Wednesday, September 29, 2010

Meredith Whitney reveals the data behind State funding crises.

The state of the States is not a pretty picture and Meredith Whitney is revealing all. Here is a Fortune aricle on the topic.
Fortune

Meredith Whitney's new target: The states


Today, Whitney is releasing a 600-page report, colorfully entitled
"The Tragedy of the Commons," that rates the financial condition of
America's 15 largest states, measured by their GDP. Whitney claims that
the study is the most comprehensive, in-depth analysis of the states'
murky patterns of spending, revenues and benefits programs ever
assembled by the government, foundations, or another research firm.

What Whitney found reminds her of the poor disclosure and arcane
accounting rules that hid the fragile condition of the banks and
monoline insurers that she unmasked. "The states represent the new
systemic risk to financial markets," says Whitney. "I see a lack of
transparency and an abundance of complacency on the part of investors
and politicians, just as we saw before the banks imploded."


Meredith Whitney got famous because she identified before hand the risk in the big banks. She is worth listening to about the potholes in state finance.

1 comment:

Lsquared said...

I am afraid to read it.