States must fill $1 trillion pension gap

By Bob L. The way I see it!

Here is a good example of why you have high taxes, Government hires to many people to do a job that fewer people can do, then they hirer consulting firms to do what is suppose to be done by the people in these Government jobs that you the tax payer is paying for, then you have to pay for their PENSIONS and HEALTH INSURANCE also. A good example, a private company sends out FOUR workers, to where the Government sends out EIGHT to TEN workers to do the same job, now why are taxes so high, (when some are making $45.00 dollars an hour or more.) Who pays for these WAGES, PENSIONS and HEALTH INSURANCE benefits? YOU, and JUST THINK, you pay into them and don’t get any of there benefits.
This whole article sounds just like Social Security, except on the State level.

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By MARK SCOLFORO, Associated Press Writer
Thu Feb 18

HARRISBURG, Pa. – States may be forced to reduce benefits, raise taxes or slash government services to address a $1 trillion funding shortfall in public sector retirement benefits, according to a new study that warns of even more debilitating costs if immediate action isn’t taken.

The Pew Center on the States released a survey Thursday of state-administered pension plans, retiree health care and other post-employment benefits in all 50 states that blamed a decade’s worth of policy decisions for leaving them shortchanged. [My insert]( Better known as spending money you don’t have.)

Judging stimulus: Jobless rate high, growth real

By Bob L. How I see the directions this Country is headed!

How many of these job that they are saying they provided are year round and full time at good wages, does any one know. Ask the people that are still out of work who don’t have a UNION job.

It seams that the only jobs that were saved were Government and some Unions who are still getting pay increases.

Will there ever be full time General jobs in this Country that pay a good wage again for people who can’t afford to go to college, or will there be more people who want to work but can’t get a job because they don’t have a college degree that the Government says you have to have to get a job.
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By BRETT J. BLACKLEDGE and JIM KUHNHENN, Associated Press Writers
2/18/2010

WASHINGTON – Did the stimulus work or not? A year after Congress passed President Barack Obama’s huge economic revival plan, the results are mixed — and hardly final.

Despite Obama’s bold promises, unemployment remains stubbornly high. But job losses have slowed dramatically.

A different kind of Olympic drama: Foreclosure

By Michelle Caruso-Cabrera, CNBC.com
2/18/2010

The Whistler-Blackcombe resort, where the Alpine events such as snowboarding and ski-jumping are being held, could go into foreclosure this week, smack dab in the middle of the Olympics, and be owned in part by the now defunct Lehman Brothers, one of its creditors.

Whistler Blackcombe is one of several ski resort properties owned by Intrawest. Others include Steamboat and Stratton. The company is in deep financial straits and missed a debt payment of more than $500 million in December. The lenders have given Intrawest a deadline of this Friday to come up with the money, or they say they will foreclose.

Intrawest is owned by Fortress Investments, a well known, private equity firm and hedge fund, which bought Intrawest in a leveraged buyout in 2006 for $2.8 billion. The rationale for the investment was that condo sales slopeside would provide cash to pay back the $1.7 billion in debt they took on as a result of the deal. Then the real estate market collapsed.

The CEO of Fortress, Dan Mudd, was on CNBC and acknowledged Intrawest is having a tough time with the real estate sales, but that the on-slope operations of the business – lift tickets, etc. – are doing better. He says they want to manage their way through the crisis and realize the full value of the investment. He said negotiations are ongoing right now with the creditors.

Resort investments have been particularly hard hit in the economic downturn. On Tuesday, East West Resort Development, owner of various luxury ski resorts and a Jack Nicklaus golf course near Lake Tahoe, filed for bankruptcy.