Fiorina Suggests California File Bankruptcy: 'This State Can't Pay Its Bills'

Apparently her economic 'skills' regarding government abilities and rights is on a par with her economic 'ability' in running private sector businesses.........

Into the ground.

If you think the financial crisis past was bad, wait until either a CA bond issuance fail or default.
Oh, these are truly interesting times.

inancial pressure continues to increase in california

sooner or later the political stalemate on taxes will end

As as been touched on above, Carly has probably cost the taxpayers of CA many millions in increased interest costs by her stupidity. The municipal (and state) tax exempt bond/debt market (nationally) has just settled down the past few months as investors have regained confidence in most of the garden variety bonds and the riskiest have been identified. All governments have to borrow on a routine basis because taxes are received on a irregular basis. Real prpoerty taxes, for example, are collected in most jurisdictions once or twice a year. Governments will issue what are known as tax anticipation notes for a certain percentage of anticipated taxes to keep them operating until the proceeds are collected. Prudently designed tax anticipation notes have traditionally received a very low interest rate because they are, correctly in my opinion, perceived as having an extremely low ridk of default. Beginning in the fall 2008, the interest rates for prudently designed tax anticipation notes radically increased far beyond the risk. Interest rates for other state/municipal tax exempt debt also radically increased far beyond any increased risk. [Good time for a prudent investor who examined the offerings to buy.] The interest rates/yields got so high that state and local government stopped issuing long term debt instruments and limited their borrowing to what they had to do.

This market settled down to something approaching rationality last summer. Carly, for reasons I have never understood, is given credibility for public fiscal issues. The danger is that her ignorance will increase the cost of borrowing not just for CA state and local government but for all the rest of the US. This is a fragile market.

Reublicans are like a business that is going broke selling widgets for $10 each, after using $12 each to manufacture them, but can't even consider trying to sell them for $12.50 each. They say a price increase is off the table, and we have pledged to never raise the price. I could say they are nothing but money grubbing assholes, but that would be out of place here, so I will remain too polite to say that.

Is this a recent photo of her? She needs a new makeover. God she looks scareeeeee

Maybe she should quit campaigning and donate all that money to the state treasury. It would help the state more that way.

Is that what she looks like? Seriously? I remember an interview with her on 60 Minutes about the HP spying affair, she looked VERY different. This... creature in the photo looks like she just flew in from Manhattan or Scottsdale.

She's awful, but making fun of her hair or appearance is pretty puerile. Mean-spirited, even, when you consider the fact that she's growing back her hair from cancer treatment.

California has been governed by Republicans for 25 of the last 30 years. Funny none of the Republicans running ever mention THAT salient fact.

That idea is as horrendous as her new hair-do.

I thought that was a middle aged drag queen upon first viewing.

Well, at least she is an expert on unlawful surveillance . . .

Technicality? What?

It seems what she's talking about is insolvency, i.e., an inability to pay obligations or a negative balance sheet (that's a meaningful distinction in a bankruptcy proceeding, obviously).

But to have been a CEO and not understand these points and be unable to talk with insight about them . . . jeebus, that's pretty fucked. At least Sarah Palin has the excuse of congenital idiocy.

I wonder if she thinks states that go bankrupt have to give their senators multi-million dollar severance packages.

California's upper crust has the resources to fix all of this, in short order, if they weren't so greedy.

Wealthy Americans obviously aren't very patriotic. Their money matters more than their country.

OK, Zeke, I'll stop now.

Why can't she just be content with nearly destroying Hewlett-Packard?

I don't know whether foreigners are big buyers of California debt obligations, but if they are presumably this sort of talk should give them pause. If I were the Chinese or Saudi sovereign wealth funds I would be seeing a nation perhaps too unstable and too poorly lead to be investable.