• 1) Connecticut pensions

“Beyond the immediate fiscal crisis loom structural budget challenges that must be addressed — particularly, the state’s staggering unfunded long-term obligations. At last count, the state’s unfunded pension and health care obligations were approaching $40 billion, or about $16,000 per capita.”

• 2)  Is New Jersey on track for a government employee pension train wreck

“Taxpayers are liable for about $34 billion that has gone unfunded.

The Press of Atlantic City analyzed state pension programs and federal and state labor data to document pension growth and the amounts New Jersey taxpayers are paying in government pensions. The findings will be published in Sunday’s edition of The Press of Atlantic City. In addition, a searchable database of all New Jersey government pensions has been posted online on AccessData at PressofAtlanticCity.com.

“Basically we’re on track to have a pension train wreck,” says James Hughes, dean of the Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy at Rutgers University.”

• 3) New York City OTB bankruptcy/$600 million in unfunded pension and health insurance liabilities

“The New York City Off-Track Betting Corporation filed for Chapter 9 bankruptcy protection yesterday, and will try to reorganize its operations and seek help from New York State lawmakers. The Corporation handles about $1 billion in wagers each year and will lose a reported $40 million this year. In addition, it carries $600 million in unfunded pension and health insurance liabilities.”

• 4) The state ofthe  union in charts (Nathan’s Economic Edge….lots of charts to look at)

“FEDERAL GOVERNMENT

To say that our Federal Government finances are a mess would be an understatement of historic proportions.

Our receipts as a nation are plummeting, what was $2.7 Trillion in receipts is now only $2.2 Trillion. That half a trillion dollars in lost income represents a nearly 19% plunge.”

• 5) TrimTabs: The Real Job Loss Number Was 255,000

“TrimTabs employment analysis, which uses real-time daily income tax deposits from all U.S. taxpayers to compute employment growth, estimated that the U.S. economy shed 255,000 jobs in November. This past month’s results were an improvement of only 10.2% from the 284,000 jobs lost in October.

Meanwhile, the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reported that the U.S. economy lost an astonishingly better than expected 11,000 jobs in November. In addition, the BLS revised their September and October results down a whopping 203,000 jobs, resulting in a 45% improvement over their preliminary results.

Something is not right in Kansas! Either the BLS results are wrong, our results are in error, or the truth lies somewhere in the middle

We believe the BLS is grossly underestimating current job losses due to their flawed survey methodology. Those flaws include rigid seasonal adjustments, a mysterious birth/death adjustment, and the fact that only 40% to 60% of the BLS survey is complete by the time of the first release and subject to revision.”

………..11,000 jobs?  And they all fit in the little box that this girl will show you.