Tag: Boomergeddon
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Chart of the Day: Virginia’s Aging Population
This graph comparing Virginia’s age between 1980 and 2013 comes from Luke Juday’s latest post over on the Stat Chat blog, published by the demographics shop the Weldon Cooper Center for Public Service. I urge you to check out the opening chart in his post to see an animation of the changes year by year. It’s fascinating to…
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How the Feds Are Detroitifying the Country
by James A. Bacon Richard Ravitch worries that more “Detroits” are in America’s fiscal future. Co-author with former Federal Reserve Board Chairman Paul Volker of the “Report of the State Budget Crisis Task Force,” Ravitch argues in the Wall Street Journal today that state and local governments have major fiscal problems, that those problems are structural in…
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Trickle-Down Economics Revealed
by James A. Bacon A generation ago, liberals mocked the so-called “trickle-down economics” of the Reagan administration, the idea that creating wealth for the rich would trickle down to the less affluent by way of expanded economic activity. While Reagan himself never used that term, his economic philosophy of tax cuts, tax-code reform and restrained…
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Someone Has to Worry about Tomorrow
Mercedies Harris, speaking to the Times-Dispatch, came as close as anyone to summing up what Virginia’s Medicaid debate is all about: “The system is crazy. They have got to stop worrying about what is going to happen tomorrow and deal with the people who need help today.” The 53-year-old veteran and Waynesboro resident suffers from…
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Oops, Long-Term Health Spending Crisis Not Averted After All
There has been much prattling of late that the cost increases for health care are slowing, that the long-term cost curve for Medicare and in the United States is bending downward and that Obamacare may even deserve some of the credit. Liberals everywhere are hopeful that health care expenditures somehow, miraculously, will not drive the…
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No More Medicaid as Middle-Class Entitlement
by James A. Bacon When legislators debate expansion of Virginia’s Medicaid program in the 2014 session, they would do well to consider the long-term outlook for Medicaid spending. The program already consumes 17% of the state’s general fund budget, and that percentage will grow relentlessly as the population ages. “Virginia faces an onslaught of frail…
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The Folly of Expanding Medicaid
by James A. Bacon As Richmond lawmakers ponder whether or not to expand Virginia’s Medicaid program, the center-left Commonwealth Institute has made another pitch for the program. Their paper, “Medicaid is Far from Broken,” creates plausible talking points to bolster anyone inclined to accept the federal government’s offer to cover the vast majority of the…
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Boomergeddon Three Years Later: Still Running on Schedule
by James A. Bacon With the non-stop news coverage about the federal budget and debt-ceiling crisis, I’ve been thinking a lot about the Boomergeddon scenario I wrote about back in 2010. Since I predicted a financial collapse of the federal government within 15 to 20 years, a number of significant developments have occurred. Congress enacted…
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The Debt Vise Tightens
by James A. Bacon Moody’s Investor Service may revise its rules for rating municipal bonds, and the news could be bad for states and local governments with large unfunded pension liabilities. The company is proposing to increase the weighting of pension liabilities and other long-term debts from 10% to 20% in its scorecards for General…
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Prairie Populism Meets Boomergeddon
Over on the Strong Towns blog, Andrew Burleson describes the reaction that he and his compatriots get when they tour the country preaching their Minnesota brand of Boomergeddon, to wit: that human settlement patterns in many cities and towns are fiscally unsustainable; local elected officials need to re-think everything about growth and development; and communities…
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What Happens in Detroit, Does Not Stay in Detroit
Detroit seems a long way from the Old Dominion, and its bankruptcy woes seem largely irrelevant to a state and its local governments which, whatever else their flaws, have among the strongest bond ratings in the country. But it would be a mistake for Virginians to ignore events in the Wolverine State. It looks like…
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It’s the Debt You Don’t See that Kills You
In theory, state and local governments in the United States are required to balance their budgets every year. In practice, many have been running massive deficits. Count on slippery politicians to find the loopholes. The most widely practiced trick is the under-funding of pension obligations. Another is dishing off debt to independent authorities. Another is…
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Boomergeddon Watch: Uncle Sam’s Other Debt
by James A. Bacon The federal government is far more exposed to a rise in interest rates than commonly believed. As I frequently remind Bacon’s Rebellion readers, the national debt stands at $17 trillion, a sum that is increasing with no end in sight. But Uncle Sam’s total financial liabilities are far larger, says James…
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Boomergeddon Watch: The Interest Rate Trap
by James A. Bacon In previous blog posts, I’ve explored how the Federal Reserve Board’s near zero-interest rate policy has created drags on economic growth and job creation that have significantly offset its stimulative effects. First, by reducing yields on bank CDs, money market funds and bonds, super-low interest rates penalize savers. Low yields create…
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Boomergeddon Watch: Chicago
Chicago is said to be the city that works. It has problems but its economy remains strong and diversified. It is no Detroit. Not yet… Unfortunately for that narrative, Moody’s last week made an unprecedented cut in the city’s bond rating from Aa3 to A3. “The outlook incorporates the likelihood of continued growth in unfunded…