Though it is a few days late after original broadcast:

California Governor declared a state of emergency on the budget crisis within California. The economy is so bad the government is passing out IOU's to cover debts. These IOU's will be passed out to banks, to the elderly, and to taxpayers for their refunds.

California is one of the largest single state economies in the country. This means that when California suffers, the entire USA suffers as much.

For the next two years, state budget deficits are expected to total 230 billion dollars.

What does this mean for you? Slashing services such as financial aid and social security options, larger unemployment rates, higher sales taxes, higher product taxes, and state budgets deficits will continue to rise affecting you receiving payments from your government. Health care in California is already suffering and the state government plans to cut it further down 26.5%.

Sources: msnbc article foxbusiness

Repeat after me, kids.

Depression unlike which this country has never fathomed.

I expect rioting soon.

There have already been riots in California over the IOU's. It's not just California that is having to face it- it's just the more well known bankrupted state. I believe there is 8 so far that will be having to do this, but that's just what I got from the media- which I won't take as factual until I see/hear more about it. I know Arizona and Pennsylvania are facing this IOU crisis, I'm not sure what other states are as well.

I am shocked that the governor's of California and Arizona have not been kicked out of their positions yet.

Well it's not like they can say this is a total shock. There were plenty of warning signs.

Viva la revolution.

I am sure some would say it's a total shock, but I totally agree with you. The warning signs have been around, but I think the government also did a fine job hiding it for as long as they did.

What was it... in the 90's the government poured a bunch of money into the peso and Mexico sold us a bunch of stocks they didn't have the money for. There was a huge uproar as the nation started to see a decline in the economy and in an effort to bail ourselves out, we sent a bailout to Mexico. But stuff like this has been going on for a long time. The nation keeps digging itself in deeper debt as people are spending more than they're earning. The government keeps pushing funds out to other nations and warfare faster than they can print- and we all know the more they print, the less worth the dollar is. It was only a matter of time.

At this point, I really don't know what could save us. But I definitely see a revolution coming, as you said. :)

I have to ask- is it really so hard for states to keep their budgets in check? They have set budgets, I don't know how states, especially in California, can go so over their budget limit.

uh, yeah! american government is the KING of pushing things under the rug. arnold, bush2 and now barack obama (oh i had so much hope!), continue to keep up this fine american tradition.

i live in caifornia and there's total outrage over it all.

The rug pushing has been going on a long, long time. Long before Jimmy Carter had to clean up Nixon's mess. I haven't been keeping up with current events concerning Obama as much as I should, so I have no idea what he's been doing.

I did cry when he allowed the issuing out on so many bailouts, knowing that I'm going to be screwed over for that mistake as I get older. I was still my spring semester when he did that and all of my business professors just went on and on in outrage about it. It was a bad blow to the business world.

I live in California as well and am constantly seeing more picketing than normal. We had a whole bunch of teachers just standing around the freeway entrance with megaphones, signs, etc. I distinctly remember one sign stating to remove Schwarzenegger from office. Unfortunately, he's just a small speck in this problem.

I wonder why people are now raising concern on why states are not regulating themselves as they should be as we've been having a financial crisis for a good while. Where was the outrage 10 or even 20 years ago? We've made zero progress in the world of finance and continue to slide further down.

Explanation on the teacher riot in California- lack of funds towards education because the government overspent and cannot send out to all the various intuitions. Lots of schools are raising their fees because the government is cutting back on them even further. California education is already in the pithole and will continue to drown.

Meanwhile, the board of education members get to sit in their pretty little mansion homes, making over 100k a year, having their personal drivers paid for by the state and various lobbyists cart them around wherever they go.

YOu might be interested in what The Automatic Earth has to say in all this. I don't get a chance to read it as often as I'd like, but they do post some very interesting articles. You also might like the A Drop of Rain blog. I enjoy this one as well.

Greed is not good. plain and simple, and all this growth is fake. This is just the shit hitting the fan, and we can't keep hanging air fresheners around and say it's not there.

Oh wow, thank you for those suggestions! The Automatic Earth reminds me so much what was in my Micro and Macro Economics textbook. So familiar!

These definitely pertain to the current events concerning the economy in far more detail and accuracy than the media has been providing.

EDIT: Automatic Earth is very helpful in mapping the unemployment rate and predictable outcome. This greatly affects the majority Subeta generation- teens. The job market will continue to decline and most of these soon to be high school graduates will be placed in the same category as college grad students. Job hunting with little hope of where you wish to be. If you can even get a job at all.