Ten Years Of Hell

In a previous post (this one), I talked a little about the probability  of seeing a lot more trouble with debt and default, and that it's likely to come from smaller counties and cities that got themselves sucked into the swirl of borrowing loads of cheap money as a way to avoid having to make some tough calls on collecting enough revenue to keep their joints going.

Here it comes.

Harrisburg is among an increasing number of municipalities showing signs of extreme fiscal stress. Squeezed by rising unemployment, plummeting tax revenue and growing employee costs, Vallejo, Calif., filed for bankruptcy two years ago. Jefferson County, Alabama's largest county, teeters on the edge of bankruptcy after a complex interest rate swap on a $3 billion sewer project went awry.

Last month, Central Falls, R.I., an impoverished city not far from Providence, put its finances in the hands of a receiver, who might have to rewrite contracts, cut pensions and restructure debt. Meanwhile, the nation's leading debt-rating agencies have relegated seven cities -- including Detroit, Harvey, Ill., and Woonsocket, R.I. -- to junk bond status, vastly increasing their borrowing costs.

This is just gonna get worse for a while.

From Nil Doctrine

This guy is a new find for me. I think he does it really well - even if I can't quite say exactly what it is he does - vlogging?

We'll Have To Sell Our Way Out Of It

Steely Dan

Third World Man.  Walter's guitar just cries in this one.  Listening closely, I guess I can see why so many have criticized them for being "all about the studio arts", but I saw them live at The Nissan Pavilion a few years back, and there's just no doubt these cats can play.

Sadie's Art

From Nil Doctrine

I like this guy.

Foreign Affair

One more from Mr Waits

San Diego Serenade

From Tom Waits

Lacrosse Backstop Update

Regarding my attempted project (see Lacrosse Backstop), it stood for a tad bit over one month before getting totally trashed - not by the kids, as would normally be the case.  The thing was fine one evening; Irene says she remembers looking straight at it when she got home, and the next morning it was mangled.  My theory is that a deer (or three) got tangled up and in the thrashing scramble for freedom, the backstop took the ultimate hit.

I don't know why I didn't get some pictures, but there ya go.  We're trying to figure out if a Plan B is even possible.  We'll be working on it and I'll let ya know.

Debtors Prison And The Prison Of Debt

I think it's interesting that some law makers and think tankers are fretting over the problem of people "walking away from their financial obligations", "refusing to be held accountable".  The power-holders get all worked up and blame a sense of entitlement that they say is rampant in American society.  They sit there and scratch their heads and wonder why everybody thinks it's OK to screw the poor little old entrepreneurial bankers who're are just trying to make a few bucks helping us realize the American Dream.

A couple of things:
1) most people have every intention of holding up their end of the bargain.
2) most people by now have seen more than a few instances where mover-shakers have either weaseled out of their responsibilities, or actively cheated the consumer.

In spite of our treasured myth of the Rugged Individual, most Americans are followers just like everybody else in the world.  We emulate the examples set for us by the people who are presented to us as leaders.  And since we've heard practically nothing but a steady stream of "all government is incompetent and corrupt, only the private sector works right", our real leaders are the few guys who run the corporations.  And we see those guys going to extraordinary lengths to avoid fulfilling even the basic commitments to the social contract - tax evasion schemes, off-shoring jobs, short-cutting workplace safety, ignoring environmental law and and and - all in the name of preserving capital, cutting costs and boosting profits.  Don't get me wrong; all that preserving and cutting and boosting is a good thing, but not when it comes at the expense of the system that makes the enterprise itself possible.

So anyway, I'm a little off track.  To get back to the point, now we see a lot of "regular people" walking away, saying "fuck the rules and fuck everybody else, I'm gonna do what's best for me and mine right now".  There's no honor in the system we've developed.  One guy's promise is only as good as the other guy's lawyer's ability to hold him to it.

Our "leaders" have shown us the way.  The system is eating itself.

I suspect we'll see more of this kind of thing.