and Commentary
- Now of course the way to take advantage of a market like this is to be fully invested. That is the posture we have taken.
Mounting State Debts Stoke Fears of a Looming Crisis
ReplyDeleteSome of the same people who warned of the looming subprime crisis two years ago are ringing alarm bells again. Their message: Not just small towns or dying Rust Belt cities, but also large states like Illinois and California are increasingly at risk...
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Analysts fear that at some point — no one knows when — investors could balk at lending to the weakest states, setting off a crisis that could spread to the stronger ones, much as the turmoil in Europe has spread from country to country.
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But the finances of some state and local governments are so distressed that some analysts say they are reminded of the run-up to the subprime mortgage meltdown or of the debt crisis hitting nations in Europe.
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It is these growing hidden debts that make many analysts nervous. States and municipalities currently have around $2.8 trillion worth of outstanding bonds, but that number is dwarfed by the debts that many are carrying off their books.
State and local pensions — another form of promised debt, guaranteed in some states by their constitutions — face hidden shortfalls of as much as $3.5 trillion by some calculations. And the health benefits that state and large local governments have promised their retirees going forward could cost more than $530 billion, according to the Government Accountability Office.