You Can't Fix Stupid, But You Can Move
The Market Ticker ® - Commentary on The Capital Markets
Posted 2012-11-16 08:24
by Karl Denninger
in States
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You Can't Fix Stupid, But You Can Move
 

You have to laugh.....

Earlier this month, California voters passed Proposition 30, a ballot measure containing a number of tax increases that will help avoid drastic cuts to the state's higher education system.

But according to a recent UC Berkeley report, all of those gains could be wiped out by a series of deals made by University of California administrators. Many of those officials, the report notes, have close ties to Wall Street firms making millions in profits from the state's cash-strapped institutions.

So the people of California passed a ballot measure to tax themselves and give the money not to a state program but rather to a bunch of banksters.

There's no solution to stupidity that is lawful; your only lawful option if you live in that craphole called California where people vote to steal your money using the guns of the government as a means to compel you to to turn it over and then give it to a bunch of thieves on Wall Street -- not even spending it on a program to benefit you and your children -- is to move.

And then pray for a really, really big earthquake of sufficient magnitude to crack off the state and let it sink into the Pacific.

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User Info You Can't Fix Stupid, But You Can Move in forum [Market-Ticker]
Donethat
Posts: 771
Incept: 2009-04-22

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Interest rate swaps, Jefferson Co. Alabama writ large, that which violated fiduciary responsibility should be illegal. No government or non-profit entity should be permitted to buy/sell these deals.
Bertdilbert
Posts: 2666
Incept: 2008-12-22
Gold
CA
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Owes money to Wall Street....CHECK
Largest union employer....CHECK
Obama union suckass in charge...CHECK
Niceville gonna bail out California... CHECK CHECK

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Dear Euroland: Relax, Germany has a plan for your money!

Political Capital Defined: We are out of money but will tax our citizens for whatever it takes to "SAVE" the Euro.
Genesis
Posts: 130804
Incept: 2007-06-26
Admin A True American Patriot!
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Keep dreaming

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I don't care if it makes sense -- only if it makes money. -- Me
Bank (n): See scam, fraud and theft. Eat a bankster -- they're low-carb.
What part of "shall not be infringed" was unclear?
Mangoelvis
Posts: 1727
Incept: 2009-07-11
Gold
Las Vegas, NV
Online
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Wow, just when I thought it couldn't get worse.

You know what will be funny? When they jack up the tuition and tell the students it is because of the rich Repubs...and the students buy it. Hopefully there will be some funny signs at the protests.

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Evolutionarily speaking, sloths must taste terrible.
Steelhead23
Posts: 2043
Incept: 2008-09-09
Green
Portland OR
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I find it a bit heartening that it was academics within the UC system (Berkley no less) that identified the problem - and the student body government is very interested. Give this a little time to ferment. The report's major finding isn't just that the UC system is financially stupid, it is that the UC system is trying to increase income by attracting more out of state students (who pay 3 times the tuition as instate students) by having a capital development spree - new dorms, hospitals, etc. The borrowing was to support that new direction. I suspect that there is no way the regents wish to abandon this revenue maximizing policy and will seek to deflect criticism of that policy by focusing on finance. After all, no regent ever got his name plastered on "lowering tuition" but there are plenty of dorms and medical centers to be named. My guess? Mr Taylor should be polishing up his resume.

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"Give me control of a nation's money and I care not who makes it's laws" —Mayer Amschel Bauer Rothschild Benjamin Bernanke
For-profit commercial banks are a menace and should be eradicated
Flappingeagle
Posts: 1229
Incept: 2011-04-14

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TBTF banks...
TBTF car companies..
TBTF states...
Yep Niceville (and us other small town folks) will bailout CA...

Bert has it right, sorry Karl. Happy Thanksgiving. smiley

Flap

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Here are my predictions for everyone to see:
S&P 500 at 320, DOW at 2200, Gold $300/oz, and Corn $2/bu.
"You can't build a house of cards on a shaking table." - Tony Johns
The January 2015 AMZN put at $130 (cost $4.25) will be a winner.
Crzymorse
Posts: 1195
Incept: 2010-06-25

Maryland
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Looks like they were interest rate swaps. Of course they tied themselves to some of these deals to 2045 or so. As long as interest rates are low they lose money. Makes we wonder why they were doing variable rate deals anyway.
Mangoelvis
Posts: 1727
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Gold
Las Vegas, NV
Online
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Guys, there is already an unlimited bailout in place for universities. Student loans.

Simply raise tuition and force the students to sign up for more debt. Easy. Sure they'll bitch and moan and protest. And then their parents and them will sign on the dotted line before the next semester starts.


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Evolutionarily speaking, sloths must taste terrible.
Trades50
Posts: 4218
Incept: 2007-10-30
Silver
Land of Tax and Spend
Online
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There is no hope for either California or Illinois. Illinois is pushing for a federal bailout to get them out of a jam to continue the rich pensions and rising state benefits.

The Chicago political machine has infested Washington so there probably will be a bailout.

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When the people fear the government, there is tyranny. When the government fears the people, there is liberty. - Thomas Jefferson

Smacktle
Posts: 1362
Incept: 2009-01-20
Green
Texas
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Screw Cali. They don't even make good movies anymore!

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The faults of the burglar are the qualities of the financier.
- George Bernard Shaw
Frat
Posts: 1935
Incept: 2009-07-15
Silver
NKY
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There comes a time when scenery and weather do not compensate for ****headedness and jack-booted thuggery.


I would've past that time looooooong ago in Californistan.

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We're ****ed. Where's Henry Bowman when you need him?
Otiswild
Posts: 5627
Incept: 2009-03-09
Green
Inside you, the force is!
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Yep, when the Fed starts buying munis to bail out the grasshopper entities in Blueville, Niceville will be just as on-the-hook as any other solvent towns, cities, counties and states..
Nike
Posts: 7408
Incept: 2008-10-09
Green
Bright Light City
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It gets better:

Quote:
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (KFSN) -- A controversial plan to raise the cost of registering your car in California could soon be in the works in Sacramento. Even with the Democrats' new supermajority, there are doubts lawmakers will be able to push through another tax.

In what could be the Democrats' first test in the new supermajority powers in the Legislature, a group called Transportation California has asked St. Sen. Ted Lieu, D-Torrance, to introduce legislation to triple the vehicle license fee you pay to register your cars.

They want it to be a constitutional amendment so the money will dedicated to roads, which means voters would still have to approve it. The proposed formula is 1.35 percent of the value of the vehicle. It could raise as much as $4 billion a year for roads and public transit, both of which have been underfunded for years because of the budget crisis.


http://abclocal.go.com/kfsn/story?sectio....

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We, in the ages lying, In the buried past of the earth,
Built Nineveh with our sighing, And Babel itself with our mirth;
And o'erthrew them with prophesying, To the old of the new world's worth
Each age is a dream that is dying, Or one that is coming to birth.
Susanjbear
Posts: 417
Incept: 2010-06-10
Gold
Salt Lake City, Utah
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Quote:
your only lawful option if you live in that craphole called California where people vote to steal your money using the guns of the government as a means to compel you to to turn it over and then give it to a bunch of thieves on Wall Street -- not even spending it on a program to benefit you and your children -- is to move.


That's exactly what we just did in April. Only I don't really want anything bad to happen, with so many friends and relatives there.

From my experiences with gardening and farming this year, I am starting to realize how fragile the nation's fruit and vegetable "ecosystem" is. Mid-west farmland that used to produce some of the nation's food is now devoted to growing corn for ethanol. The wife of a man here in SLC who works in the water treatment business has told us work-related stories of his business in the Dakotas, where farmers sell out to oil companies for the right to drill on farm lands. The water treatment people go in to "fix" the water after oil companies have dirtied it.

California is a major supplier of food. The state foolishly put much of that capacity at risk during the 2000's when the housing bubble was in full swing, destroying productive fields in mid-state in order to build condos.

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Susan
Genesis
Posts: 130804
Incept: 2007-06-26
Admin A True American Patriot!
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When in the course of human events.....

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I don't care if it makes sense -- only if it makes money. -- Me
Bank (n): See scam, fraud and theft. Eat a bankster -- they're low-carb.
What part of "shall not be infringed" was unclear?
Snowman
Posts: 1800
Incept: 2009-03-09
Green
avoiding yellow snow
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I am not entirely sure the students are correct in their analysis.
It's pretty normal to borrow fixed for this maturity, I doubt UC would be able to raise funds to investors looking at long term money on a floating rate bond, eg FRN. The swap probably lowered their overall fix rate borrowing costs.
Obviously, if UC had issued floating rate they would have saved a huge amount, ZIRP in hindsight. But could they have? I doubt it, not at those spreads for an A- name. Who would invest? It's an investor driven market, not issuer....

But this is of course all moot since the real question should be "why did they borrow so much in the first place"! And the cash flows are intermingled with funds that aren't the primary source of the bond proceeds. Non-core operating cash, if you will.

It isn't the pricing of the deals, it's the deals in the first place. The UC treasurer shouldn't be fired, the UC trustees should.
5755hsa
Posts: 646
Incept: 2008-09-07
Green
North of 40 in the land of pathetic highways
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"California is a major supplier of food. The state foolishly put much of that capacity at risk during the 2000's when the housing bubble was in full swing, destroying productive fields in mid-state in order to build condos."


The idiots also recently failed on Prop 37... big win for Monsanto and company.
More Stupid...

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Ineptocracy (in-ep-toc'-ra-cy) - a system of government where the
least capable to lead are elected by the least capable of producing,
and where members of society least likely to succeed, are rewarded with goods paid for by the
confiscated wealth of a diminishing number of producers.

Atlasrocked
Posts: 369
Incept: 2009-03-23
Silver
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http://www.trulia.com/rental-community/9....

"in partnership with the University of Florida Department of Housing and Residence Education"

I heard this was a sweatheart deal for the developer, if it takes off he can buy out UF at a great rate, or leave it on their dollar if it fails. Can't confirm it, but it was from a reliable, and pro-university source.
Drkshapiro
Posts: 634
Incept: 2012-09-12
Gold
Southern CA
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Hey the weather's good.

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Don't let a kid drink til they're 21, but let 'em go to other countries and kill people, that's alright. --G Celente
Bertdilbert
Posts: 2666
Incept: 2008-12-22
Gold
CA
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Karl, the only way you are not going to pay to bail out the heavily unionized states with problems is to move out of the US.

CA just passed a law to tax people making over 250k. So they just hit all of the executives, the people who decide where their corps are domiciled. They gonna move. Now that the democrats and unions have unbridled power, they are going to depopulate the state and lower the tax base. Soon it will be leaches leaching off leaches. The CA union bubble is gonna pop at some point but the unions will hang on until the last dime is extracted.

Until you get union money and wall street money out of politics you are a sitting duck to pay for **** that you have no business paying for.

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Dear Euroland: Relax, Germany has a plan for your money!

Political Capital Defined: We are out of money but will tax our citizens for whatever it takes to "SAVE" the Euro.
Winstonsmith2009
Posts: 1060
Incept: 2009-08-05

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"There's no solution to stupidity that is lawful"

Which is exactly the problem with the entire US and, for that matter, the EU and that means that the current majority of "stupid" (actually propagandized, inattentive, and undereducated) people voting is never going to fix anything. Ever.

So, if one wants to stay out of jail, the wise choice since there are no illegal acts that will change anything for the better either, one just sits back with some popcorn and watches the whole thing come crashing down at which point the same "stupid" people may elect a charismatic fascist who gives them easy, but wrong, answers to all of their problems.

So, don't lose sleep over something you can do absolutely nothing about.
Oulous
Posts: 30
Incept: 2010-12-12

United States
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Too bad.

We are from CA and hoped to move back but it just doesn't make sense to move to such an over burdened state with no fiscal plan for all of its people. I don't mind taxes when I see them used well but this is not the case for CA.

We are looking at CO as a pretty well run state but at the moment housing is too expensive there. We just moved to Baltimore and housing is priced ok... not ideal but better than some markets. The city is horribly run but its a kind of stable horribly run instead of a slippery slope like CA.

For anyone with a savers mentality its a bad bad world right now, unless you can move to New Zealand or Norway or maybe even Canada.
Atlasrocked
Posts: 369
Incept: 2009-03-23
Silver
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thanks to all who flew from california.

hopefully it the start of a movement to the red states, where we can gain majority and counter-power. we are in for a long slog here.

in the meantime, what do we do about our military, now fighting to preserve marxism?
R2judge
Posts: 578
Incept: 2008-04-13
Green
Burbank CA
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Yesterday, i heard on KNX news radio something about a proposal to raise pay by 3% in the UC system.
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