swaps

California Won't Even Accept Its Own IOUs

Is it a coincidence the state with the biggest budget crash is the same state with legalized Texas tea consumption? People enjoying Texas tea are mentally distracted from staging quaint taxation tea parties. "What, Me worry?"

What Went Wrong with California, New York, and New Jersey?

I agree that illegal immigration was likely a factor in the collapse of all three states.
An inflow of cheap labor that depressed wages and took away jobs from native born resulted in a host of programs having to be funded to cope with the problems created in housing, health care and education. The problems ranged from higher education and welfare costs to lower per-capita tax revenue due to lower wages.
I an infer that last phrase without having to look for data to back it up. It is a logical consequence.

California's Default Is Certain

I would not be surprised if at the heart of the matter California needed to keep deficit borrowing for operations because of its lavish retirement program.
The average Social Security payment is like $13,600 a year and average California state retiree is paid $30,000 to $40,000 a year.
A retired San Francisco fire chief reportedly has something like a $240,000 pension, plus a current city budget officer job that pays him another $170,000 a year.
California presumably will cut programs for the huge throng of illegal immigrants they have welcomed into the state, in defiance of immigration laws and common sense. Even California has proven that unrestrained immigrant growth in a nation with a zero native population growth rate harms a fragile environment as well as economic environment.
The rising tide of taxes, the overcrowding in cities, the traffic snarls, the urban sprawl prompted entrepreneurs to flee California. If the state had cultivated a more stable and sustainable environment, these emigrants would have still been around to help with a solution.