Authored by Charles Hugh Smith via OfTwoMinds blog,
The point is the present system cannot endure.
Despite all the happy talk about "recovery" and higher growth, wages have gone nowhere since 2000--and for the bottom 20% of workers, they've gone nowhere since the 1970s.
Back in May Texas Republican Governor Greg Abbott signed into law a measure to punish so-called "sanctuary cities," despite pleas from some of the police departments of cities like Austin to halt the bill they said would hinder their ability to fight crime. You know, because enforcing laws tends to 'hinder' the crime-fighting process.
Update: Following Trump's Springfield, MO speech, Treasury Secratary Steve Mnuchin issued the following statement which, much like the Presidnet's speech, calls for more jobs, higher wages, higher GDP growth, sugar, spice and everything nice....yet provides absolutely no details on how to accomplish any of it.
The approximately 15,000 transgender servicemembers can breathe a sigh of relief - for now, at least.
Underfunded public pensions are undoubtedly the biggest threat facing America's long-term economic stability. As we've argued numerous times in the past, the size of the aggregate underfunding, $5-$8 trillion depending on your assumptions, is simply too large for even the overly generous American taxpayer to cover.
Of course, one of the biggest contributors to this inevitable crisis is the state of Kentucky which has a funding hole of $33-$84 billion, depending on your discount rate assumptions, according to an analysis recently conducted by PFM Group.