Financial topics

[Reality Check]

... what'll happen once China makes their first strike, and I guarantee our refineries and pipelines will be prime targets.

Shank mules.

[Trevor]

That's California for you. Our government certainly knows how to make a screw-up even worse. This will likely last at least a few weeks. It might not be a disaster for the country, but it certainly won't do our economy any favors.

[OLD1953]

California is heavily tilted towards servicing the LA/SF area. In that small region, the inversion layers are such that different blends make sense. It would make a lot more sense to simply ban anything but electrics and mass transit from the area, but LA without hotrods is just not something politicians are ready to contemplate. It would also make sense to build high hollow towers as effective "city air conditioners" and simply get rid of the inversion layer by drawing down air from above it and pushing it away, but building anything to modify "natural" in CA is not something for the faint of heart. (Yes, that was all worked out ages ago, it's not only possible, it's actually a source of both power and water because of condensation on the sides of the tower and generating power from the winds at the bottom of the tower as the cold air falls through. Being a hollow tower, there's not much actual structure, just a shell, not nearly as expensive to build as you'd think. You could probably make a temporary one out of plastic sheeting and supported by ballonets - take a lot of guys though. First saw such a thing mentioned in a publication from the 50's.)

[aedens]

They will find only what they wish to see on current trends but will keep an eye open local first.
http://www.zerohedge.com/article/charti ... ths-full-t

The hand that rock the cradle some remember http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2012-10-0 ... ns-dilemma

Guess who is not after Paper. Noted it was in the forums, and we took a severe verbal beating on this fact once they eliminated the actors
as the true political economy predators are and will be moving into commodity spaces. Some will catch this, more will not it appears.
It has taken many years for the dynamic to be seen since Vanilla has moved capital or was targeted for removal.

Donald, David C. , The Rise and Effects of the Indirect Holding System - How Corporate America Ceded its Shareholders to Intermediaries (September 26, 2007). Available at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=1017206 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.1017206

I wish to see the civil rights lawyers and democrats give a honest report on the front lines who has the right to defend themselves.
http://detroit.cbslocal.com/2012/10/06/ ... 6o.twitter

[OLD1953]

The current system can't last, but what and how it gets replaced is simply an unknown. Especially given that many of the actors are actually close to war. There's no point to speculating on a future that may well include nuclear war.

That the middle class is hurting badly is not a shock to anyone. Yet it is obvious that every attempt is being made to throw the burden of all things onto the middle class. This can't work, you cannot set up an economy where there is no wealth in the class you want to pay for everything. That way lies revolt at least since the invention of the handgun.

Detroit is the classic example of what happens when you actually have shrinking government. Unless you have the shrinking population and shrinking economy to match, you wind up with chaos. Simply reciting slogans about waste doesn't help. This is equivalent to the Chinese quoting Mao's Red Book during the "Great Leap Forward", which resulted in mass starvation.

[Reality Check]

That's California for you. Our government certainly knows how to make a screw-up even worse. This will likely last at least a few weeks. It might not be a disaster for the country, but it certainly won't do our economy any favors.

It could be solved within a few days or a week, if California and the Feds just waived the regulations that prevents the California service stations from ordering Oregon or Nevada's or Arizona's or Washington's or Alaska's blend of Regular gas, from out of state refineries, rather than forcing them from only ordering from refineries that can produce California's special blend.

[Reality Check]

California is heavily tilted towards servicing the LA/SF area. In that small region, the inversion layers are such that different blends make sense.

Turning a commodity into a special order recipe, almost never makes sense.

[Reality Check]

Detroit is the classic example of what happens when you actually have shrinking government.

An alternative explanation for Detroit might be that it is what happens when government runs out of other peoples money to spend.

Both explanations are likely much too over simplified, but I do not believe Detroit's death spiral started because their tax rates were too low, more like the tax base escaped from inside the Detroit taxing district, to outside the Detroit taxing district. All the factors that drove people and businesses to escape likely extend way beyond just high tax rates.

[Reality Check]

BTW.

The Obama administration has proposed a solution to the problems of cities like Detroit.

Replace the Detroit city taxing district, with a much larger regional taxing district, that allows the huge population in the city to vote to tax the smaller, but richer, population and businesses in the surrounding suburban cities and towns, so the Detroit regional government can be controlled by the Detroit city politicians, and the Detroit city politicians will once again have a seemingly unlimited source of other peoples money to spend.

[gerald]

BTW.

The Obama administration has proposed a solution to the problems of cities like Detroit.

Replace the Detroit city taxing district, with a much larger regional taxing district, that allows the huge population in the city to vote to tax the smaller, but richer, population and businesses in the surrounding suburban cities and towns, so the Detroit regional government can be controlled by the Detroit city politicians, and the Detroit city politicians will once again have a seemingly unlimited source of other peoples money to spend.

Not quite - the suburban population overwhelms the city -- the population of Detroit is not huge it is around 710,000 (down from a high of 1,800,000 in 1950 ) and the Detroit Metro population outside of Detroit is is around 3,600,000
( five times that of the city) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Detroit

The proposed solution sounds like a prelude to civil war or revolution. I have talked at some length to people who moved from Detroit. Their expressions of fear and monetary loss was quite strong, mixed with anger.
If the federal government would try that, -- the city telling the suburbs what to do,-- the reaction could be something quite unexpected.