“Across the board” and “hard choices” are rapidly becoming the mantras of state and local officials across the country, as another year of budget cutting continues. With gridlock expected in Washington post-midterms, Bruce Katz has a post below on what governors can do to help themselves in addressing economic weakness and job creation following the November elections.
Coincidentally, Meredith Whitney, the Wall Street analyst who was ahead of everybody in predicting the banking crisis, has a report out today on the fiscal state of the states. It’s not good.
Entitled “The Tragedy of the Commons,” the 600 page report is only available to her firm’s clients. But this Fortune story summarizes the work, “The common thread between the banking and looming state financial crises, she says, is housing. ‘The entire financial system was over-leveraged to real estate,’ says Whitney. ‘So were the states.’"