Justice for sale - literally

[audrey_girl]

its beginning to get a little desperate in California

fyi:

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/...entry_id=58070

Like a cash-strapped family hawking furniture on Craigslist, the state of California is getting creative in unloading its property for desperately needed cash....

and for people interested in the list of upcoming properties (tybee island???)...

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/articl...n151502S92.DTL

[GRG55]

Re: Justice for sale - literally

its beginning to get a little desperate in California

fyi:

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/...entry_id=58070

Like a cash-strapped family hawking furniture on Craigslist, the state of California is getting creative in unloading its property for desperately needed cash....

and for people interested in the list of upcoming properties (tybee island???)...

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/articl...n151502S92.DTL

And so we see the final outrage being perpetrated on the public. Assets that were built and paid for by the taxpayers will be wholesale turned over to the private interests at distressed prices...and the taxpayers will then pay for the assets all over again, and again, and again in the rents.

This is so obscene as to be sickening...even worse than the so called Public-Private-Partnerships, commonly abbreviated P3.

I think the citizens of California should execute a P3 strategy on their worthless politicians in Sacremento...strip them of their Pay, their Perks, and their Pensions...

[iyamwutiam]

Re: Justice for sale - literally

Isn't this the whole point of lending -give fiat and get tangible assets. We'll see this soon with turnpikes, airports and all other public infra-structure financed by the taxpayer.

[audrey_girl]

Re: Justice for sale - literally

as a follow-up, and as with most SFGate "news" articles

- to really understand what is going on here, be sure to read the posted comments

-ag

[GRG55]

Re: Justice for sale - literally

as a follow-up, and as with most SFGate "news" articles

- to really understand what is going on here, be sure to read the posted comments

-ag

Thanks for the heads up. I didn't read all the pages of comments, but the first few pages suggested the majority of opinion wasn't far from what I posted. That's a good sign...maybe the people of California will do something before it's too late...

[cjppjc]

Re: Justice for sale - literally

Thanks for the heads up. I didn't read all the pages of comments, but the first few pages suggested the majority of opinion wasn't far from what I posted. That's a good sign...maybe the people of California will do something before it's too late...

Are these the same people who voted for officials who are responsible for the way things are in California? Or "We have met the enemy, and he is us."

[pianodoctor]

Re: Justice for sale - literally

One of the for sale properties not listed in the article is one local to me- Del Mar Racetrack (horse)/Fairgrounds. Very, very sweet locale on the coast. The village of Del Mar, CA appears very interested in buying it. I believe it actually makes money.[IMG]file:///Users/richardclark/Desktop/800px-Del-Mar-Race-Track.22100356_std.jpg[/IMG]

http://www.delmarracerental.com/yaho...100356_std.jpg

[Master Shake]

Re: Justice for sale - literally

Are these the same people who voted for officials who are responsible for the way things are in California? Or "We have met the enemy, and he is us."

Yep.

I didn't read any comments. Anyone suggesting cutting off benefits to people who are not citizens of the US?

[ThePythonicCow]

Re: Justice for sale - literally

And so we see the final outrage being perpetrated on the public.

If you sell something you no longer need the use of, fine. Take the cash and run (so long as you got a fair price, for the current market.) I doubt that's the case here.

If you sell something you going to have to rent back, that's signing up the tax payers for a long term expense in order to extract a short term cash inflow. Not good.

The problem with Public-Private-Partnerships (PPP) is that they are essentially a rent to own proposition. Rather than openly financing some new construction on new public debt, with say a bond measure voted on by the people, instead the state commits to paying a long term lease, enabling the PPP to take that commitment to the bank and get the construction loan. This moves the obvious debt off the public books. But like a 'rent-to-own' deal, if you miss any payments, the property is repossessed. This is worse than a public bond. If a state defaults on a public bond, it is like you defaulting on a credit card after using it to buy a big screen TV. The state's or your credit rating is slammed, but you get to keep the goods. If the state defaults on a PPP built road or you default on a rent-to-own TV, the title goes to the financier.

In all these cases, (1) clear and unencumbered title to some useful property and (2) a commitment to making payments long term (in a form not visible on the books as an ordinary debt obligation) in order to get clear title back are being handed over in (3) exchange for a short term cash boost.

Furthermore, given the obfuscation of such deals compared to plain debt, (4) the price paid for regaining clear title is usually excessive. You might end up paying $2000 discounted price (present value of future payments) for a $500 TV. I doubt that the governments in these PPP deals (be they California or Greece or even my great state of Texas) are paying fair price either. Obfuscated deals to cash short customers extended by institutions with the predominance of lawyers, accountants and psychopathic sharks are seldom "fair" to the putative customer sucker.