• 1) Marc Faber: ‘We’re All Doomed’ (CNBC Video)

(Most of Marc Faber’s comments are at around 5 minutes into the video)”When you look at the US… it’s a total disaster, we’re all doomed, we’re doomed!” Marc Faber, author of the “Gloom, Doom and Boom Report,” told CNBC Friday. Faber and Anthony Thomas from Moody’s discuss the global economic outlook.

• 2) Study puts state budget hole at $12.8 billion (Illinois)

“A state budget review conducted by a Chicago economic think tank pegs the Illinois deficit at $12.8 billion.

The total, compiled by the Civic Federation in a report released Friday, shows the hole in the current budget has grown nearly $2 billion to $5.7 billion. The next budget, which needs to be approved in the coming months and takes effect July 1, will not only carry that hole over, but will be written without billions in federal stimulus money and bear the responsibility of paying back loans used to try to balance current spending.

Added all up, the deficit reaches $12.8 billion, the federation says.”

• 3) Police In Shock After Layoff Notices (Tulsa)

“Tulsa, OK - Layoffs are never easy and Friday night 155 Tulsa Police Officers are dealing with that reality along with 14 civilian co-workers.

Some were given notice this afternoon, while the rest were notified this weekend.

Officer Ross Williams heads into tonight’s meeting somewhat bewildered.

“Once again, I think it’s unbelievable. Five and half years and i’m gone,” Officer Williams says.

Williams is one of 155 officers laid off due to budget cuts”

……………………….3A) 350 Tulsa workers get notice jobs are history

“TULSA — They knew what was coming and still couldn’t believe it.

More than 350 city employees handed layoff notices Friday were stunned by the enormity of what could become the largest single action of its kind in the city’s history.”

• 4) Funding law adds another $238 million to shortfall (Nevada)

“The $580 million reduction in revenue projections ordered by the Nevada Economic Forum on Friday is just the first shoe to drop on the state’s beleaguered budget.

The other shoe, the statute guaranteeing public school funding, will add well over

$200 million to that total.

………………….4A) NEVADA GOVERNMENT: Revenue projected to plunge

“CARSON CITY — With Nevada at least two years away from emerging from the worst recession in generations, the Economic Forum determined Friday that state government will have $580 million less in tax revenue to spend than what was put in the state budget last June.”

Under Nevada Revised Statutes, state government must protect K-12 education from unanticipated reductions in sales tax revenues that school districts depend on to pay for teacher salaries and educational programs. ”

• 5) Why does the city of Salinas have a $9.6 million deficit? (California)

“A letter from two Salinas Council members regarding budget cut solutions:

WHY DOES THE CITY OF SALINAS HAVE A $9.6 MILLION DEFICIT?

BASED ON THE PUBLIC DATA AS OF DECEMBER 16, 2009, THE CAUSE OF THE STRUCTURAL BUDGET INCLUDES:

1) TOTAL ANNUAL REVENUES DOWN 18.8% or $17.6 MILLION FROM PROJECTIONS MADE PRIOR TO THE RECESSION/HOUSING DOWNTURN;

2) SALES TAX ESTIMATES DOWN $7.9 MILLION (-30.1%);

3) MEASURE V TAX ESTIMATES DOWN $2.2 MILLION (-21.1%);

4) PROPERTY TAX ESTIMATES DOWN $6.7 MILLION (-25.1%);

5) BUILDING LICENSE RELATED FEES DOWN $500,000;

6) VEHICLE LICENSE FEES DOWN $300,000″

• 6) L.A. County transit agency projects historic budget shortfall

“L.A. County transit officials are forecasting the largest operating deficit in their history, prompting them to consider cuts to bus and rail service as well as fare increases.”

“The MTA faces a projected shortfall in operating funds of at least $251.3 million at the end of the 2011 fiscal year.”

• 7) S.D. City Budget Gap Increases By $19 Million

“Above: Why is the City of San Diego now facing a $19 million budget gap a week after the mayor praised the council for passing a balanced budget in December? We speak to Scott Lewis, from voiceofsandiego.org, about what is causing the projected deficit to grow.”

“CARL DeMAIO (San Diego City Councilman): Well, the city budget was never balanced in the first place, that’s why I voted against it in December. It relies on $100 million in one-time monies, accounting shifts, and loans. It did not book $60 million worth in the cost of retiree health care benefits. So that’s $160 million of debt right there that was being run in this year’s budget. On top of that the city just got a pension payment from the city’s pension system.

The mayor’s office was off by $20 million on the pension payment, and that’s going to require that the city come back and find out where we’re going to find those monies. This is a budget that really is not good for San Diego taxpayers.”

• Ron Paul’s State of the Union Transcript and a litte more

(The speech is posted by a blogger and he has some comments first, so scroll down to see the transcript. Click here for the videos of Ron Paul giving the speech)

” The concerted effort to prevent the correction the market demands, guarantees a prolonged agonizing crisis. Every effort to reverse the tide will depend on spending, higher deficits, increased taxes and money creation. This effort is now providing another grand bubble: the dollar/bond bubble.

The next event will be a dollar crisis. A full-blown dollar crisis will be worse than our current financial crisis. The extent of a dollar crisis depends on whether or not the Washington politicians wake up and change their ways-a dubious hope.

More likely, the insanity will continue until some not yet known event will undermine the confidence of the dollar worldwide. Signs of less desire by foreigners to hold our dollars are already present. I’m certain our Treasury and Federal Reserve are pulling out all stops to prevent a massive run on the dollar. At present the “orderly” retreat from the dollar is working. But it won’t last.”

It is impossible to predict the time when confidence will be lost, but it can come quickly. Resorting to buying other paper currencies will not be of much help. When the dollar crashes, most likely the purchasing power of all currencies-since all countries hold dollars as a reserve-will go down as well.

This means that dollars and other currencies will go into buying consumer items, precious metals and other physical properties. Consumer prices will soar, as well as interest rates. The central bank will lose control; and the more they inflate, the worse the confidence becomes. The interest rates will respond to these efforts by rising sharply.

If the Fed tries to reverse the run on the dollar, interest rates will also soar, and the pain on the American citizens will be of such proportion that political chaos will result. Either scenario leads to political and social chaos-the third event, and the most dangerous.

With no ability of the federal government to fund its commitments, international or domestic, major changes will occur in our system. The social unrest will elicit cries for government to exert unusual force to head off a complete breakdown of law and order. The ultimate trap will be set for a system of government claiming to protect a free society. If more power and police authority are not given to the federal government, it will be argued that only anarchy will result. If more government policing power is given, it will mean a lethal threat to civil liberties. Already we have permitted the notion that a single person, the Attorney General or President, can decide who is an “enemy combatant”, thus denying that individual the right to habeas corpus, permitting indefinite detentions without charges made. This attitude toward civil liberties has changed significantly since the fear built around 9/11.

• 9) Chiang warns Schwarzenegger, Legislature of cash shortage in current fiscal year

““According to my projections, California will drop below its $2.5 billion prudent minimum cash balance on March 30 by $1.3 billion. On April 1, the state will be in the red by $197 million, and our resources to pay bills are not expected to return to safe levels until April 21,” Chiang continued.

The state is facing a $19.9 billion budget deficit over the next 18 months. That amount includes a $6.6 billion shortfall in the current fiscal year, a $12.3 billion projected shortfall for 2010-11 and money needed for a $1 billion reserve.”

• 10) Los Angeles councilwoman Perry

“Perry’s message was grim. The mounting budget deficit will force layoffs, and this clearly troubled a lawmaker who started in city hall as an aide during the prosperous days. Now she favors a halt to hiring police officers even though her downtown-through-South L.A. includes crime heavy areas. She fears the threat municipal bankruptcy. “I have to laugh when people say it isn’t real,” she said.”

• 11) White House nightmare persists” By Edward Luce

“At the end of Barack Obama’s worst week since taking power a year ago, the US president’s fortunes look set only to deteriorate over the coming days. Following the shock defeat of the Democratic candidate in Massachusetts on Tuesday, a move that deprived the president of his 60-seat super-majority in the Senate and left his legislative agenda in tatters, Mr Obama has just four days to reboot the system.”

• 12) SEC May Approve Restrictions on Short Sales When Stocks Plunge

Concern that short-sellers accelerate stock declines may prompt the Securities and Exchange Commission to adopt a rule next month aimed at curbing bearish bets when equities are plunging.

• 13) Wal-Mart cuts over 10,000 Sam’s Club store jobs in US as it outsources product sampling

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. said Sunday it is cutting more than 10,000 jobs at its Sam’s Club stores, representing about 9 per cent of the warehouse club operator’s staff.
Wal-Mart said it plans to outsource its product-sampling department to marketing company Shopper Events and eliminate another unit.

• 14) Bayh Says Obama May Call for Freeze on Discretionary Spending

There is a “fighting chance” President Barack Obama will propose a freeze in most discretionary spending by the federal government in his State of the Union speech next week, Senator Evan Bayh, an Indiana Democrat, said

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