• 1) Wash. tax collections fall again, deficit swells

"Washington state tax collections are down again, swelling the budget deficit by more than $1 billion over the next two-and-a-half years as lawmakers grapple with recent voter rejection of higher taxes.

Thursday's state revenue forecast from chief economist Arun Raha adds another $385 million to the hole in the current year's state budget, which runs through June 2011."

................................1A) State's projected deficit swells to $5.7 billion

2) New York City Will Cut Workforce by 10000 to Narrow $3.3 Billion Deficit

"New York City, facing a $3.3 billion deficit in next year’s budget, will cut its workforce by more than 10,000 over the next year-and-a-half, Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s budget office reported.

More than 6,200 workers will be fired, and the remaining cuts will be accomplished by attrition, the mayor’s office said today in a report. The city, which employs more than 300,000 people, will reduce the number of workers by 2,100 in the current fiscal year, which ends June 30, and by about 8,200 in fiscal 2012, the mayor’s office said. "

............................2A) NYC May Cut Assumed Return Rate on Pensions, Liu Says

"Nov. 18 (Bloomberg) -- New York City may reduce the assumed return on its $100.5 billion of pension investments from the current 8 percent rate, Comptroller John Liu said today.

The move would increase the amount of money the city must contribute to its five public retirement plans even as it faces a $2.4 billion budget deficit next year, Liu said after a speech at the Union League Club in Manhattan. The city’s pension costs are expected to rise more than 15 percent next year, to $8.3 billion, budget director Mark Page said today. That’s about 20 percent of municipal tax revenue, he said"

• 3) Municipal Bond Closed-End Funds Fall as California Sells Debt

"Closed-end funds that invest in municipal bonds declined as California sold $10 billion of short-term notes at yields higher than the state anticipated. "

"California sold $2.25 billion of debt due in May at a yield of 1.5 percent, up from 1.25 percent quoted to investors yesterday, Treasurer Bill Lockyer said. The state sold $7.75 billion of notes due in June at 1.75 percent, up 0.25 percentage point from yesterday, he said."

.........................3A) State must pay out more in interest on short-term borrowing

• 4) Romania Fails to Sell 5-Year Bonds on Higher Yields

"Romania rejected all bids in an auction of five-year bonds as investors sought higher yields after the government this month dropped a 7 percent yield cap and signaled it may sell Eurobonds on the domestic market.

The Finance Ministry planned to raise 300 million lei ($95 million) in the auction, which attracted bids totaling 790 million lei, the central bank said on its website. The Balkan nation sold 200 million lei in five-year bonds on Oct. 21, the first sale since July, at an average yield of 7 percent.

The country struggled since July to find buyers for its leu-denominated debt on the domestic market as investors pushed for higher yields amid rising inflation forecasts triggered by a government increase in a value-added tax. "

• 5) South Pasadena increases parking fines $3 to satisfy state (California)

"SOUTH PASADENA - The state is digging into the city's pockets to help close an estimated $26 billion deficit.

Like every other city in the state, South Pasadena has had to increase the fine on parking tickets by $3 to off set a increased fees imposed by the state in the wake of an unprecedented budget crisis.

The city stands to lose $28,000 without the increase, said Police Chief Joe Payne at Wednesday's city council meeting. The increase will go into effect on Dec. 7 and last through July 2013.

"Part of the budget agreement in the state of California legislature includes Senate Bill 857," Payne said. "Designed to raise or collect $3 for every parking citation in the state."

City documents say the bill is "aimed at ending California's record budget impasse and closing a $19 million deficit" at the time.

Common city parking citation fees are currently $45, said South Pasadena Captain Richard Kowaltschuk. Those citations will now run $48. "

• 6) $14 Trillion in Debt - Why You Should Care (By Katie Couric)

"The government will collect $2.3 trillion in taxes this year. That's well short of the $3.6 trillion it will spend. Fifty-five percent of that spending will go to mandatory expenses like social security, Medicare and Medicaid; 43 percent is called discretionary spending. That's money Congress controls and allocates to more than two dozen government departments. Two percent of the budget goes to Congressional pet-projects or earmarks.

"Everybody wants to cut the budget," Schieffer says. "They just don't want to cut the budget that affects their constituents."

Over the last 40 years, the U.S. has stayed out of the red just four times. This year's budget deficit will be the biggest ever: $1.5 trillion. Digging ourselves out requires tough choices. "

• 7) Ireland denies 'surrendering sovereignty' over bail-out

"Irish prime minister Brian Cowen has dismissed claims his government had surrendered the country's sovereignty, as International Monetary Fund and European officials pore over its accounts to find a solution to the debt crisis. "

........................7A) Cowen Scorned as Irish Mourn Loss of Sovereignty With Bailout

• 8) UC approves 8 percent tuition hike

"SAN FRANCISCO -- University of California leaders on Thursday approved an 8 percent tuition hike that will cost each student up to $823 next year.

Five of the 20 regents voted against the measure during the meeting at UC San Francisco's Mission Bay campus.

Several regents repeated a mantra that has become common in recent years: They have no choice but to raise tuition. The 2011 hike will bring undergraduate tuition to $11,124 per year starting next fall.

The 10-campus UC system, with more than 220,000 students, needs about $1 billion more per year to sustain itself, said Vice President Patrick Lenz, who added that the gap will rise to nearly $5 billion by 2020 unless the university takes drastic measures.

Lenz based that sobering picture on theoretical projections calling for annual 7 percent tuition hikes and 5 percent more funding per year from the state, which is facing a $20 billion deficit of its own.

If the annual tuition hikes and state funding don't materialize, the university system's budget picture will only worsen."

""Students do not see this as a one-year problem," said Mireles, who will become a regent in July. "We see it as part of a broader problem."

One large piece of that problem is the university's pension plan, which went 20 years without contributions from UC and its employees and has up to $20 billion less than it needs to pay benefits. "

• 9) Irish Bailout May Unleash Vigilantes on Portugal: Euro Credit

"Nov. 19 (Bloomberg) -- A resolution of the Irish debt crisis may shift the burden of speculation to Portugal.

While officials such as European Central Bank Vice President Vitor Constancio predict a bailout of Ireland will reduce financial pressures in the euro region, analysts from Citigroup Inc. and Nomura International Plc say any relief would be short-lived as investors turn their focus to the next-weakest peripheral nation.

The markets indicate that country is Portugal with 10-year bond yields of 6.88 percent, compared with 8.26 percent in Ireland and 11.62 percent in Greece, which received rescue funds in May from the European Union and International Monetary Fund. Portuguese Finance Minister Fernando Teixeira dos Santos said Nov. 15 that while “there is a risk of contagion,” that doesn’t mean the country will seek financial aid."

• 10) Fully funded Kansas pensions remain decades away, execs say

"TOPEKA, Kan. - Plugging a $7.7 billion hole in future Kansas pension benefits may take decades, even with some additional funding legislators may consider when they reconvene in January, state pension trustees heard Thursday.

Fixing the growing underfunding problem may take even longer if, as the trustees are mulling, investment targets for the $13.5 billion group of state pension funds are adjusted downward to reflect market changes.

Members of the board of the Kansas Public Employees Retirement System heard a series of reports at their monthly meeting indicating that even if incoming legislators vote for a package of increased contributions from both state employers and from workers that was considered, but rejected, last spring, pension funds for state teachers likely won't reach a professional standard minimally adequate 80 percent funded level until at least 2018. Full funding may not be possible for years after that.

The teachers' pension fund is one of five groups of funds in KPERS' portfolio and more seriously underfunded than the others, which are for state and local government workers, for Kansas police and firefighters, and for judges.

Based on the latest available formally audited numbers - for the year ended last Dec. 31, the teachers' pension fund has only 56 percent of the money it needs to generate the funds needed to cover its obligations to teachers over a 30-year planning horizon. Funding levels for the other funds range from 64 percent for local government workers to 82 percent for judges."

• 11) Stanford report says local pension systems $200 billion short

"The Stanford University research team that shocked Sacramento this year by declaring that the state's three pension systems are more than $400 billion underfunded has struck again, saying local government pension systems are nearly $200 billion short.

The Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research team, headed by former Democratic Assemblyman Joe Nation, applied the same standard to the local funds as it did to the state's three large systems - a risk-free "discount rate" of about 4 percent on future pension fund earnings.

All public funds now use rates that are nearly twice as large, but that understates future liability, say critics, who include outgoing Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. By using unrealistically high assumptions of future earnings, Schwarzenegger and other critics say, the funds are misleading employees and government policy makers about the future costs of pensions. The most recent contracts negotiated with state employee unions by the Schwarzenegger administration included lowering pension guarantees to future employees."

• 12) Quebec headed for 'deep fiscal trouble'

"MONTREAL — A new report out Thursday plaints a bleak picture of Quebec’s financial future and a national citizens’ group says the forecast has implications for all Canadians.

The report by the Conference Board of Canada says Quebec faces “deep fiscal trouble” because of its high taxes, aging population, and weak economic and population growth.

The Ottawa research group says Quebec faces a $45 billion annual deficit by 2030, regardless of how much more it gets in transfer payments from the rest of Canada. The report is entitled, Quebec’s Fiscal Situation: The Alarm Bells Have Sounded.

“While the Conference Board of Canada has no interest in telling the Quebec government what to do, it does feel duty-bound to warn Quebecers that their government’s financial situation is shaky — and that maintaining the status quo is not an option.”"

• Other news, headlines and opinion:

Surplus Countries Threaten The Global Recovery And Could Cause A Depression (Text of Ben Bernanke speech)

China Raises Bank Reserve Ratios to Limit Price Risks

Oil Trades Below $82 on Speculation Ireland Bailout Not Enough

Class size law is packing a punch for all Florida counties

Gross state products (2009)(Gives % change for each from 2008)................also New York falls below $1 trillion in gross state product; 38 states decline

US Housing Market Will Struggle in 2011: Poll (CNBC)

Overnight ECB borrowing rises amid debt tensions

British borrowing strikes record high

Robert Prechter Explains The Fed, Part II

Portugal braces for 'biggest strike ever'

Michigan Town's Bankruptcy Bid a Harbinger, Governor-Elect Says

CORRECT: Michigan Forbids City To Seek Municipal Bankruptcy

Ohio University considers furlough plan to offset possible budget cuts

Jobless-Benefits Extension Blocked in House as Republicans Balk Over Cost

Greece to raise VAT to meet terms of EU/IMF bailout

Ireland Seems Nearer $136 Bil Rescue Pact

VAT increase to wipe £5billion off UK economy

Genentech cutting 450 jobs in South SF

Moody's Puts $4 Billion Of RMBS On Watch For Downgrade

Medicare's 23% Doctor Pay Cuts to Be Delayed as Senate Seeks Longer Fix

Humana Says 2011 Profit Will Drop on Medicare Funding Cuts; Shares Fall

Ron Paul set to hammer Federal Reserve (Chief central-bank critic will take over gavel of House monetary panel)

City Faces $15 Million Increase In Dues to Public Pension Plan (Berkeley, CA)

ECB head has 'grave concerns' on eurozone governance

Healthcare Costs Up 7% by Sept.

Cash-poor courts, struggling to stay open, raise fees (California)

Preckwinkle orders 21% Cook County spending cuts ("projected $487-million budget hole")

Greek Deficit Target May Put Bailout Terms at Risk: Euro Credit

Axis Of Depression (Paul Krugman....IMO One of his worst opinion pieces ever)

Fernandez Bet on Yields Hinges on Inflation Credibility: Argentina Credit

NPR: A chemist uses the Periodic Table of Elements to explain why out of all the elements that exist, gold would be used as money over all other elements that are either gaseous, flammable, chemically reactive, or too common. :)

A Chemist Explains Why Gold Beats Everything Else
http://m.npr.org/news/front/131430755?singlePage=true

Loved the quote about paper.

Poet

Nice find!  I wish I had thought to do that periodic table run...  That was interesting.

First impression.......  WOW!

But then I start thinking:  IF you remove all this food for consumption to "some place else", how are the very molecules contained withing the food replaced at the farm site?  All that fish, and watercress, and.......

The film in no way explains the energy budgeting of this (and I count the atoms in the food as "energy").  There's no free lunch, and all I see is a perpetual motion machine here.  Can someone explain where the inputs come from (apart from the obvious solar one of course..)  I've never seen compost used in aquaculture either.  How is this achieved?

Mike

The graph below shows historical exchange rates
between the Australian Dollar (AUD) and the US Dollar (USD)
between 5/23/2010 and 11/18/2010

Focus on what's important Mike.

One million pounds of food.

On three acres.

In downtown, urban Milwaukee.

Staffed and operated by at risk inner city youth, young adults and volunteers.

Who then teach their skillset to others.

So more than 10,000 people a month can be fed.

Why don't you give Will Allen a call and tell him Growing Power Inc. is nothing but a perpetual motion machine because you want to know where some atoms went?

Is your glass ever half full?

The film talks about compost. Several hundred yards of compost. It's likely they take in compost from outside.

And this page talks about feeding commercial fish feed and worms to the yellow perch; and plant matter, duckweed, algae, and worms to the tilapia; and using compost to supplement nutrient requirements for crops.
http://growingpower.org/aquaponics.htm

What is so cool about this is the urban food growing capability that can be used to feed people in large numbers in northern climes (with green houses and compost-based heating).

Here are more in-depth videos that give you an idea of how they do it. Chicken, goats, vermi-composting, etc.

Part 1 (Greens):

Part 2 (Vermi-Composting):

Part 3 (Fish):

Poet

From what I remember from elementary biology (it's been a long time so forgive me if the gears are kinda rusty) the molecules are taken by the plants predominantly from the air and water, combined with a (very) few more molecules from the soil, and using sunlight as a catalyst more or less (photosynthesis?) forms the biological structures that constitute life forms. These inputs are totally renewable. The fish food is partially provided from on-site sources (worms etc.) and supplemented with imported commercial fish food. In my view, though not quite a perfect perpetual motion machine, it requires so few inputs, and readily available ones at that, this is a system that is easily sustainable and renewable. I give him (Mr. Allen) a big thumbs up.

P.S. I think he said that the compost was used as a heat source during the winter for the aquaculture. After that I would imagine it would be used like any other composted organic product: soil building.

Let's not make the perfect the enemy of the good, in this case the very good.

NPR: A chemist uses the Periodic Table of Elements to explain why out of all the elements that exist, gold would be used as money over all other elements that are either gaseous, flammable, chemically reactive, or too common. :)

A Chemist Explains Why Gold Beats Everything Else
http://m.npr.org/news/front/131430755?si...

Loved the quote about paper.

Poet

I came across another pithy paper-gold aphorism in a book titled On Language , Chapter 7 "The Debt to Meaning -- Language and Money" 

"Gold circulates because it has value, whereas paper has value because it circulates".   K. Marx

Thank you.  I'm not mad, I just like to see a balance sheet.

My cup is never full, or half full Dogs....  it OVERFLOWS......!

NOTHING leaves my farm.  I sell nothing, and in fact admit to still buying some food all the scraps from which end up in my compost or wormfarm. As does all our humanure.  105% recycled.  I see they sell their produce.  I bet they use money to buy inputs.  That's fine until TSHTF.

I have another niggling problem with aquaculture....

Avoid hydroponic food grown without biologicals – At our 4-day courses we measure the brix levels of a variety of fresh produce. The lowest levels are always found in hydroponic food because the dissolved solids (nutrient density) in this food have been diluted by the nitrates that are the only form of nitrogen used in this production system. We rarely find a hydroponic lettuce with a brix level above 2 when the ideal brix level is 12. Lettuce and spinach are the worst offenders and this food should not be fed to babies or children.

Nitrogen is a critically important building block for proteins, enzymes, vitamins and even DNA but if oversupplied there are several associated health issues. There are two forms of nitrogen, ammonium nitrogen and nitrate nitrogen but it is the nitrate form that can be problematical. When this form of nitrogen is ingested via food and drinking water it can be converted in the gut to nitrites, which then combine with hemoglobin to form methemoglobin. This compound restricts the capacity of the blood to carry oxygen and oxygen levels at the cellular level can be compromised. Professor Otto Warburg won his Nobel Prize for his discovery that anaerobism is a principle root cause of cancer. There have been several studies linking nitrates to cancer and reduced cellular oxygen supply (anaerobism) is undoubtedly playing a role.

PS I personally know the guy who runs Nutri-tech.  What he doesn't know about soil health and human health isn't worth knowing...

I think all operations, sustainable or not, will feel the pinch when the full effect of peak oil is upon us.  However, there will always be waste (or to be more accurate here- "leftovers")- they may have to scale back if there is a shortage, but on the contrary, I think the playing field would finally be level and that there may be impetus to try harder to gather up this waste.  Think of how much food waste is still not being gathered for this project.  Who says they have to get their brewery waste from brewers?  Even if newspapers disappear overnight, I think pulp waste will always be available right under our feet.  Who says the nutrients from coffee grounds/coconut fibers have to come from such?

This waste, these leftovers, are the key to everything- the "magical" missing input that DTM was wondering about (I'm not arguing with you Mike, only saying that it isn't so mysterious when you consider the goodness that food waste contains), keeping the cycle local, teaching people about capturing (previously) lost opportunities.  Very inspiring stuff- yes, the whole idea of food just popping out of the ground is indeed magical.

Of course it does Mike, as you constantly tell us, and point out how everyone else who isn't doing it exactly your way is wrong.

So just how many people a month do YOU feed Mikey?  Two?  Yay for your team.

Will Allen is surrounded by a community of people built by Growing Power, reaching and teaching more and more every day, with every workshop and seminar.  GP has regional outreach training centers in Arkansas, Kentucky, Virginia, Colorado, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Georgia and Florida.  Looks like the exponential function at work to me.

But none of that matters because it's all about the "balance sheet"?

On the notion of pounds of waste......it always amazes me when I fill up the compost bin and come back later to see how low the level is.....Part of my day I spend contemplating the wonder of forces at work in the compost.....

It was going to go to the landfill anyway, might as well use it.  They didn't import it for their special compost.

What's in mine? Some local stuff, but also lemons, pomegranites, bananas, and coffee too.  I don't grow those.

REALLY Dogs......  where did I say that?  All I'm trying to do is HELP.  I do things a certain way that I know works.  You take it or leave it.  I don't even claim it works perfectly, it just works.

The number of people I feed off this place is directly proportional to the number of people who work here.  ME.

So frankly, I'm quite proud of the fact I can feed three people, several chickens, six goats, and two pigs off what grows here.

We're supposed to be learning off each other here, not biting each other's heads off.....  ;)

Mike

Mike,

I admire your quest to maximize nutrient/energy efficiency in your permaculture system, and I have a few questions regarding this:

1) How do you minimize the atmospheric loss of Nitrogen during the composting process? Do you think the cultivation of Nitrogen-fixing legumes compensates the loss of nitrogen in the composting process?

2) How do you use the humanure compost within your system? Do you use this compost on food crops directly, or does is it utilized further down the food chain in your system?

3) I know you were experimenting with growing your own chook feed. Were you successful at this, or do you still need to supplement their diet with purchased feed? What specifically do you grow for chicken feed and how difficult is it to process it?

4) Do you cultivate insects within your food chain (such as grub composting with Black Soldier Fly larvae) to process wastes? 

Thanks for your feedback....Jeff

Our refractometer responds with Ca+ much better than any other ion.  We are in a calcium deficient area. What style press gathered the "juice" that was used for brix measurement. I'm using, rather my son whose science fair project is measuring brix in cane sorghum growm on different soils ,different breeds etc.. my refractometer is far mopre dependant upon the "juice" from my garlic press than......

ie. we,with a large "n", are getting too large a SD with our sampling techniques.

robie 

JAG wrote:

Mike,

I admire your quest to maximize nutrient/energy efficiency in your permaculture system, and I have a few questions regarding this:

I've moved all that permaculture stuff to http://www.peakprosperity.com/comment/94913#comment-94913

Mike