Jackson Jambalaya

The Blue State Meltdown

Yet despite all this, the blue states appear to be continuing their decades-long meltdown. “Hope” may still sell among media pundits and café society, but the bad economy, increasingly now Obama’s, is causing serious pain to millions of ordinary people who happen to live in the left-leaning part of America.

For example, while state and local budget crises have extended to some red states, the most severe fiscal and economic basket cases largely are concentrated in places such as New York, New Jersey, Illinois, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Oregon, and, perhaps most vividly of all, California. The last three have among the highest unemployment rates in the country; all the aforementioned are deeply in debt and have been forced to impose employee cutbacks and higher taxes almost certain to blunt a strong recovery.

From the same link though it will be lost on the pollyannas who blindly believe that creative classnik bubble economics will somehow save Jackson.

This elite strategy has served to bifurcate most blue states into an affluent core and a rapidly declining periphery. For example, California, a state whose shift from red to blue has given some heft to “progressives” everywhere, has experienced an increasing gap between a small sliver of wealthy metropolitan residents along the coast and an increasingly marginalized interior populated largely by middle- and working-class Hispanics.

...

Under the leadership of Governor Jennifer Granholm, Michigan has sought to reinvent itself from an industrial powerhouse to a center of the “creative economy.” For much of her first term, Granholm focused on such inanities as promoting a “cool cities” program, following the notion that creating places for the terminally hip would help turn around her state’s economy.

Yet in the end, Michigan stands at the worst end of almost every calculator, with the highest unemployment and rates of out-migration, and the worst cities for business. Its per capita income, which was 16th in the nation shortly before Granholm ascended as governor, has now dropped to 33rd, the lowest since the federal government has been keeping records.

Detroit now suffers a 22 percent unemployment rate, the highest of any major city. Nearly one in three residents is on food stamps. But the pain goes well beyond Motor City. Altogether Michigan communities account for a remarkable six of the nation’s ten worst job markets, according to the most recent Forbes–New Geography survey.

The financial crisis was nailed EIGHT years ago if anyone was paying attention to Federal Reserve reports! Non-partisan economists repeatedly warned that our economy was artificially propped up by the housing market, they warned about the deficits ( trade and budget), and warned about borrowing. The head of GAO went on the road ala Paul Revere, for goodness sakes!
But no one wanted to listen in 2001. Think WHY that was that YOU didn't hear or want to hear
anything about that!

Schiff makes some good points ( he's actually arguing against global economics in some instances)and is stupid about regulation vs interst rates. But, he's thinking of running for office so he can't go against party line for the sake of honesty. And, for God sakes, look at what his business is! DUH! He wants to be able to take as much of your money as legally possible!

Money managers are not in the business of making YOU money as their first priority. Their priority is making money for THEMSELVES. Why is this hard?

Both sides use facism/nazism as the bogeyman for political children simply because it's a easy fear tactic. And, I didn't hear him use that word. Let's try looking at the definitions of those words when it comes to government structure rather than use them for buzz, ok? The details matter.

Please people, if you don't want to actually study the health care issue or read the bills( that's right, plural)at
least go to one of the MANY fact check , truth or fiction sites or try the CBO ( Congressional Budget Office info...they are unbiased). Better yet, there are people with no agenda in the health care profession that have been studying WHY we've dropped to 47th in health care for decades.

Do you KNOW how much of the federal and state budget is health care cost? Do you REALLY think having the uninsured use our ER rooms for health care is efficient? Do you love having your insurance company tell your doctor what treatments he can offer you? Do you love having your insurance being able to cancel coverage because you've gotten expensively sick?

Doing NOTHING is a recipe for a continuing decline. We NEED a dialogue on what we can agree should be done. There ARE some rational recommendations that we could all probably buy into but we will NEVER get there because those who are profiting from "
as is" don't want that discussion! Neither do the politicians that can make hay off this! Nor the media who can getting rating from having two extremist idiots fight before our eyes!

If you have an uninformed opinion based on what some media or party pundit says, you are just a political pawn letting others with their own agendas PLAY YOU!

Only Congress has a sweeter health care plan than I do, but I'm not so self-focused that I can't see that there's a health care crisis in this Nation and I can figure out that my LONG TERM interest lies in putting this Nation's economic health FIRST!

Are you going to be part of a solution or part of the problem?

If the solution means accepting your definition of the problem then probably not. Educate us with some links and less spin.

Anon at 10:54: Not true. Schiff was predicting this back in 2001 and 2002. One of the knocks against him from the other side is he was predicting this for so long he eventually had to be right. Nice try.

KF: love today's cartoon (Ohmahgawd!) Excellent choice.

Some of us were pretty busy back then and wasn't paying attention. ;)

In the interest of being fair and balanced, here is a critique of Schiff: Article

He did a great job of diagnosing the problem the last few years but horrible when it came to actually investing. He totally missed the rise of the dollar last fall. However, he has been right quite a bit lately and I think his opinion is worth hearing.

KF said 3 years, not me. Good for Schiff but hardly rocket science for those doing their homework. The Dallas Federal Reserve paper published in 2001 on mortgages was all anyone needed to read. It's on line.

But, what is the "facism" thing relating this interview to health care when LITTLE was said about health care at all?

On the role of regulations in this economic crisis, look up the regulations imposed after the S&L fiasco and then see what happened when those regulations were removed. Instant replay with new banking names but same game. Try a history of regulatory changes in the banking industry.

Another source to check out is any college grad level economics book for the proper role of government in a capitalistic economy. There is no such thing as "free enterprise". That is Utopia until such time as ALL governments remove ALL trade barriers...aint' going to happen.

Look at the MS state budget for the percentage of dollars spent on health care and google " amount of the federal budget spent on health care". Get GAO projections.

I don't get most of my information from " links". I prefer the best available unbiased information I can find. Usually , that is text books, professional publications and the actual government documents the Congress gets but doesn't bother to read.

There are plenty of reasons to oppose the health care bills before Congress...not the least of which is that Congress doesn't read either. I oppose much of what's being considered but NONE of the media hype is based in fact save the CBO figures WHEN accurately quoted ( which is seldom or selectively).

Good chuckle that Uncle Barack didn't do his TownHall gabfest yesterday in either Massachusetts or Maine where their state forays into universal health care have been documented flops. Then you have Hawaii which abandoned universal care for children less than a year after inception when the cost$ rocketed beyond all projections.

Your points are well taken 8:02 but the "uncle" bit wasn't.

You've already got those who will oppose anything Obama supports because he's Black.

You're just giving Democrats more ammunition to paint everyone who opposes health care as redneck racists,

Thanks alot! NOT!

You are an idiot. There was nothing racist about it. It was a reference to socialism/communism but obviously your educational background left any deep understanding of world history off of your mental manifest.