New Jersey Continues to Lead in America's Race to the Bottom

In addition to the massive unfunded liabilities New Jerseyans face for their lavish government employee retirement programs New Jerseyans are now faced with the prospect of a bankrupt Atlantic City.

A testament to the evil incompetence that Crony Capitalism leads to. All of America should pay heed to the results of this government run economic development effort.

As a business financial planner For the past 30 years I have watched the rise of crony capitalism as government increasingly controlled economic development efforts; the results are the decline and decay we see and feel all around us today.

To the degree possible we need to get government out of the markets. America works best when Governments role is regulating the 'field' the markets,  evenly. Not manipulating the markets and picking the winners and losers behind closed doors. That is a tenant of fascism.  

We need to reach the young minds, todays teens and 20 somethings, where their interests are, technology and games. Help me reach out and spread the truth of Christian history and the battles and perils of fighting fascism throughout the ages. After all at the core,  it was fascists that ruled Rome and murdered Jesus. (the term fascism actually comes from ancient Roman times, the Fasces, the Roman symbol of collectivism and power. )

Join me on

VideoOnix.com    http://www.VideoOnix.com   

It is fun tech, Spacey even, and lots of info on the new business financing laws too.  If you think the bankers are a big part of the problem, the new series of laws will help put them in their place.

That is if Americans rally around freedom, otherwise we are toast.

By the way, the new investment laws called the JOBS ACT of 2012 create a lot of new opportunities for small investors too, opportunities to invest in startups.  Very big changes that everyone should know about.

One last thought, you might like this old adage I like to use

'Doing something, does something.'

Press On!

New Jersey; It's You People, Stupid. New Jersey is a poster Child for Liberal Failure.

UPDATE APRIL 12, 2016: BAD NEWS CONTINUES American Legislative Exchange Council's 9th Addition of Rich States Poor States shows New Jersey continues to help hold down the bottom of the list this year declining to 48th worst state. A pitiful performance from what once was a great state. Destroyed by decades of leftwing lies and liberal ignorance. LINK - American Legislative Exchange Council's 9th Addition ------ PREVIOUS: This article published first in 2014 but it still applies - New Jersey people, you should be embarrassed. More bad news for New Jersey, again ranked as one of the highest taxed and worst performing economies in the nation according to the Tax Foundation study released last month. Add to that  the mounting evidence outward migration is increasing. Continuing decline is in your tarot cards.

My most recent U-Haul rate study indicates it is 3.86 times more expensive to leave New Jersey for Austin Texas than it is to go to New Jersey from Austin Texas. Nearly 4 time more expensive getting out than getting in. What's that tell you?

That is a 53% increase in the U-Haul costs from this same time last year.

Granted, it is not a scientific study, all the same, people are leaving New Jersey at a staggering rate. I have run this study 2 times a year for the past 4 years. It has never been this bad.  In fact it has been fairly stable at a 2.5 times ratio for the past two years right up through June 2014 when I ran the study last. Since then we see this jump, a spike in getting the hell out.

 The study though not scientific is a fair indication of the effects of supply and demand. It focuses on the U-Haul rates to and from Austin Texas and several key areas, Northern California, Chicago, Illinois and Wayne, New Jersey.  Three areas ranked as having excessive regulatory and anti business climates.

Is it just the high taxes and regulatory climate?  No, I don't think so, New Jersey has lots going against it in addition to high taxes. For one thing there is a crooked croniness in NJ, an embedded corruption that permeates the society. Northern New Jersey where I went to High School has developed a culture of "Me, Me, Me". A selfish, ignorant callousness of much of the population combined with an intellectual laziness. That narcissistic culture is particularly annoying, people just didn't care about anything outside their self-centered personal worlds.

It is ironic that the generation of peace and love that grew out of the 60s and 70s has become the generation of "I don't care...it's all about Me, Me, Me".

It is this self absorption on steroids that undermines the sense of community that is now it is coming home to roust.

Why do I dwell on this issue, New Jersey the poster child of liberal failure?

There is an old adage; you can not fix a problem unless you identify the problem. In decades of civic involvement  in Chambers of Commerce and in other 'quasi' government organizations I've seen and experienced  repeated patterns. The same situation plays out over and over again.   Critical social problems are obfuscated and faux efforts at solutions deployed. It's an organized, intentional form of social insanity.  If you continue to  do the same thing over and over again and expect different results - we all have heard it, that is insanity.  

Back to the old adage, you can not fix a problem unless you identify the problem. The problem is the intentional efforts of the progressive leadership.  The culture that grows from progressive liberalism which I think many of us believe is the center of New Jersey's and much of America's problems. That is why I dwell on it. The problem is the type of people that lead areas like New Jersey and Northern California and Urban Illinois. It's the people, Stupid.

When you create a society that is blinded to itself it is easy to control that society and that is what progressives have done to the people of New Jersey and much of liberal America. Progressives have transferred the responsibility of awareness from the people and replaced it with a sense of entitlement. With the entitlement there is little reason to think beyond ones self interest hence the perspective of "whats in it for me?" Progressive liberals campaign on that premise and the self absorberd buy it. . .

If you want to fix this problem you have to call it out, you have to point the finger of blame, you have to put the cause on notice. It's the people, stupid.

Simple answer: If you don't want their fate, don't do what they do.

That is why I dwell on it. I want the people causing the problem to be spotlighted for what they are.

It's the liberals, Stupid.

A 4 year old dies; America's first death from the 'Mystery Disease' occurs in New Jersey; Locals couldn't care less.

A four year old preschooler died in New Jersey and no one seems to care much. Sure there was the basic "I feel so bad for the parents" type of response but not much depth. Shuffled off the digital page as fast as a day. IN the end the interest level and compassion was little more than drivel from the mass uninformed.

Ignorance is Bliss

New Jersey a center of American Decay

The masses ignored the issues and circumstances of his death. The "mystery Disease; The only "mystery" about this disease is why the main stream news  media and CDC keep calling it a mystery.

Since his death 3 more children have died and over a dozen are experiencing paralysis in the Denver area alone. The CDC and main stream media continue with the "Mystery Disease" talk. They lowered the coverage to - 'nothing new here, now move along, move along' and the New Jersey sheep do so in all their blissiness.

Devolution 

New Jersey and much of the poorly educated young culture today had devolved into the most uncaring society.  Yesterday's hippies, the generation that 'cared' has turned into the generation of  unaware and 'don't bother me about it'.

How a people can say that it is compassionate and caring when most of you can't even take the time to know what is going on... about anything.  A miserable generation of self absorbed destined to be a failure.  America as I see it needs a good dose of kick in the ass.

Champion the doers and the makers

Champion the doers, attack the plutocrats and the welfare ding bats. both ends need a haircut.   Start with kickin' some banker butt ... click for video and some Zeppelin too.
http://youtu.be/MoMHtw6y7oA?list=UUoBaq0m2vVhi8YASWO3jSUA

The Fascism Myth "Far right Wing Political Structure" - Yah, right, if you're Brain Washed

Atlantic City is about to experience the biggest economic decline in it's history.  Three of it's 11 casinos will close within the month with a lose of 6000 jobs.

It is no surprise, in fact the surprise was when the Christie administration supported the now bankrupted (for the second time in two years) Revel casino promising a quarter billion in tax offsets which led to the States pension system investing $220 million into the obviously doomed project. The failure of crony capitalism is Christie's legacy.

Free market capitalism would have avoided the entire problem by having not created it in the first place.   The Revel investment was a very bad idea and driven by arrogance on Christie's part,  he deserves to be held accountable. His form of back room politics is just as bad as when the left wing does it. New Jersey needs Free Market reforms and prison cells for the cronies capitalists that are stealing the life blood of hard working Americans.

The governments involvement in business selection and the markets is the core of what is wrong in the economy from the Atlantic to the Pacific.  In fact the entire world has gone done the road of a fascist society where government executes control over the market instead of managing the rules of the market. Now I am not saying NJ and Christie are Fascists, I am saying they have threads of fascism in their actions.

And it is evil, just as evil as when the Romans, a fascist government in it's time, in fact the name sake of Fascism is the Roman symbol of Collectivism and Power; the Fasces.




http://youtu.be/4GZ7i49xge0?list=UUUihPYrAlEK6XFAaw4X8BYw

That's right, religion aside, Fascist of Roman times killed Jesus Christ.   Don't believe me?  Then watch this short video, it covers it in less then two minutes.

The assertion by many dictionaries and most of our education system that Fascism is far right wing politics is hogwash and a blinding example of how easily the ignorant masses can be duped by the lies of the intelligencia.

God blessed America indeed, but he left it up to us to use our brains to keep it free, we as a nation are letting him down.  Rise up and get in the face of the liars on the left. The video above gives you clear and indisputable ammunition to shut them up in their tracks.  

The issues demand truth, there is no reason to be polite about it, the liars are stealing your children's future, leftist are evil, let them know it.

Atlantic City, New Jersey, A Political Calamity from the Start

New Jersey continues its multi-decade decline taking center stage this next week in Atlantic City as Governor Chris Christie takes time off from his Presidential Campaign to convene a summit to discuss the future of the City.

Crony Capitalism on display for decades, from the very beginning a government rolling calamity of failure and now a city on the brink of collapse as 3 of it's 11 casinos are set to close down next month. Another shockingly predictable calamity in the 45 year history of New Jersey's Casino industry.

Gambling In New Jersey Gets its Start 

A colorful beginning back in the days when Hugh Hefner invested a fortune in the Northern New Jersey mountain town of Vernon to hold the first Casino. Hefner and his Playboy Club proved the folly of the "build it and they will come argument", he built it and they went to Atlantic City. last time I was there it still sat - virtually empty as it was on the day it opened. Imagine a casino lobby with no casino stuff... Frisbee golf comes to mind last I saw it. They threw big parties in the disco Days of the 80'sbut the concept was doomed without the gambling revenue.

New Jersey is following the folly of Greece in that it focuses on Tourism, a low job value, "high tax revenue" Economic Strategy that failed the people of Greece miserably and is failing New Jersey too.  

Since the beginning New Jersey's efforts to rely on gambling as a source of economic value and tax revenue have been a damaging factor to New Jersey and it's people. Atlantic City never lived up to any of the projections over the years. So much was invested, both the tax payers money and the very spirit of the community.

The soul of the people were distracted from making the products that the world would want to buy to instead making systems to promote moral diversions and to separate retirees and drunks from their pensions and pay. They built a cycle of decay. Recent warnings from credit agencies concerning the Cities General Obligation bonds seems a bit late to the party. Today, Atlantic City is a testament to the cronyism of New Jersey's culture. A culture that young people should step up and take notice of.

Christie, President, Fuggetaboutit New Jersey

The news continues to paint a deep dark picture in New Jersey,  especially for Christie's presidential run. In a word, Fuggetaboutit.

Last month Christie was forced to cut $2.5 Billion dollars from the State planned pension contribution and now today comes word that the Revel Casino in Atlantic City is likely to close down. In a letter to employees the company projected Mid August to shut the doors if they cant find a buyer. New Jersey tax payers are likely to loss all of the $260 million dollars they invested into the project in 2011 under Christie's lead.

Bridgegate aside, I think it is the collapse of the income expectations in his budget combined with the ineffective pension fix he totted that have sent his presidential bid into the toilet for the final flush.

The monstrosity playing out in Atlantic city today was predicted years back. Long before this project ran into trouble, long before the government bailed it out. Pennsylvania dealt a decisive blow back when they announced the boarder casino wall project, that was back in the 2005 era.

The financial and structural issues  NJ faces are massive and this casino failure will be more than just a nail in Jersey's coffin.

The depth of the problem is still not clear due to the complexities of pension actuarial regulations associated with government pension plans The obfuscation caused by the decades long GASB / FASB reporting disparities is in my opinion outright intentional deception by GASB. Over two decades of an unsupportable position on the NON reporting requirements of unfunded liabilities. That is a crime, if not by statute than surely by logic.

In fairness to GASB, it's now admitted their actions were "problematic" and the fix is at hand, but so much damage has been done. The problems are ahead of us, not behind us, and they are massive. Terminal? Maybe.

The full scope of the unfunded liabilities is an important factor but I think the key issue is more one of social injustice issue than just a massive financial problem. It is the government "ruling" the people no longer "of the people".  Few talk details about it but that is why so much anger is developing.

THE TWO SIMPLE QUESTION THAT NEEDS TO BE ADDRESSED

1) Why are government employees compensated (total package) so much higher than their private sector counterparts?

2) Why are there special tax benefits and legal standards afforded to government employees?

As I see it that is the fundamental issue at hand. The ramifications are staggering. The productive sector of our economy is being drained not only of it's money but of its opportunity, it's promise, it's freedom its potential, this is having an impact on the very souls of the American citizens.  The desperation, a sense of hopelessness is descending on America as a once unquestioned brightness now faces the darkness.  An unknown future and a lack of confidence in the most turbulent of times.

New Jersey's problems are deep but it is the social injustice being forced on the population by a corrupted government that hid the truth for decades and created a sense of entitlement for the government employees.

U-Haul Rate Study-  Cost comparison Wayne New Jersey to Austin Texas and vice-a-versa  

My most recent review of the U-Haul rates Between Wayne, New Jersey and Austin, Texas indicates that it is 250% more expensive  to rent a 26 foot truck to go to Austin  than to do the reverse. Drilling deeper I found the cost difference for a 17 foot truck is less, 200%. This may indicate that it is the larger, more established households moving out. This supply and demand analysis is not a scientific assessment by any means however it is at the least a curious argument. The 250% difference on the larger truck appears to come from cost discount to return the asset back to NJ.

 That's the way I see it.


FASB - The governing body of private sector accounting standards
GASB - The governing body of government sector accounting standards

New Jersey; a contender in America's Race to the Bottom

Last week New Jersey' leading newspaper conglomerate who's cornerstone print publication is the Star Ledger and online NJ.com announced massive layoffs in the wake of continuing decline in revenue and circulation.

The Question is WHY?

The Garden State
where yesterday's
Flower Children
became today's
Bloomin' Idiots

Is it the changes in technology that plagues the Star Ledger group?

Or is it that the people of New Jersey are finally turning their backs on the liberal propaganda that the Star Ledger is known to spread?

As a student of our nation economy I regularly read newspapers from coast to coast, the Sacramento Bee, the Oregonian, the Star Ledger, Santa Barbara Independent and the San Jose Mercury News.  I'm often shocked simply reviewing the headlines, often asking myself is this for real? I have to confirm the date the story lines are so void of substance. So many media sources skip the important stuff. Astounding at times how deceitful and  biased these large regional news sources can be.

Frankly I think it is good to see the demise of the liars. The economic landscape has been squandered and undermined by liberal media deceit. The lose of these  jobs are nothing compared to the ruinous economic events precipitated by decades of liberal lies.

The tripe and irrelevant drivel that makes it to their lead story lines is a testament to the the Star Ledgers failure and a contributor to a vast ignorance across large segments of NJ society.

Many people in New Jersey are detached from reality, vacant on the critical issues our nation faces. I wager few New Jersey residents are aware that their state is ranked as the most financially unstable in the country. Few know the state debt hit a record $40.4 Billion after rising 4.1 percent in 2013. Add to that their unfunded employee retirement liabilities which are estimated to be the highest of all the states on a per-capita basis. (This includes both the pension and "other" contracted retirement benefits.)

SCARY MIGRATION TREND 

Add to all that the fact that New Jersey is experiencing the highest outward migration of any state and, well it is not a pretty picture.

New Jersey's Poster Child; Jon Corzine
First he almost destroyed Goldman Sachs,
 then he added ruin onto New Jersey.
The third times the charm,
He led MF Global into bankruptcy
at a stunning pace and a billion
dollars disappeared at the same time.
I believe he is still facing charges on that.

The debts and excessive expenses that have grown to unmanageable levels will be born on the shoulders of a declining population. It could be even worse, in the last census period New Jersey lost a congressional seat. It is too early to know if that will happen again, but it may.

Once the spawning grounds of visionaries now left to the rot of a parasitic culture that feeds on corruption, thuggery and taxes. Bankrupt in morals and bankrupt financially.   A bifurcated society where the government and its corporatist cronies suck on the souls of those that chose to stay behind.

The ties that bind,
a generation so blind 

Yesterday's Flower Children turned into today's Bloomin' Idiots

A soul-less society that will feel the scorn of it's children.  It is far better to let New Jersey fail, let the death dealt by liberalism cleans the economy and the culture.

ARE BAILOUTS IMMORAL?

The "too big to fail" argument must end, PERIOD.  It should not be an acceptable concept,  it is not reflective of a balanced and healthy free market, in fact the existence of the premiss is evidence that there are improper inducements in the markets in the first place.

New Jersey can fail, Chicago can fail, LA can fail. California - maybe it is too big to fail and there are serious efforts to break it up. In fact Tim Draper the famous venture capitalist is working on qualifying a 6-state breakup concept to be on the 2016 ballot in California.  That will be interesting.

Good intentions with predictable bad results are bad choices, period. Criminal? Perhaps.

If New Jersey or any other state or company or bank is on the road to failure it must be left to fail. To do otherwise in light of all we know now should be considered a criminal act.

Exodus from Philadelphia and New Jersey - Very Troubling New Research on U-Haul Rates

You would not know it if you relied on the main stream press in New Jersey but the migration of people out of state is accelerating. Last February I started keeping track of the U-Haul rate differences between key cities including my home town Wayne New Jersey and Austin Texas.  How much to rent a truck to go to Austin From Wayne and vise a versa. The rate difference supported the anecdotal evidence, people were leaving New Jersey - the cost to leave was nearly twice as much as to go to New Jersey.  Later in the year I checked again several times and around September the cost difference rose to 2.4 times more expensive to go to Austin than to come from there.

The Hippies begot the Hipsters, hipsters begot ... ??? 

I also compared rates with Chicago witch was 3 to 1 and San Francisco 2 to 1. They have basically stayed the same.

Today I took a fresh look at the numbers they have changed drastically, they are much worse for New Jersey. The migration out of New Jersey based on my admittedly simplistic and non scientific analysis though arguably a strong assessment point has exploded to a record pace.  In the last census period as I recall New Jersey lost a congressional seat. At the current pace they may loose another.

Click for data

More fundamentally is the concentration of the massive debts of New Jersey. The unfunded liabilities among the worst in the nation on a per capita basis. That burden will be born by a contracting population. This will be reflected in all aspects of New Jersean's lives, from jobs to home prices to business opportunities to public safety.

And of course increasing property taxes. Taxes that are already the highest in the nation.

Where did New Jersey go wrong?  So wrong and seemingly so fast?

What can we learn from New Jersey's plight?

First let me dispel the speed, frankly this is the slowest train wreck in history, the price of a ticket, simply pennies worth of thoughts,   the obfuscation, ... priceless. Well, not quit priceless, that's just a saying, it will be anything but priceless.

Simple, two accounting standards = two classes of society.  We have lots more than two sets of accounting standards, suffice to say FASB and GASB are at the core. These two sets of standards enabled  the fraud and deception of the voters regarding their financial obligations to the retirement plans of their public employees.  What was illegal under one standard FASB was tactical under the other GASB.

The generation that has led the state of New Jersey to the brink of ruin.

Arguably the high schoolers of the 60s and 70s, now the teachers and leaders of today. It is this generations half baked liberalism that has shaped our today.  Ironic is it not that yesterday's "flower children" turned into today's "blooming idiots".

America's Clueless Generation, the self righteous anti establishmentarians have now taken over and consumed the establishment, in doing so they have morphed it into a parasitic sponge, consuming the aspirational soul of generations and more fundamentally creating a corporatist culture that has plagued opportunity in America, squashing the drive of individualism and creating barriers to our former freedoms.

Scary days lie ahead for New Jersey and the Nation but as I see it, the sooner the cancers of America are brought to the surface and exposed to the light of truth the sooner the solutions to our future can be found.