Daily Digest 2/14 - Households Borrowing More, Opioid Epidemic Cost Is $1T And Climbing

Economy

The pension nightmare for California’s cities is getting scarier

Loudly sounding the alarm, the League of California Cities reported this month that most members expect pension costs to jump by at least 50 percent by 2024-25. Pension payments – now about 11 percent of general fund budgets on average – will eat up about 16 percent by then. That doesn’t include increases in retiree health care costs and other benefits. In extreme cases, the pension burden could lead to more bankruptcy filings like Stockton’s and San Bernardino’s in 2012.

Mayor Breaks His Promise! 40% of LA’s Streets have ‘D’ or ‘F’ Rating!

The estimated cost to repair our failed streets is in the range of $3 to $4 billion. Under the Englander/Buscaino plan, the City would issue long term bonds to finance the accelerated repair of our failed streets

Upcoming state elections cast shadow over Illinois budget prospects

Illinois is a prime example of U.S. state fiscal woes. With a huge $129 billion unfunded pension liability and a chronic unpaid bill backlog, it has the lowest credit ratings among states, and political dysfunction left it without complete budgets for an unprecedented two-straight fiscal years.

Households Are Borrowing More to Fuel Spending, Wells Fargo Says

Rising education debt may also be crimping consumers’ demand for other kinds of debt, according to the analysts. Total student loan debt reached $1.36 trillion in the third-quarter of 2017, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. That’s up from $530 billion a decade earlier, and is the largest share of non-housing debt. It’s also "significantly more burdensome" for lower income households, the analysts said.

National debt jumps $175 billion after debt ceiling suspended

Friday's jump is the first of what is expected to be several increases in the national debt, which will now be allowed to grow unchecked for more than a year, through March 1, 2019. In light of the new spending Republicans and Democrats agreed to this week, the debt could easily grow by more than $1 trillion by early 2019.

As US corporate leverage soars, is history repeating?

Non-financial corporate leverage in the US is at its highest level since before 2008 relative to gross domestic product (GDP), with data showing US corporate debt among non-financials stands at $8.7 trillion (£6.2 trillion), or more than 45% of GDP.

Colombia and Brazil Announce Border Controls as Venezuelans Flee En Masse

“I want to repeat to President Maduro — this is the result of your policies, it is not the fault of Colombians and it’s the result of your refusal to receive humanitarian aid which has been offered in every way, not just from Colombia but from the international community,” Santos said, referring to Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro.
The International Monetary Fund forecast that the hyperinflation in Venezuela will hit 13,000 percent in 2018, making basic necessities such as food nigh-unaffordable for 95 percent of the population.

A record number of states see well-being worsen

Researchers interviewed more than 160,000 adults about purpose, social, financial, community and physical metrics to assess overall well-being. Two categories with steep declines were social and purpose.

Cost Of U.S. Opioid Epidemic Since 2001 Is $1 Trillion And Climbing

"The average age at which opioid deaths are occurring — you're looking at something in the late 30s or early 40s," Rhyan says. "As a result, you're looking at people that are in the prime of the productive years of their lives."

U.S. health care costs up 29% because of obesity

Cawley said that the study found states including New York, California, Arizona and Pennsylvania devoted 5% to 6% of their total medical budget to obesity-related treatments. But other states, like North Carolina, Ohio and Wisconsin, spent more than twice that amount — over 12% of all their health care dollars went toward taking care of people with complications from obesity.

Gold & Silver

Click to read the PM Daily Market Commentary: 2/13/18

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