Now that Schwarzenegger is a certifiable lame duck (dead duck may be a more appropriate term) Schwarzenegger sees fit to take on public unions in a major way. It’s too late now (for him) even as he speaks the truth.

Please consider Public Pensions and Our Fiscal Future by Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Recently some critics have accused me of bullying state employees. Headlines in California papers this month have been screaming “Gov assails state workers” and “Schwarzenegger threatens state workers.”

I’m doing no such thing. State employees are hard-working and valuable contributors to our society. But here’s the plain truth: California simply cannot solve its budgetary problems without addressing government-employee compensation and benefits.

Thanks to huge unfunded pension and retirement health-care promises granted by past governments, and also to deceptive pension-fund accounting that understated liabilities and overstated future investment returns, California is now saddled with $550 billion of retirement debt.

The cost of servicing that debt has grown at a rate of more than 15% annually over the last decade. This year, retirement benefits—more than $6 billion—will exceed what the state is spending on higher education. Next year, retirement costs will rise another 15%. In fact, they are destined to grow so much faster than state revenues that they threaten to suck up the money for every other program in the state budget.

At the same time that government-employee costs have been climbing, the private-sector workers whose taxes pay for them have been hurting. Since 2007, one million private jobs have been lost in California. Median incomes of workers in the state’s private sector have stagnated for more than a decade. To make matters worse, the retirement accounts of those workers in California have declined. The average 401(k) is down nationally nearly 20% since 2007. Meanwhile, the defined benefit retirement plans of government employees—for which private-sector workers are on the hook—have risen in value.

Few Californians in the private sector have $1 million in savings, but that’s effectively the retirement account they guarantee to public employees who opt to retire at age 55 and are entitled to a monthly, inflation-protected check of $3,000 for the rest of their lives.

In 2003, just before I became governor, the state assembly even passed a law permitting government employees to purchase additional taxpayer-guaranteed, high-yielding retirement annuities at a discount—adding even more retirement debt. It’s as if Sacramento legislators don’t want a government of the people, by the people, and for the people, but a government of the employees, by the employees, and for the employees.

For years I’ve asked state legislators to stop adding to retirement debt. They have refused. Now the Democratic leadership of the assembly proposes to raise the tax and debt burdens on private employees in order to cover rising public-employee compensation.

Much needs to be done. The Assembly needs to reverse the massive and retroactive increase in pension formulas it enacted 11 years ago. It also needs to prohibit “spiking”—giving someone a big raise in his last year of work so his pension is boosted. Government employees must be required to increase their contributions to pensions. Public pension funds must make truthful financial disclosures to the public as to the size of their liabilities, and they must use reasonable projected rates of returns on their investments. The legislature could pass those reforms in five minutes, the same amount of time it took them to pass that massive pension boost 11 years ago that adds additional costs every single day they refuse to act.

…

All of these reforms must be in place before I will sign a budget.

I am under no illusion about the difficulty of my task. Government-employee unions are the most powerful political forces in our state and largely control Democratic legislators. But for the future of our state, no task is more important.

Schwarzenegger Washes His Hands

Schwarzenegger drones on and on about who is to blame. He also acts as if he was fiscally responsible.

That is far from the truth. In Turn out the lights California, the party is over I blasted Schwarzenegger’s fiscally reckless proposals.

Flashback March 2, 2007: Schwarzenegger wants $500 billion to rebuild California

Sound Bites

• $42.7 billion in general obligation bonds issued last year is “only the foot in the door, to whet the appetite.“
• It will take $500 billion to “rebuild California the way it ought to be“.
• $500 billion is “too big for people to digest, so you don’t talk about that” even though he is talking about it.
• California needs $500 billion even though it has “done tremendously with the revenue increases“.
• California will not issue less debt even if the economy slows.
• California “could face lower tax revenues” but he opposes tax hikes.

Well here we are, 9 months later and the $4.1 billion reserve went to a $14 billion deficit in the last 4 months.

Thank God Schwarzenegger did not get what he asked.

Now in massive revisionist history he attempts to take credit for being fiscally conservative. Please, let’s stop the charades.

While there is some truth he wanted concessions from unions, unlike Governor Chris Christie, he never fought for them very hard. Only now is he saying “All of these reforms must be in place before I will sign a budget.”

He should have said that in 2009, 2008, and 2007. He is saying that now that he is a lame duck. While I commend the idea, the problems he was elected to fix are more broken than ever.

It will be interesting to see how this budget battle plays out, but no amount of hand-washing can absolve Schwarzenegger of his share of the blame.

Mike “Mish” Shedlock
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com
Click Here To Scroll Thru My Recent Post List

Mike “Mish” Shedlock is a registered investment advisor representative for SitkaPacific Capital Management. Sitka Pacific is an asset management firm whose goal is strong performance and low volatility, regardless of market direction.
Visit http://www.sitkapacific.com/account_management.html to learn more about wealth management and capital preservation strategies of Sitka Pacific.

Today the DOW has crossed the 10K line for the umpteenth time (at least 3 times in the past 3 days alone depending on how you count), smack on the heels of “fantastic news” that second quarter GDP was 1.6%.

For a change, economists were a bit too pessimistic but to get to that point, their estimates had to be ratcheted down twice from 2.5% to 1.4%. Now the market, temporarily at least, thinks 1.6% is good.

It isn’t. More importantly, GDP expectations looking forward for 3rd quarter are in the neighborhood of 2.5%, a number that is from Fantasyland. I expect a negative print.

GDP News Release

Inquiring minds are digging into the BEA’s report National Income and Product Accounts
Gross Domestic Product, 2nd quarter 2010 (second estimate) for additional details.

Real gross domestic product — the output of goods and services produced by labor and property located in the United States — increased at an annual rate of 1.6 percent in the second quarter of 2010, (that is, from the first quarter to the second quarter), according to the “second” estimate released by the Bureau of Economic Analysis. In the first quarter, real GDP increased 3.7 percent.

The GDP estimates released today are based on more complete source data than were available for the “advance” estimate issued last month. In the advance estimate, the increase in real GDP was 2.4 percent (see “Revisions” on page 3).

The increase in real GDP in the second quarter primarily reflected positive contributions from nonresidential fixed investment, personal consumption expenditures, exports, federal government spending, private inventory investment, and residential fixed investment. Imports, which are a subtraction in the calculation of GDP, increased.

The deceleration in real GDP in the second quarter primarily reflected a sharp acceleration in imports and a sharp deceleration in private inventory investment that were partly offset by an upturn in residential fixed investment, an acceleration in nonresidential fixed investment, an upturn in state and local government spending, and an acceleration in federal government spending.

Real personal consumption expenditures increased 2.0 percent in the second quarter, compared with an increase of 1.9 percent in the first. Real nonresidential fixed investment increased 17.6 percent, compared with an increase of 7.8 percent. Nonresidential structures increased 0.4 percent, in contrast to a decrease of 17.8 percent. Equipment and software increased 24.9 percent, compared with an increase of 20.4 percent. Real residential fixed investment increased 27.2 percent, in contrast to a decrease of 12.3 percent.

The change in real private inventories added 0.63 percentage point to the second-quarter change in real GDP, after adding 2.64 percentage points to the first-quarter change. Private businesses increased inventories $63.2 billion in the second quarter, following an increase of $44.1 billion in the first quarter and a decrease of $36.7 billion in the fourth.

Positive Contributions

• Nonresidential fixed investment increased 17.6 percent
• Personal consumption expenditures increased 2.0 percent
• Real residential fixed investment increased 27.2 percent
• Equipment and software increased 24.9 percent
• Real private inventories added 0.63 percentage point to the second-quarter change in real GDP

Take a look at that list and ask “How many of them will increase again in Q3?” Any?

Amazingly, the deceleration in second quarter GDP was “partly offset by an upturn in residential fixed investment, an acceleration in nonresidential fixed investment, an upturn in state and local government spending, and an acceleration in federal government spending.”

Think housing will add to GDP in Q3? State and local government spending?

Evolution of Estimates

Dave Rosenberg discusses GDP in today’s Breakfast with Dave.

REVISIONISTS UNITE!

Like the equity analysts, the economists are now in the process of cutting their GDP forecasts — but in dribs and drabs, and nothing very draconian just yet. It is interesting to see that the hopes of a 3%-plus growth for this quarter have been marked down to 2.5% in just three short months and frankly, it looks like the economy may even be contracting right now. The consensus has only now begun to touch Q4, and there is probably much more work to do on this score as well.

The bright light in the Q2 revision was the uptick to consumer spending, to a 2% annual rate from 1.6%, while at the same time we had the inventory line revised lower to a $63.2 billion build from $75.7 billion. This configuration is alleviating concerns that a move to take inventories down in the third quarter will be necessary since household spending held up better than earlier expected.

Real GDP in the U.S. came in higher than expected, coming in at 1.6% versus market expectations of 1.4% in Q2. Boy oh boy, 1.6% never felt so good. Be that as it may, much of the upward revision on consumer spending was in services and non-durables, and it looks to be energy related (gas, electricity). In real terms, consumption of gasoline/other energy goods rose at a 4.7% annual rate whereas in the previous “take” on Q2 GDP it was reported to be up only at a 0.7% annual rate. Spending on utilities also swung from what was reported before as a 0.7% decline to a 1.5% increase. Strip out the energy components, and consumer spending did not improve at all from the last Q2 report we were issued a month ago. In other words, if not for the fact that more of the household budget was diverted to the energy bill in Q2, consumer spending would have shown a 1.6% growth rate and GDP would have actually come in BELOW consensus, at +1.3%. Notably, consumer spending on big-ticket durable goods came in lower than initially estimated — trimmed to a 6.9% annual rate from 7.5%.

Here’s what is important to take away:

• We had 5% real GDP growth in the fourth quarter of last year, followed by 3.7% in Q1, 1.6% in Q2 and now what looks to be little better than 0% this quarter. So the notion that the economy has hit stall speed has not changed in this report —if anything, it was enhanced.
• Real final sales — GDP excluding inventories — was actually marked down in this report to a meager 1% annual rate. That is really soft and underscores the overall weakness in the demand guts of the economy. We know from the monthly data that much of this paltry 1.6% growth in Q2 was baked into April — four months ago! — and that the pace of activity has weakened markedly ever since.
• The monthly GDP data have actually shown declines for two months running and there is a negative “build in” so far for Q3. There is practically no growth in real consumer spending heading into the current quarter and we know that back-to-school sales so far have been sluggish.

One more comment on Q2 — just to put 1.6% into context. Historically, four quarters following a bottom in GDP, growth is running over a 6% annual rate. Rejoicing over 1.6% because it wasn’t 1.4%, particularly in the context of the most radical bailout, monetary and fiscal stimulus in U.S. history, totally misses the point that we are operating in a totally abnormal and fragile economic environment.

Treasuries Hammered

After a massive rally in treasuries since April, at some point there was bound to be a correction. Exciting news of an unexpectedly “good” GDP at 1.6% was a nice trigger.

The selloff looks sharp but it’s not. 10-year treasury yields were above 4% in April. The 10-year yield after today’s hammering is 2.64%.

Mike “Mish” Shedlock
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com
Click Here To Scroll Thru My Recent Post List

Mike “Mish” Shedlock is a registered investment advisor representative for SitkaPacific Capital Management. Sitka Pacific is an asset management firm whose goal is strong performance and low volatility, regardless of market direction.
Visit http://www.sitkapacific.com/account_management.html to learn more about wealth management and capital preservation strategies of Sitka Pacific.