Showing posts with label New York City. Show all posts
Showing posts with label New York City. Show all posts

Monday, November 9, 2026

The Recent Elections Results Mean Nothing - $40,000,000,000,000 Is the Only Issue That Matters For The Future Of The Country

 REALITY:

If your favorite candidate got elected or your favorite proposal got passed in the recent election, congratulations! Pour yourself  a drink and celebrate. If your favorite candidate did not get elected or  your favorite proposal did not pass, better  luck next time and also pour yourself a drink. 


But regardless of what election results happened, keep in mind that none of the election results really matter, none of the issues really matter. There is only one issue that matters in this country  and it  can be summarized by a single  number:  $40,000,000,000,000. This is the amount of Federal government debt that the American political class has run up over the years, a debt that eventually will have to be paid off by the American  taxpayer.


But here is  the problem:  it is quite  possible  that American taxpayers do not now  or may never have enough wealth to pay off the existing debt. Consider the following realities and numbers:


  • To pay off the  debt, every American taxpayer  would have to  write a check  for  about $250,000. 

  • However, since the median American household's net worth is  only about $216,000, according to  the Federal Reserve, that solution  is not likely.

  • Forcing the wealthy in the country to "pay their  fair share” is also not  a likely solution since according to Forbes, the wealthiest 400 Americans have a net  worth  of eight trillion dollars.  

  • Thus, even if you could miraculously seize all the wealth of the wealthiest Americans  and immediately apply the seizure to  pay down  the debt it  would  pay down less than 20% of the $40 trillion.

  • If you spent a million dollars a day since the day Christ was born, you would have spent less than $750 billion.

  • The national debt is 53 times larger than this “million dollars a day” example.

  • According to various estimate sources, Social Security and Medicare will have unfunded liabilities of over $80 trillion over the next 75 years  that are not yet funded, more than double the current known national debt.

  • Thus, the political class needs to find at least over $120 trillion over the next 75 years to cover the debt and political promises for Social Security and Medicare, about an additional $1.6 trillion a year in new taxes.

  • Oh, and keep in mind, if politicians do not  find some additional Social  Security money very soon, about 60 million  people are going to see their Social Security checks implode downwards by about 20% in five years or so.

  • The  Federal government used $970 billion  of taxpayer dollars to just pay the interest on  the national debt in 2025.

  • Without the debt, the average taxpayer would have paid about $6,000 less in income taxes.

  • Imagine how strong the economy would be if every taxpayer had  another $6,000 to spend rather than spending $6,000 to service the  debt.

  • By the way, state and local governments have an additional $1.1 trillion  in  unfunded  liabilities that someone is going to have to pay, about 50% more  than  that person  who spent  a  million dollars a day since Christ was born.


History is not kind to governments that run up huge debt:


  • As the debt gets higher and higher,  taxation goes up and freedom  goes down just to service the government spending and related debt.

  • Eventually faith in the currency declines which raises the cost of selling bonds to finance the debt, further increasing the debt.

  •  Politicians feel the pressure of the debt and debt interest and start printing money that is not backed by any concept  of wealth  which eventually leads to hyperinflation, making  today’s inflation rate look wonderful.

  • The hyperinflation eventually crashes the  economy and  financial stability of the  country and  destroys any personal freedom that remains as the democracy is  replaced with a dictatorship.

  • This economic model has  been proven time  and  time again just in the past hundred years: Weimar Republic, Venezuela, Zimbabwe, and Sudan.

  • The United States faces additional inflation  pressure as the BRICs continue to  undermine the dollar as the preferred currency of choice  and once  the dollar fades out of favor as the international currency the rate of inflation  accelerates.


All  of which brings us back to  our assertion above; no matter what happened in  last  week's elections, none of the  results matter if the debt  bomb that the political class has created cannot be gotten under control  very soon.


OPINION

If you  think that economic simpletons in the Senate like Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, Cory Booker  and others  along with the economic simpletons in the House like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Hank Johnson (two of the most ignorant people to ever serve in Congress) have the brainpower, spending  discipline and ability to fix this debt crisis  then I think you will be very disappointed.


In fact, they are much more likely to greatly accelerate the problem with  massive Federal government spending programs such as the inane “Medicare for All’  idea,  free college education, Civil War reparations,  etc. As we see above,  there  is not enough wealth  and money today to fund  today’s Federal government debt and  unfunded  liabilities, never mind the  tens of trillions  of dollars these ideas would create, accelerating the onset of a financial death spiral,  hyperinflation, an economic crash and the end of democracy.


And keep in mind the following  realities: the state governments most likely to go bankrupt soon (California, New York, Illinois and  New Jersey) along with the  major cities most likely to go bankrupt soon (Chicago, Los Angeles, New York City, and Seattle)  have all been dominated by the Democratic Party for decades. During  that time they have exploded city and state government spending to the max, running up massive amounts  of unfunded liabilities that will come  crashing  down in a relatively short  time. Thus, the Democrats have  shown little ability, at least at the  state and city level, to  run financially sound budgets and debt levels.


So  enjoy your victory drink or your misery drink. Because, again, however you voted this past week it will be overwhelmed by the  financial  crisis that is a ticking time bomb inside a $40,000,000,000,000 national  debt, unfunded Federal government  liabilities of $80,000,000,000,000 and unfunded state and local  government liabilities  of  $1,100,000,000,000.


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If you agree that we need to deseat every member of Congress for their lack of success and accomplishment, then please consider going to the following petition link to help the cause:


https://www.change.org/p/deseat-congress-reset-freedom



**********************


Our book, "Love My Country, Loathe My Government - Fifty First Steps To Restoring Our Freedom And Destroying The American Political Class" is now available at:
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Wednesday, October 28, 2026

The Race To Bankruptcy Court: New York City and Los Angeles Continue Down Their Financial Death Spiral

  Let’s check in with our discussion on which  city or state government is going to  get to bankruptcy court first. Our primary cities in the race to bankruptcy include New York City, Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and newcomer, Seattle. The state governments that we think are soon heading into bankruptcy include New York, New Jersey, Illinois, and California with Washington state a newcomer to the race.


The reason for returning to this topic in the midst of our corruption series is because there have been some significant developments in the race to bankruptcy court. However, before reviewing the latest news and seeing which state or city is making the best progress towards government bankruptcy, let’s review how these cities and states got themselves into this financial death spiral position to begin with:


  • A government entity keeps expanding its budget, eventually putting pressure on the tax revenue stream it receives. 

  • At some point, rather than cut government spending or make its programs more efficient financially, the politicians in charge raise taxes to meet the ever growing government expenditures.

  • The raising of taxes causes some residents and businesses to leave the city or state for less tax burdensome areas, reducing the tax base and reducing the revenue stream.

  • Rather than cut expenses and become more efficient to match the reduced tax revenue stream, politicians in the above cities or states raise the tax burden even more.

  • This causes more residents and businesses to flee the city or state, further reducing the tax base and tax revenue stream.

  • At some point politicians panic and raise taxes more and start cutting vital government services (e.g. police, fire, education) in order to try and balance government spending against the shrinking tax base and revenue stream.

  • The reduction in quality of government services in particular and quality of life in general drives more residents and businesses out of the area.

  • Eventually, the expenses, costs and financial liabilities outstrip the reduced tax stream and bankruptcy occurs.


Okay that’s the process. Let’s see  what is going on with the top candidates in the race to bankruptcy court.


1)New York City has always been a  top candidate  to win the race to bankruptcy  court, experiencing many of the traits we listed above  on what would cause bankruptcy. We have already discussed  the reality that many residents and businesses,  small and  large, have left the city to  avoid the high taxes and crime rates  and that out migration is still going strong:

  • A recent analysis from the City Comptroller office found that  about 30,000 New  York  City jobs have disappeared in just two months.

  • The industries hit the  hardest by the job  loss have been the leisure/hospitality and finance industries.

  • This indicates  that quite possibly tourists are now starting to avoid the city and the  migration of financial jobs continues, with many of them  going to Florida.

  • Leisure/hospitality lost 7,700 jobs and finance lost almost 6.000 jobs.

  • The 6,000 jobs is particularly troubling since the city very heavily depends on  the financial sector to pay a lot  of the city’s  taxes.

  • Chef  Dan Kluger closed his  Loring Place  restaurant because of high property taxes and spiking electric and insurance bills.

  • Restaurant owner, George Tenedios, said the city permit process now takes  10-15 weeks  vs. the usual 4  weeks which delays operations, profits, and jobs: “If [Mayor Zohran] Mamdani put things in place to make things easier for small business owners, I haven’t experienced it.”

  • Heather Mulligan,  president  of  the Business Council of NewYOrk State, understands the problem:  “This recent data should be a wake-up call.  It’s time to ensure we’re creating a business climate in The Big Apple, and throughout the entire state, that allows business to invest, expand and create jobs, not lose them.”

Thus, New York City is still a  major competitor in the race  to bankruptcy court: high taxes, high business  regulations, politicians that have no idea how to  grow and manage a  robust economy that generates increasing tax revenue  as the out migration  of businesses and  residents grows. Remember, one grows a tax stream by growing the economy, not by growing the tax rate.

2)And the mismanagement deterioration of New York City’s tax base has not gone unnoticed by those that understand economics, unlike Mamdani and his cohorts:

  • In one year, Mamdani  has increased  the  city budget from  $115 billion to $127 billion despite a  shrinking tax base of businesses  and residents.

  • To cover this 10% increase  in  the city budget  Mamdani is  proposing a possible  9.5% increase  in property taxes, he raided the city’s rainy day fund for $1 billion, and got  some funds  from the state government.

  • The city’s  budget office predicts that city revenues will be growing annually at about 2% a year while expenses are growing at a 4.5% rate, not a formula for financial success.

  • City Comptroller Mark  Levine says the city  is  “quite simply spending more than it  takes in.”

  • And all of this  bad financial news has now resulted in  Moody’s  Ratings dropping the city’s  credit outlook from stable to negative,  a first step towards a downgrading of the city’s bond rating.

  • And as the  bond rating drops, the ability to borrow money becomes more  difficult  and more expensive and the financial death  spiral continues.

  • According to amNY: “It is the first negative outlook the City has received since the COVID crisis,” Levine said. “The fact that this is happening at a time of relative health in our local economy is all the more remarkable. The underlying challenge is clear: New York City is currently spending more than it is bringing in.”

  • This is the economic insanity that Moody’s is looking at: city education spending has grown  almost 32% since 2020 despite there being 100,000 fewer students,  rental assistance will  likely explode from $300 million to a whopping $3.5 billion  projected by 2030 and the  city's surplus budget has lost 94% of  its value in a  single  year.


A shrinking tax base, downgrading  of the  city’s credit  worthiness, exploding  city expenses: yes, New York City is still a prime  candidate to go bankrupt relatively soon.


3)Let's jump across the  county to another  probable  bankruptcy candidate, Los Angeles. As we have discussed  many  times, LA has  many bad economic trends going on: high tax rates and tax burden, horrendous  and  growing homelessness problem, high crime rates, cumbersome business  regulations, strong out migration  of jobs/residents/businesses, etc., all of which will be difficult to correct before going  bankrupt.


Now, San Francisco has also been on our list to go bankrupt since they were losing their bread and butter taxpayers, high tech, high paid, highly taxed workers in Silicon Valley. Los Angeles does not have an extensive tech industry,  their tax base gets a lot of their revenue  from the Hollywood  show business  type businesses. But a recent  development may show that base may also be in danger:


  • The long running, 25 year old  TV show, “American  Idol" is  packing up and moving production to Atlanta.

  • Not only does the show and its  employees escape the problems in Los  Angeles that we discussed above, the state of Georgia offered some serious  incentives to move to  that state.

  • The  state incentives include a 30% tax credit  for unscripted and  reality TV shows that spend at least $500,000.

  • Other Hollywood productions are also  moving out of California with the number of “shoot days” in Los Angeles having declined 12% in the second quarter of 2026 vs. second quarter of 2025.

  • Breitbart reports  that the  new Baywatch reboot is also considering leaving California due  to layers of  government regulations.


As productions leave the city and state, jobs  and the taxes these productions contribute to  the state  and  city tax  revenue streams  continue to  decline.  And as out of city and out of state productions show  the way and the savings that come with the  out migration, it  encourages  other productions to  also  leave and the city financial death  spiral goes into high gear.


That will do  it for  today: New York City and Los Angeles are still prime candidates for bankruptcy as the out  migration  of businesses, residents, and tax dollars continue  with no end in sight.


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If you agree that we need to deseat every member of Congress for their lack of success and accomplishment, then please consider going to the following petition link to help the cause:


https://www.change.org/p/deseat-congress-reset-freedom



**********************


Our book, "Love My Country, Loathe My Government - Fifty First Steps To Restoring Our Freedom And Destroying The American Political Class" is now available at:
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Sunday, September 27, 2026

The Race To Bankruptcy Court: California, Chicago, and New York City Continue To Battle For Bankruptcy

 Let’s check in with our discussion on which  city or state government is going to  get to bankruptcy court first. Our primary cities in the race to bankruptcy include New York City, Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and newcomer, Seattle. The state governments that we think are soon heading into bankruptcy include New York, New Jersey, Illinois, and California with Washington state a newcomer to the race.

The reason for returning to this topic in the midst of our corruption series is because there have been some significant developments in the race to bankruptcy court. However, before reviewing the latest news and seeing which state or city is making the best progress towards government bankruptcy, let’s review how these cities and states got themselves into this financial death spiral position to begin with:


  • A government entity keeps expanding its budget, eventually putting pressure on the tax revenue stream it receives. 

  • At some point, rather than cut government spending or make its programs more efficient financially, the politicians in charge raise taxes to meet the ever growing government expenditures.

  • The raising of taxes causes some residents and businesses to leave the city or state for less tax burdensome areas, reducing the tax base and reducing the revenue stream.

  • Rather than cut expenses and become more efficient to match the reduced tax revenue stream, politicians in the above cities or states raise the tax burden even more.

  • This causes more residents and businesses to flee the city or state, further reducing the tax base and tax revenue stream.

  • At some point politicians panic and raise taxes more and start cutting vital government services (e.g. police, fire, education) in order to try and balance government spending against the shrinking tax base and revenue stream.

  • The reduction in quality of government services in particular and quality of life in general drives more residents and businesses out of the area.

  • Eventually, the expenses, costs and financial liabilities outstrip the reduced tax stream and bankruptcy occurs.

Okay that’s the process. Let’s see  what is going on  in the newest and possibly the  strongest contender  for bankruptcy court.

1)Two big reasons why residents and  businesses are fleeing Chicago and taking  their tax dollars with them, making  Chicago a prime city to go bankrupt  soon,  is high taxation and  high crime. But other quality of life issues are also probably driving the out migration:

  • According to  Rooftop Revelations, on the west side of the city, Frederick Douglas Academy has  a grand  total of  27 students  being  taught in the  building.

  • The  building has the capacity to  teach 1,000 students.

  • It is one  of  13  Chicago schools that currently have  fewer than  100 students in  the schools’ enrollments.

  • In  total, 35% of  the  city’s  schools are operating at less than  50% capacity.

  • The  entire school system has 77,000  fewer  students than it had  in 2010.

  • Besides families  fleeing the city and  taking their  kids with them,  there are  about 18,000  city kids  that are still in the city but have opted for charter schools,  private schools,  and parochial schools  to get  a basic education.

  • And  test results  show why families  that stay in the city are looking for better  options: black students in non-public  schools  are  three  times more likely to be  reading at grade  level and  black kids  at non-pubic schools are five times more likely to be at grade  level in math vs. public  school black students.

  • Things are so bad  that the head  of  the Chicago Teachers Union does not even send her  own  kids to  public schools.

Just another  example  of why residents  and businesses are fleeing the  city: besides high taxes and  high  crime rates you can  add  in pathetically failing public schools. And the city tax revenue base continues to shrink.

2)Let’s  jump  over  to New York  City, another prime candidate  to go into  a bankrupt swoon  because of  high  taxes  and  high crime rates:

  • Rather than  address the problem of high  crime in the city, the Mayor. Zohran Mamdani, is  likely going to make  the situation worse.

  • His administration  recently issued  a  directive that stipulates that the  New York Police Department  (NYPD) will longer  be  responding to emergency calls relating to homeless encampments in the  city.

  • Instead,  social workers will be the  first to be  onsite for emergency calls  from homeless  encampments in the city.

  • According to the New York Post: “This year, the NYPD responded to more than 26,000 of the 36,000 complaints to 310 about encampments. Now, [the Department of Homeless Services] will handle triple the calls they previously responded to, with fewer than 2,000 staffers across the entire agency.”

  • So, the social worker staff  will respond  to an additional 26,000 complaints or about 80 more a day, what could go wrong?

  • And that number is likely to  go  up in the future since the  homeless  population in the city just hit a five year high.


So there  is  likely to be  more homeless  encampments going  forward, more mentally ill  and drug addicted people walking around  the streets  of  the city, and  fewer police resources available to  protect the taxpaying, noncriminal  citizens of the city. According to a New York Post editorial:  “The vagrants who erect and inhabit these camps are hard-core homeless who’ve already rejected the option of living in a shelter … Compassionate encouragement won’t dislodge people sleeping on cardboard sidewalk pallets. That’s why the city has always tasked police with handling encampments.”


Think about it: there are currently 310 homeless encampments  in the city.  Who wants  to continue to  live  in that environment  of addiction, human waste, fires, and criminal activity, no wonder folks are fleeing the city  and taking  their tax dollars with them. Mamdani does not have the answer  and  those fleeing are seeing his ignorance illustrated through the 310 homeless encampment areas.


3)Consider the  condition of many Californians  today:


  • There are almost 182,000  homeless Californians in the state.

  • 8.8 million state residents, one in five of the total population, struggle with  food insecurity.

  • About  9,000  state residents, on  average, die from  drug overdoses every year and 5.6 residents are fighting substance abuse problems.

  • There are about 2.3 million  state residents that do not have health insurance.


Now consider what Californian politicians are spending $11 billion a year on:


  • The state government spends about $11,000,000,000 a year on  illegal immigrants' welfare.

  • According to reporting by the  Post Millennial, this $11  billion is spent on providing illegal immigrants with health care, free  cell phones/service, rent subsidies, college grants, care insurance, food, and other life necessities.

  • One  of the state’s programs  in this spending is called the  Cash Assistance  Program for Immigrants (CAPI).

  • An  employee within  this program told the  Post Millennial: “If [you are] a citizen, you cannot get CAPI. I don’t care about legal or not. Not being [a] citizen [is the key].”


So, imagine  you are a  California taxpayer.  You work hard,  pay taxes, and maybe expect that our tax  dollars will be used to help your neighbors that are homeless or hungry, fellow citizens that may need medical  and health insurance relief  or maybe drug addiction treatment.  And you then  find out that $11 billion of those tax dollars you paid is used to  provide free and subsidized services to illegal immigrants,  services that are often not available to state American citizens.


Combine  that reality with the reality of high state tax burdens, high state homelessness rates, high crime rates, government  incompetence (e.g. high speed rail line failure, fire  response failure to the LA fires, etc.) and you might understand why businesses and residents are fleeing the failing  state of  California as it spirals  down into bankruptcy, morally and  financially.


4)The financial state of Chicago became  so bad a few years ago that it sold new city bonds to finance  the interest it was paying on  currently issued  city bonds. That is not  a formula for long  run financial stability, borrowing money to pay the interest payments on money you previously borrowed. In fact, Chicago politicians are going  to have to pay interest on the newer bonds they sold to pay interest on  old bonds, a vicious cycle.


That condition hasn't improved as we have previously discussed  since  city actuaries, very smart people, have  predicted that this kind  of financial nonsense will cause the city to go bankrupt  in 7-12 years. But the current mayor of New York City, Mamdani, apparently has not learned a lesson from Chicago's shaky bookkeeping:


  • Mamdani got elected promising soaring socialism benefits from socialism programs he planned on implementing.

  • But he quickly found out once in office that the money he needed for his  socialist utopia was not  readily available and in  fact, the city had a fiscal deficit  looming just trying  to  finance current city government programs.

  • The city was facing a  whopping $12 billion  budget deficit.

  • He was able to close that deficit but not by eliminating bad or inefficient government programs or making government programs more efficient.

  • No,he finagled the state government, i.e. state  taxpayers not associated with New York City to cover about $8 billion of that  shortfall.

  • The remainder of that deficit he closed by postponing  payments into  city pension programs.

  • Specifically, the city negotiated with  city unions to extend  repayment  of  pension funds from 2032 to  2037.

  • In other words, money owed to the city pension funds does not go away, he just delayed the inevitable  payment into  those pension  funds until  well after  he leaves office.

  • City actuaries  estimate that delaying the payments will  increase  the amount owed by $5 billion.


Why would a  construction  company,  or any company, invest in the city when within  ten years that financial  postponement  will come  due for  a  city that is struggling today to  pay its bills? Why would someone move to the  city,or stay living in the city, when the tax burden to fund his socialist programs and basic government services and pensions will continue  to grow and  require  higher  and higher taxation?  


So we now have another financial desperation move to  avoid bankruptcy, postponing pension  payments.The city already had high  taxes and high homelessness burdens. And the  other  costs of living  in the city continue to  accelerate.  Consumer prices were up 4.3%, food  prices were up 3.3%, and energy costs were up 15.4% over the past year. Tough to find any reason to  argue New York  City is not  heading down a financial death spiral bankruptcy. 


Meanwhile, Florida has no state income  tax, it may significantly reduce the property tax burden in  November, it  has $18 billion  in state government  reserves, it has significantly reduced long term debt  over the past few  years,  and it  has a AAA rating from major  credit  rating agencies. And many New Yorkers understand the financial situation  since, in  2024, over 50,000 of them  moved out of New York and set up life in  Florida.


That will do it for today. Apparently high taxes, high crime rates and  high  homelessness  rates are not  enough for some  politicians: they need  to  postpone  pension payments, operate overpriced and ineffective public schools, reduce police effectiveness, and  spend  billions and billions of dollars on illegal immigrants while Americans in  need get ignored.  All of which drive our favorite city and  state governments candidates closer and closer to bankruptcy.


**********************

If you agree that we need to deseat every member of Congress for their lack of success and accomplishment, then please consider going to the following petition link to help the cause:


https://www.change.org/p/deseat-congress-reset-freedom



**********************


Our book, "Love My Country, Loathe My Government - Fifty First Steps To Restoring Our Freedom And Destroying The American Political Class" is now available at:
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