The roads in Illinois are in decay. This may be the first state to go bankrupt. The question is not if, but when. State unions are so greedy that they are destroying the very state. This is exactly how Rome fell — government employees against the people.

Seven states have constitutional provisions that state employee pensions must come BEFORE everything, including debt payments. Since the legislature in New Jersey was Democrat, they fought Governor Christie on pension reform. Their solution? On the ballot in November, there will be a provision to amend the state Constitution to put employee pensions before everything else. The people are generally kept ignorant of what that means to property taxes and the future of the state. Therefore, the average person will say, “Sure, I should get my pension, so they should also.”

Illinois should declare bankruptcy. It is simply inevitable. There is absolutely no hope for Illinois whatsoever. Every year they will have to pay more and more. If the state who manages the pension money loses, well, the taxpayers have to cover those losses as well. The governor tried to stop the downgrade of expectations for earnings in the pension fund from 7.5% to 7%, which means they have to raise taxes and/or cut service by almost a half-billion.

It’s time to just turnout the lights in Illinois. Welcome to the Sovereign Debt Crisis. This is the contagion you will finally start to hear about, but only after the elections. Why spoil the party?

QUESTION: Sir,

You mentioned in your blog post that money market funds now have to be in government bonds as per SEC ruling. You have said we are going through a sovereign debt crisis which means government bonds are at risk. If I’m trading and my money is now parked as “cash” before I make another trade in a money market fund, does this mean outside of a trade, my money is now at risk when government bonds crash?

Thanks for all you are doing

DK

ANSWER: Yes. There are two types of funds. One is marked-to-market, so there will be no guarantee you get back 100%. The other will be fully invested in government bonds. There, you will be told you lost nothing, but in reality, you may not be able to sell. When the crisis comes, the only buyer will be the central banks and if they stop buying, look out below.

Personally, if I were in the business I would create a corporate bond fund only that prohibits all government paper. That may not be “politically correct” but neither are politicians.