Wednesday, April 8, 2009

Zeitgeist: "Tax Riots Aren't Just For Breakfast Anymore"

If you saw the March 9 post "JPMorgan Chase to Increase India Outsourcing 25%"
You may recall our last paragraph:
...Folks are not happy. A crowd (8000 in Fullerton) in California chanted "Head on a stick" while protesting against Arnold Schwarzenegger this weekend. And these were conservatives who had probably never protested in public before!
It is getting ugly. Sort of like watching Baptists dance.
From DealBreaker:

For years it seemed California could pretty much spend itself past drunken sailor levels and tax the stuffing out of everyone to keep the debt payments current. The state's goal to be the leading tax-and-spend municipality was boosted not insubstantially by skyrocketing real-estate prices (and the heavy taxes thereon) and permitted some absolutely eye-popping defined-benefit plans for government workers. Now, with pension funds dizzy from repeated blows to the head, tax receipts looking dismal, IOUs instead of refund checks and ballooning unfunded liabilities, California is going to need more than an oversubscribed bond issuance (fueled by tax free status, we might add) to pull the chestnuts out. As if the times were not rough enough, the citizenry are starting to get pissed. (It's about time?)

An angry mob of thousands converged on an Orange County parking lot in southern California on a recent Saturday morning for an anti-tax protest, stunning even the organizers with the size of the turnout....MORE
Some other DealBreaker posts:

Jim Cramer Loves It When You Tell Him He Sucks

Madoffs: The First Conjugal Visit

Dehydrated Conspiracy: Just Add AIG!

Our Former Colleague In The BDSM Industry Would Like To Add That Ken Lewis Should Not Only Get To Keep His Job But Redecorate To The Tune Of Ten Million In Shag Rugs And Disco Balls