Federal Bankruptcy

Link From: www.newzzcafe.com Policy makers are working behind the scenes to come up with a way to let states declare bankruptcy and get out from under crushing debts, including the pensions they have promised to retired public workers. Unlike cities, the states are barred from seeking protection in federal bankruptcy court. Any effort to change that status would have to clear high constitutional hurdles because the states are considered sovereign. Nations do not go broke. Nations do not default. Nations have a blank check to write with no balance. The currency collapses. States do go broke. -Jim Sinclair

MP3 hotfile.com In the first half of the program, monetary historian Andy Gause joined Ian Punnett to discuss the serious ramifications if states start filing for bankruptcy protection. According to Gause, many states have unfunded pension obligations that they are legally required to pay but have no way of meeting. California, for example, owes half a trillion dollars to its public servants. The state may choose to increase the tax burden on its residents or possibly seek to restructure this debt through bankruptcy, he explained. Municipalities such as Vallejo, CA, which recently emerged from bankruptcy, may set a precedent for state-level bankruptcy, Gause suggested. And a real threat of bankruptcy could compel the federal government to step in with a bailout. “I think you’re going to see a bit of an abdication of sovereignty by the states in exchange for bailout-type deals,” he added. Fiscally troubled states may also look to help from large private investors who, flush with low interest loan money from the Federal Reserve, could go in and buy up their public assets (garages, airports, turnpikes, etc), Gause continued. This has already happened in Arizona, where the state sold off its capitol buildings (to an investment group from whom they now rent) in order to pay off debt obligations. For some states, even selling all of their infrastructure projects may not be enough. Massachusetts, for instance, is sinking under the enormous and continuing financial burden of its …