It’s no secret that Illinois, New Jersey, and numerous other states have massively underfunded pension plans. The problem is far worse than it looks because of ridiculous assumptions like 8% or higher returns. Moreover, states like Illinois, Texas, Rhode Island, and Ohio have gone one step further by recently adopting actuarially unsound methods specifically designed to disguise the mess. The New York Times tackles the issue in The Illusion of Pension Savings

In the long run, imports spur growth by forcing domestic producers to be more efficient and productive. Like competition generally, imports weed out the less-productive domestic producers, leaving the market to more-competitive U.S. companies. Those companies are better able to expand their share in global markets and create sustainable jobs with higher pay.

In my view, the idea that Wise Guys in Washington know better than individuals, businesses, non-profits etc. what level of consumption vs. saving is optimal for the inanimate abstraction called “the economy” is wrong in theory and increasingly is proving wrong in practice.

The Democrats needed big majorities and a strong will to force through a health care bill that was mostly dessert, with a bit of spinach. Entitlement reform is all spinach, with no dessert.

In a fiat credit-based economy, where credit dwarfs money supply, changes in credit is what’s important, not changes in money supply, not nominal changes in prices.

Pension and budget crises are hitting numerous states simultaneously. In some states lawsuits are flying. Here is a roundup sample that shows the crisis has reached critical mass.

The unanticipated consequence of the ‘07 act - Washington-mandated layoffs in the middle of a desperate recession - is one of many examples of what happens when politicians and activists think they know better than consumers and workers, From the health insurance you’re allowed to have, to the car you can drive, to the light bulbs you can buy, Washington is making too many decisions that are better left to people who work for their own paychecks and earn their own living.

Free trade is the principle that people should be free to spend and to invest their money as they see fit. Period.

As we all know, stock prices are the only thing where the higher they go, the more people want to buy and the lower they go, the more people want out. It’s the exact opposite human emotion that responds to a change in prices of any other good or service.

The government creates “jobs” that are destructive. Because there is no feedback of profit and loss, the only thing that can eventually end a harmful bureaucracy is a massive public outcry. In the meantime, private citizens quake in their boots over the zeal of the person who will end up wielding such tremendous and arbitrary power over their lives and businesses.