Labor

Deteriorating public finances in many public cities are creating headaches for some of the country’s largest police departments. The City of Dallas, as we’ve pointed out time and time again, is in a particularly difficult position.

The Dallas Police & Fire Pension (DPFP), which covers nearly 10,000 police and firefighters, is on the verge of collapse as its board and the city struggle to pitch benefit cuts to save the plan from complete failure.

A few weeks ago, we expressed some level of astonishment that the rating agencies, in their infinite wisdom, decided to bestow an investment grade rating upon a new $3 billion bond issuance by the City of Chicago.  Of course, this wouldn't be such a big deal but for the fact that the state of Illinois is a financial disaster that will undoubtedly be forced into bankruptcy at some point in the future courtesy of a staggering ~$150 billion funding gap on its public pensions, a mountain of debt and $16.4 billion in accrued AP because they can't even afford to pay their bills on a timely basis.

For the second straight month, Empire Fed Manufacturing survey disappointed expectations in December, tumbling to its lowest since July.

Under the hood are glimpses of stagflation as new orders slide but prices paid rise...

and employment and workweek number stagnate (if not contract)...

While CNN doesn’t dedicate much time to covering the subject, we’ve repeatedly pointed out that, contrary to what conventional wisdom might lead one to believe, incarceration rates among white Americans have risen since 2000 while incarceration rates for minorities have fallen.

The US prison population is finally shrinking after swelling to more than 2 million people, placing the US among the countries with the largest prison populations. Nearly one in five inmates are incarcerated on nonviolent drug charges.

Investors are panic-buying Israeli generic drugmaker Teva Pharmaceutical after the new CEO announces restructuring plan that involves eliminating 25% of global workforce, suspending its dividend, and warns of "downward pressure on the top line."

As WSJ reports, Teva Pharmaceutical is cutting more than 25% of its workforce, suspending its dividend, and closing factories and research facilities world-wide as it works to cut costs and pay down debt.