Stockton’s bankruptcy

California’s Greece

A city of nearly 300,000 goes bust. How many more will follow?

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Readers' comments




Budgeting 101: you cannot spend money you do not have,

Politcs 101: you can always buy votes with money you do not have,


Wonderful, we should get shot so that the city can pay outrageous pensions. Who came up with the idea of paying public employees to not work, rather than to work. I think police do an absolutely necessary job, that's why I'm not going to give them pensions.

ChuckD43 in reply to supamark

That is the problem in California, we never actually had the money. We believed that we would have the money eventually to pay these obligations as long as our GDP continued to grow at 5%, that our population would continue to surge and that our investments would grow at 8.25%. Sadly that proved to be too optimistic...


Even in 2006 when the city was "booming" I experienced more criminal activity than I've ever seen in my life in Stockton, even in much larger metropolitan cities. Having my life threatened at a gas station, hearing gunshots in the distance while at the gym, even a driveby behind my house in a nice neighborhood. Thank god I've since moved on, because with the budget cuts and cops being gone Stockton will be a scary place indeed.

Owls are best

The central valley will have more challenges from the perfect storm of the drought that culminated in 2009, coupled with the recession. This is a tale of what happens when leaders spend without an eye to a balanced budget. Regretably this is not unusual for either party.
It is however spectacularly pernicious at a federal level where the Administration waves its hand and votes for continuing resolutions.


Once again, can we refrain from comparing California with Greece? We are not even talking about apples and oranges here. Speaking of apples, I could point out Apple, then Google, Facebook, HP, Silicon Valley, Central Valley, San Fernando Valley, Hollywood, so many other productive industries that makes California the envy of the world. What does Greece ( or for that matter Europe ) have to compare exactly? Yeah! That what I thought.

The problem with California is that we do not pay enough taxes to cover government obligations. But that doesn't exactly make us a "Greece."

insidious western media

I can almost hear Meredith Whitney clucking, "I told you so....! We're not that far away from a muni bond implosion." She's also the prescient analyst who warned us of Citi's insolvency way back in 2007.

Jasiek w japonii

Incheon, a South Korean city known worldwide for its huge airport and what is broadly regarded as its big economic success, is to follow. While the airport prospers, the city is undergoing a financial crisis. This is what the Washington Consensus led to.

California Robert

I attended elementary and high school (St. Mary's) in Stockton. I remember a hot, miserable, highly conservative town with little to offer. When Sacramento is, by comparison, a thriving metropolis you have a serious problem. Educated folks who might have started businesses there and improved the city knew to get out asap, and those remaining were likely to keep the cops busy. Being an exurb of silicon valley might have worked, but the recession (and crushing experience of driving 580 - though to be fair amtrak offers regular service from stockton to the bay) killed that.


THANK G.H.W.BUSH _ BILL CLINTON destroying TRADE & LABOR LAW so to ' Legally ' unemploy 67% of America's Workforce, those employed in Stateside Manufacturing.
This was done to implement NAFTA WTO .. which stands against our Constitution and has a series of 'Quasi Legal Workarounds' in place .. .. and then handing off over 50,000 FACTORIES to Dictatorship Nation Workforces beginning in Clinton's last year in Office 2001-2011.
Barack Obama has flipped from his campaign statements and now is firmly with the Bush Dynasty's Carlyle Group , The Bilderberg Group and Pro Off Shoring U.S.Manufacturing .. little wonder why Obama's Presidency is a National Wealth Generating Disaster.. he sold out to those who crafted Our Nations Economic Disaster.


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