Thursday, May 24, 2012

In Europe, It's All About The Bank (Run)

The word 'encumbrance' has received a lot of headlines in the last few months - and rightfully so - after we pointed out the impact that LTROs had in subordinating senior creditors of European banks. As Morgan Stanley points out, this is a considerable problem for bondholders as 'in a wind-down scenario, senior unsecured holders have recourse to fewer assets and hence face a higher loss given defaulthow much loss-absorbing capital there is beneath you in the bank’s liability stack, as this is the capital that will take losses before senior creditors in the event of a bail-in' which means looking at deposits as well as secured encumbrance. What is very apparent from the pictorial representations of banks’ liability structures is that rather than encumbrance from covered bonds/LTRO etc. the bigger issue for encumbrance of senior unsecured investors is the potential threat from depositor 'runs'. The hope of another LTRO is limited by collateral as policy-makers are well aware that, in a world where failing banks are to be resolved through resolution frameworks and senior creditors are to take losses to shield taxpayers’ funds, banks may not have enough ‘bail-in-able’ debt, given their growing reliance on secured funding sources. With deposits increasingly impaired - and/or the potential for contagious bank runs if we see Grexit, Europe's problem is 'all about the bank runs' now and we were told yesterday how far off that is - though the crisis 'event' may bring deposit guarantees (and the implicit exchange of sovereignty for monetary support) sooner. (LGD)'. In understanding just how bad things are for European banks, it is important to focus on '

 

Google Trends Shows Why The Status Quo "Powers That Be" Should Be Scared. Very Scared

The volume of searches for the phrase 'Bank Run' has just hit an all-time high - higher now than even during the peak of the Lehman Brothers 'moment'. While English dominates the language choices, the Europeans (Dutch, Germans, and French) are extremely 'interested' as are the Chinese...but it appears the Singaporeans are running the most scared (as we noted here) is perhaps not surprising, followed by the Irish and the Americans - with Germany a disappointing 10th - perhaps they really do not care as much as everyone's bluff-calling hopes. It seems the fears of real 'bank runs' are becoming virtually 'viral' - not a good sign for the stability of the fictional-reserve-banking-dependent status quo.





As Bankia Bailout Costs Grow Exponentially, Is A Stealth Bank Run Taking Place... And What Happens To Ronaldo?

Note the following sequence of events, bolded numbers, and dates:
  • Bank Of Spain Formally Nationalizes Bankia, Says Insolvent Bank Is "Solvent", Adds There Is No Cause For Concern, Zero Hedge, May 9
  • Spain is taking over Bankia by converting its 4.5 billion euros of preferred shares in the group’s parent company into ordinary shares, BusinessWeek, May 21
  • Spain said on Wednesday its rescue of problem lender Bankia would cost at least 9 billion euros ($11 billion), as the government tries to clean up a banking system that threatens  to drag the country deeper into the euro zone crisis, Reuters, May 23   
  • Bankia SA will have to ask the Spanish government for more than 15 billion euros as part of its effort to restore its financial health, state-owned news agency EFE reported Thursday, citing financial sources, Dow Jones, May 24
Hopefully we aren't the only ones to notice how the bailout cost has oddly doubled almost on a daily basis.





Lousy PMI for China and Europe/Large purchases of gold from central banks/Spain begs for money

Harvey Organ at Harvey Organ's - The Daily Gold and Silver Report - 40 minutes ago
Good evening Ladies and Gentlemen: When we witnessed the huge rise in gold/silver equity shares yesterday despite the  massive hit on the physical metals, you could have bet the farm that the metals would rise the next day.  And this certainly was the case this morning as gold hit a high of $1578.00  but by afternoon, the banking cartel entered the fray as  they decided to attack, driving gold

Agriculture: We Have No Farmers

Admin at Jim Rogers Blog - 5 hours ago
More people in America study public relations than study farming. We have no farmers. You cannot eat press releases. It has been a horrible business for 30 years. Prices have to go up a lot, or we're not going to have any food at any price. - *in Economic Times* Related: PowerShares DB Agriculture Fund (NYSE:DBA), Potash (POT), John Deere (DE) *Jim Rogers is an author, financial commentator and successful international investor. He has been frequently featured in Time, The New York Times, Barron’s, Forbes, Fortune, The Wall Street Journal, The Financial Times and is a regular guest... more » 
 

Targeting The Flow of Money To Reduce The Deficit

Eric De Groot at Eric De Groot - 5 hours ago

Big brother needs beer money for the endless summer party and will show no remorse about sticking his hand in little brother's pocket for it. Those that think that it stops here (new tolls and taxes and endless fee increases) are probably spending too much at big brother's party. Bill HR4646, Debt Free America Act (love the name), proposes a 1% transaction tax on all bank account... [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]




Retail Pulls Money Out Of Stocks For 13th Consecutive Week

Not like this will come as a surprise to anyone in the aftermath of last week's abysmal FaceBook IPO which pretty much killed all retail interest in equity markets, but in the last week, the "dumb" money pulled another $3.5 billion out of domestic stocks per ICI, bringing the total tally to 13 consecutive weeks of outflows, and 52 weeks of outflows in the past 56 weeks, with redemptions amounting to $46 billion in 2012, compared to just $6.5 billion for the same period in 2011. Algo-matic, the 20 remaining Primary Dealers and whatever hedge funds are left can pass hot grenades amongst each other: the retail money (RIP) has found other ways to amuse itself.




CME Cuts Crude, Gold Margins

There was a time when the CME was rushing to hike crude, gold and silver margins. That seems like an eternity ago. So was the appointment of Obama to the role of margin hiker-in-chief, and his most recent witch hunt to rid the world of all evil speculators (oddly, the speculators are only evil when driving the price of oil higher, never that of stocks). Anyway, as of minutes ago, the CME just cut margins for Crude (CL) and Gold (GC) by 13% and 10% respectively. At this point we doubt it will do much if anything. Those who care, know that the only real assets are those that one has possession of, not held by proxy of an exchange which just can't wait to spring the trap and hike margins the second Bernanke announces the NEW QE. Sorry: the people just aren't going to fall for that one again.




The Big Print Is Coming

Here in the U.S., I think that The Bernank’s plan was to pretend they didn’t need to print more money, get commodity prices down and then hope that the economy would respond favorably to that development.  This wouldn’t have negated the need for more printing; however, it would have bought time and allowed for a potentially lesser degree of action.  Instead, what has happened is that the global ponzi is completely and totally incapable of holding itself together without consistent and increasingly large infusions of Central Bank money.  The debt burden is too large, the mal-investments too pervasive, the corruption too systemic.  The whole house of cards that is the global economy will vanish into dust rather quickly without more and more printing.  So what do you think they are going to do? If I am correct, and the U.S. economy itself is now in the early stages of what will probably turn into a serious economic slowdown, then it will not be easily stopped with incremental Central Bank policies.  The fact that they have waited this long and the fact that the global economy is in the midst of a serious slowdown tells me one thing.  They are way behind the curve and by the time they realize this it will be too late to stem the momentum.  That said, I do expect them to respond and the fact that things will have gotten much worse than they expected will mean a major response.  I’m not talking operation twist part deux.  I mean a serious print.  Potentially the BIG ONE.




As Reality Recedes, Rumor Rampage Returns... Redux

Having hit its highs in the pre-open, equity markets drip-drip-dripped lower all day, retracing their late-day exuberance relative to credit markets and broad risk-assets by the middle of the afternoon. Even financials had given back almost all of their post 230ET ramp yesterday but then - IT happened again. Italy's Monti made the same technocrat-fed comments as yesterday and financials take off again leading stocks higher (only to come back 10 minutes later and back-pedal on his hard facts). This time though - was different. Yesterday's rumor-ramp added 2.5% to XLF (the financials ETF) but this time it only managed to spur a 0.5% gain before the effects faded. Coincidentally - the ramp pushed ES (the S&P 500 e-mini futures) up to VWAP where sure enough we saw heavy volume with large average trade size step in to briefly stall the rally - which then managed to push on to near the day-session's highs (but notably all on its own again). ES very much repeated the same pattern as yesterday but with lower average trade size still - ending the day exuberant but on its own. The USD kept pushing higher though - with the divergence with stocks now very large - (as EUR leaked lower - even as AUD rallied on the rumor-ramp) but this USD strength did not weigh as angrily overall on commodities today. Late Europe rumors of another LTRO pushed stocks up and dragged gold and silver up rapidly but they all gave it back by the close. With the USD up 1.5% on the week, Oil, Copper, Gold, and Silver are in the same currency-driven range between down 1.25 and 2% on the week - perhaps suggesting yesterday's plunge in PMs has seen a short-term end to the liquidation factors (though for how long). Into a long weekend, it seemed volume remained decent enough but once again average trade size was very low (suggesting little conviction here and/or algos giving pro-size exits). Treasury yields rose all day (ending higher by 3bps or so) pulling back to near Tuesday's closing levels. VIX tracked down to 21.5% (losing less than 1 vol on the day) and is once again cheap relative to credit/equity's view.




May Hedge Funds Performance Update: Red Is Bad

And it was shaping up to be such a good year. According to the latest just released HSBC hedge fund performance update, increasingly more funds are starting to lose it, certainly for the month, but increasingly more for the year. How many LPs will be eager to keep on paying 2% management fees (forget performance) to funds who at best are long AAPL (at least 226 of them), and at worst have underperformed the S&P, for the second year in a row, by anywhere from 5 to 15%?




Greek Schizophrenia Update

The latest from the mathematically challenged country:
  • GREEK OPINION POLL SHOWS 85% IN FAVOR OF EURO
  • GREEK OPINION POLL SHOWS 12% OPPOSE EURO
Yet at the same time...
  • GREEK OPINION POLL SHOWS SYRIZA WITH 30%
That's right - 30%, or a polling record high, support anti-bailout Syriza. Finally, something like 120% want to shove Merkel's memorandum in her face, or any other orifice, although that number is based on our own, highly unscientific estimates. Basically, the Greeks don't care what currency their debt is denominated in, as long as it is not paid...




The Top Five Gold Commentators


Dear CIGAs,

I would like to send a special thanks to Will Bancroft of www.RealAsset.co.uk for the kind words.

The Top Five Gold Commentators Posted MAR 20 2012 by WILL BANCROFT
There are a range of commentators on the precious metals but there is a golden elite whose insights, opinions and research should not be missed by gold investors. These gold market luminaries can be found in a number of places, and come from a variety of backgrounds. We thought it a good moment to pay our respects, explain to others why these gold commentators are so notable and deserving of your attention, and talk a bit more about why we think they’re so great. Read on for a range of sources that are sure to help your gold investment knowledge.
We’ve compiled a list of our top 5 gold commentators, who are worth seeking out. This is by no means scientific or definitive, but it is a collection of bankers, investors, traders and entrepreneurs who have helped us develop our world view. We have only included commentators that are alive and thus highly accessible today, had we not the late Ferdinand Lips would have surely been included. We have also tried to keep it focused on the gold and silver markets; we would otherwise have been sure to mention the likes of wider forecasters and trend spotters such as Bill Bonner. Tell us if we’ve missed anyone off the list in the comments section below! And, while you’re at it recommend your favourite commentators or analysts.

Jim Sinclair – ‘Mr Gold’
Jim Sinclair is a legendary trader with decades of experience in the gold, silver, commodities, and foreign exchange markets. He is often known as Mr Gold because of his hugely deep knowledge of and association with the gold market. Jim grew up amongst trading royalty, his father being business partners with Jesse Livermore. He has built and sold a number of financial businesses, worked as a advisor to the Hunt brothers in the early 1980s to help run down their silver position, and has published numerous magazine articles and books about investment and the markets.
Back in 2000 Jim forecast a gold price of $1,760 in ten years’ time. His price target was hit in August 2011, rather poetically on the day of the August GATA conference in London. Can he correctly forecast the gold market again? We cannot say for sure, but Jim is better placed than almost anyone else to try. Gold investors will be greatly helped in their journey by this market heavyweight.
You can regularly hear Jim speak on King World News, and we also highly recommend his website that is a fantastic free resource for gold investors: www.jsmineset.com.

Ben Davies
Since founding his precious metals fund in 2007, Ben Davies has shot to prominence in the precious metals markets where he is one of the top commentators and investors. His place at number two in our list is all the more remarkable because he is many years (in some cases decades!) younger than the assembled company. His historical grasp of the gold and silver markets lacks precious little when compared to more senior others listed here.
Ben was previously a trader in the fixed income markets, and was previously head of trading at RBS Greenwich Capital in London. We had the pleasure of interviewing Ben earlier in 2012. Ben’s fund, Hinde Capital, produces some of the best research for gold and silver investors. Hinde’s research is deep, extensive and highly educational, but be warned it can sometimes be over 50 pages long. Ben’s reports cover a range of areas from the danger of gold ETFs, state intervention in markets, and even short term market updates with a specific market call. There are few, if any, who can call markets consistently over the short term, by Ben, like Jim Sinclair above, is one of the best placed to do so. His piece ‘Silver Criticality’ was one of the best short term calls in the volatile silver market. He told us he had to rush this out in 24 hours, in time with his suddenly building hunch about a drop in the silver price. Ben’s research will also direct you onto other great academics, analysts and traders, such as Peter Bernholz, Didier Sornette, Benoit Mandelbrot and others, whose research, books and insights will also help your investing and world view.
You can read reports from Hinde Capital here, and Ben also features regularly on King World News. You can enjoy Ben’s Tweetstream and personal insights into his business life via@HindeCapital.

Eric Sprott
Eric Sprott has many decades of experience in the investment industry and founded the now >$11bn Sprott Asset Management. Eric is one of the most eloquent speakers and writers in the precious metals markets, and another very popular conference speaker. His analyses of wider macro issues affecting currency wars, leverage and debt, and state induced imbalances is superb. Eric is a thought leader for investors, and savers might benefit from listening carefully to him on why keeping money in the bank is not necessarily a safe investment.
Eric is another investor not afraid to call individuals and institutions to account. He is an outspoken critique of the meddling of central bankers, and campaigns for greater fairness in the precious metals markets. Specifically Eric has a grievance with the price discovery process that sets the gold and silver prices. He believes the paper and derivatives markets set the gold price, when it is in fact the physical market that is the real and honest market investors should participate in. It was for this reason that Eric called on silver miners to think differently about the silver bullion product they produce.
Eric appears regularly on King World News, and he and others from Sprott AM write excellent monthly newsletters called ‘Markets at a Glance’.

James Turk
James Turk is another godfather of the gold market. He was a trained banker, with Chase Manhattan Bank, before moving into the investment and trading worlds. James also managed commodities for an Abu Dhabi Sovereign Wealth Fund, and has written “The Freemarket Gold & Money Report” since 1987. James’ analysis, and his ‘Fear Index’, have become greatly respected in the precious metals markets.
James is a great student of sound money and Austrian economics, and is now heavily focused on educating investors and voters. He co-authored ‘Dollar Collapse’ with John Rubino, a financial book about the demise of the dollar and how to profit from it. The book and the associated website (DollarCollapse.com) come highly recommended; you can also read our comment and analysis on this website. James’ GoldMoney Foundation does great work spreading the word about gold, silver, and the problems in the global financial system. The foundation’s interviews with academics, politicians, investors and traders may well aid your gold investment knowledge.
James is another regular on the financial news site, King World News.

Jim Rickards
Jim Rickards is an investment banker with over three decade’s experience in the markets. He is also a trained lawyer and has served as General Counsel at several financial institutions. Jim was the principal negotiator of the government-sponsored rescue of the LTCM hedge fund collapse of 1998, and also assists the Department of Defence in their understanding of financial warfare.
Jim has become a well-known figure in the precious metals markets due to his breadth and depth of financial knowledge, including monetary history and gold. He is another favourite on investment podcasts, financial news shows, and money websites. Jim’s book ‘Currency Wars: The Making of the Next Global Crisis’ became a New York Times bestseller, and is now a much read and cited financial book. During the promotion of this book economist Nouriel Roubinicalled out Jim via Twitter for his discussion of the gold standard. In our humble opinion Jim proved to be much better versed in the detail of this technical discussion than Mr Roubini, who continues to broad cast strong opinions of the direction of the gold price without much of a record.
You can regularly hear Jim talking gold, the markets and the economy on King World News, whilst his regular blogs on Seeking Alpha are also highly recommended. You can follow Jim on Twitter via @JamesGRickards, for an amusing and insightful Tweetstream.

The golden quintet
We hope you enjoy listening to and reading these commentators. We think you’ll find their analysis educational and even eye-opening. Sir Isaac Newton once quipped: “If I have seen further it is by standing on ye sholders of Giants [sic]”. You may well be able to use the individuals above to do similarly, and understand more about the future of the gold and silver prices. (As mentioned above do use the comments section below to add your opinions and favourite gold commentators.)
Link to full article…

Jim Sinclair’s Commentary

Here is the latest from John Williams’ www.ShadowStats.com.

- Activity in Real Durable Goods Orders Is Below 1999 Level
 

- Low-Level Stagnation in Home Sales Activity Continued into April
 

- Update on U.S. Dollar Fundamentals

"No. 441: April Durable Goods Orders, New and Existing Home Sales, U.S. Dollar"
 

Web-page: http://www.shadowstats.com




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Half of Detroit’s Streetlights May Go Out as City Shrinks – Bloomberg Date: May 24, 2012 3:08:05 PM EDT
Detroit, whose 139 square miles contain 60 percent fewer residents than in 1950, will try to nudge them into a smaller living space by eliminating almost half its streetlights.   As it is, 40 percent of the 88,000 streetlights are broken and the city, whose finances are to be overseen by an appointed board, can’t afford to fix them.
Other U.S. cities have gone partially dark to save money, among them Colorado Springs; Santa Rosa, California; and Rockford, Illinois. Detroit’s plan goes further: It would leave sparsely populated swaths unlit in a community of 713,000 that covers more area than Boston, Buffalo and San Francisco combined. Vacant property and parks account for 37 square miles (96 square kilometers), according to city planners.
CRAIG:  While the Fed and Treasury focus on saving the banks, Main Street is being squeezed harder and harder.  Meredith Whitney’s call on municipal bankruptcies was early, not wrong.
More…





Jim Sinclair’s Commentary

Liar, liar, pants on fire.

Real federal deficit dwarfs official tally By Dennis Cauchon, USA TODAY
The typical American household would have paid nearly all of its income in taxes last year to balance the budget if the government used standard accounting rules to compute the deficit, a USA TODAY analysis finds.
Under those accounting practices, the government ran red ink last year equal to $42,054 per household — nearly four times the official number reported under unique rules set by Congress.
A U.S. household’s median income is $49,445, the Census reports.
The big difference between the official deficit and standard accounting: Congress exempts itself from including the cost of promised retirement benefits. Yet companies, states and local governments must include retirement commitments in financial statements, as required by federal law and private boards that set accounting rules.
The deficit was $5 trillion last year under those rules. The official number was $1.3 trillion. Liabilities for Social Security, Medicare and other retirement programs rose by $3.7 trillion in 2011, according to government actuaries, but the amount was not registered on the government’s books.
Deficits are a major issue in this year’s presidential campaign, but USA TODAY has calculated federal finances under accounting rules since 2004 and found no correlation between fluctuations in the deficit and which party ran Congress or the White House.
More…





Jim Sinclair’s Commentary
Please take a moment to check out the latest video from Bill Black from www.AdvisorAnalyst.com.





Jim Sinclair’s Commentary

You have to love how Wall Street owns Washington. A kid boost a car in South Central and gets 17 years.

Former J.P. Morgan Lobbyist Manages The Banking Committee Expected To Investigate J.P. Morgan’s Trading Loss By Lee Fang posted May 22nd 2012 at 9:00AM
The Senate Banking Committee is responding to outrage over the news that J.P. Morgan lost some $3 billion in customer money because of a risky trading strategy. The committee is preparing for two hearings with regulators, and Senator Tim Johnson (D-SD), chair of the committee, is hoping that Jamie Dimon will testify in the near future. “Our due diligence has made it clear that the Banking Committee should hear directly from JPMorgan Chase’s CEO Jamie Dimon,” Johnson said in a statement last week.
Luckily for Dimon, the professional staff in charge of managing the banking committee will be quite familiar to him and his team of lobbyists. That’s because the staff director for the Senate Banking Committee is none other than a former J.P. Morgan lobbyist, Dwight Fettig.
In 2009, Fettig was a registered lobbyist for J.P. Morgan. His disclosures show that he was hired to work on “financial services regulatory reform” and the “Restoring American Financial Stability Act of 2009″ on behalf of the investment bank. Now, as staff director for the Senate Banking Committee, he will be overseeing the hearings on J.P. Morgan’s risky proprietary trading.
On the House side of Congress, J.P. Morgan may see even less of a risk in upcoming hearings. Chairman Rep. Spencer Bachus (R-AL), who would presumably manage any investigation into the bank, has already offered comments to the press defending the investment bank’s trading decisions.
K Street lobbyists occupy some of the most important positions in Congress. Tim Johnson isn’t alone in relying on a former lobbyist. At least fifteen freshman Republicans in Congress hired K Street lobbyists as their chiefs of staff in 2010. Two senators, Marco Rubio (R-FL) and Ron Johnson (R-WI), hired lobbyists from the same firm, Navigators Global, to head their office.
More…





Jim Sinclair’s Commentary

Some US business recovery? QE to infinity here and in Europe is as certain as 10,000 denials.

HP laying off 27,000 workers in restructuring
PALO ALTO, Calif. – Hewlett-Packard says it’s laying off 27,000 workers, 8 percent of its work force, as it restructures the business.
The Palo Alto, Calif., company says it’ll save $3 billion to $3.5 billion annually from cost cuts, including the layoffs.
Hewlett-Packard Co. expects to complete the job cuts by the end of fiscal 2014.
Shares are up $1.40, or 6.6 percent, to $22.48 in aftermarket trading Wednesday.
More…

 

 

Jim’s Mailbox


Dear Jim,
I have never had access to anyone before you who knew the inner works of banking and the Fed, so I remain confused. All through the 80′s I heard continuously that the Fed could not set interest rates, only the market could. Yet now Big Ben says with certainty that he will hold rates low for years. Setting overnight lending and Fed funds low will keep longer rates low??? Is Armstrong right that no one’s in charge?
2 year rates seem to have bottomed and are rising and from the Clinton era. I thought short term borrowing was the main form of government borrowing.
I feel a tremendous information overload stress!
Many thanks and wishes for your good health in your 70′s.
CIGA Alan (now 76 and feeling it)

Alan,

Let me simplify the confusion made by people speaking trying to prove their intelligence by making everything complex: you know truth is eternally simple, people are complex.
Look at the fed in competition with the markets. Whichever is larger controls the rates. Therefore if the fed does qe in trillions they control rates, but must continue or the market will overtake them.
Qe to infinity is based, amongst other things, on this.
I am 71 and feeling 25, but like my naps.
Jim


Jim,
Always good for a hearty guffaw, my personal favorite Central Banker (Benny of the Fed) not long ago seriously asserted that Gold was NOT money.
- The loveable joker was, of course. "talking his book" and trying to hoodwink everyone into thinking that prettily-engraved scraps of cotton linen that were Fed ‘promises’ to pay you… er, nothing, were aka Federal Reserve Notes.
Little noticed or remarked upon, however, has been some interesting buying of Gold by many of the world’s Central Banks.
- Central Banks added nearly 500 tons of Gold to their reserves last year (the most in five years).
- Central Banks will buy at least 400 tons of Gold this year.
Why?
- I don’t think it’s because they think Gold is not money, but rather that they understand better than most that all global fiat currencies are dying, just at different rates of speed and their prognosis is mortal in the end.
CIGA Richard S
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Targeting The Flow of Money To Reduce The Deficit  
CIGA Eric

Big brother needs beer money for the endless summer party and will show no remorse about sticking his hand in little brother’s pocket for it. Those that think that it stops here (new tolls and taxes and endless fee increases) are probably spending too much at big brother’s party.  Bill HR4646, Debt Free America Act (love the name), proposes a 1% transaction tax on all bank account activity.  This money flow tax would apply to pay and retirement check deposits.  By January 1st 2013, tax refunds will be electronic deposit only; These deposits would be subject to the 1% transaction tax.  Who needs cash with this setup?
While a cashless society rules by a universal transaction tax will increase the deficit reduction coffers over the short-term, it’s certain to influence long-term capital flows and investment in the United States.  The old saying penny wise but pound foolish best describes this logic.

Headline: States looking to new tolls to pay for highways
WASHINGTON (AP) — Driving onto an Interstate highway? Crossing a bridge on the way into work? Taking a tunnel under a river or bay? Get ready to pay. With Congress unwilling to contemplate an increase in the federal gas tax, motorists are likely to be paying ever more tolls as the government searches for ways to repair and expand the nation’s congested highways. Tolling is less efficient and sometimes can seem less fair than the main alternative, gasoline taxes. It can increase traffic on side roads as motorists seek to evade paying. Some tolling authorities — often quasi-governmental agencies operating outside the public eye — have been plagued by mismanagement. And some public-private partnerships to build toll roads have drowned in debt because of too-rosy revenue predictions. Tolls are hardly a perfect solution. But to many states and communities, they’re the best option available. "It’s very hard in this environment for states to add capacity without charging a toll because they can’t afford to do it," said Joshua Schank, president of the Eno Center for Transportation, a Washington think tank. "They’re barely able to maintain what they’ve got, and there is an urgent need for capacity." Some changes already are under way. In addition to the tolls allowed on Interstates in 15 states, mostly in the Northeast and Midwest, the U.S. has agreed to pilot toll projects on Interstate 95 in Virginia and North Carolina and on Interstate 70 in Missouri.
Source: yahoo.com




Headline: Debt Free America Act
To establish a fee on transactions which would eliminate the national debt and replace the income tax on individuals.
Source: opencongress.org
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