The giant Ponzi scheme that is Florida

[B o d i]

http://www.cbc.ca/world/story/2009/03/10/f-rfa-macdonald.html

Gary Mormino, a professor at the University of South Florida, has compared the economy here to a giant Ponzi scheme, the confidence game in which investors are paid with the money of new investors.

The Ponzi State. The phrase is catching on and it's making Mormino famous.

He says Florida's economic setup has always depended on ever more people, often retirees on fixed incomes, arriving from out of state with money to spend.

Since 1970, the state has grown by an average of 350,000 new residents a year — or a thousand a day.

To accommodate them, politicians in Tallahassee basically let developers build whatever they wanted just about anywhere they wanted. Usually, that has meant apartment towers and minimally inspected cinder-block homes on concrete slabs.

The construction barely paused and neither did the waves of tourists — as many as 80 million vacationers a year, all ready to pay hotel taxes and rental taxes and restaurant taxes and sales taxes.

Now, everything's flat. In fact, more residents might be leaving than arriving. And the tourists are staying away.

For Mormino, Florida is just a palm tree fantasy with a tax structure "that was insane." And now, he says, "we're paralyzed."

Unemployment is nightmarish and rising. Tax-hating Floridians, turning to their government for help, are finding a stunted, business-driven entity with nothing to offer.

"When people began looking behind the palm trees and into the account books," says Mormino, all they discovered was "massive fraud and lack of oversight."

MUCH MORE AT LINK http://www.cbc.ca/world/story/2009/03/10/f-rfa-macdonald.html

[midnight]

1. Is any of this ecomomic disaster being blamed on Jeb?

[tsuki]

5. All of it, to as many people as I can reach. Funny thing is, the

ever-media popular Jeb is not a populist popular as Crist.

[DavidDvorkin]

6. The Ponzi aspect predates Jeb.

[Raster]

12. It may well predate Jeb, but he did nothing to prevent it and EVERYTHING to keep it going!

Jeb was the perfect "Ponzi Governor" for the Ponzi state.

[global1]

2. Now We Know Why Crist Was Chummying Up To Obama.....

the bottom is about to fall out on him. Interesting enough both of the Bush Brothers - George & Jeb - left behind a mess. Yet former VP Cheney (the war criminal & traitor) is trying to tell us that Dubya was the 'bestest president ever'. (sarcasm)

[havocmom]

3. Growth for the sake of growth is the ideology of the cancer cell. Edward Abbey

And yet, seems all our structures are based on the need for perpetual growth. Can't last forever, no matter what state you're in.

[tsuki]

4. DUH? Do you mean the taxpayers who voted a massive

property tax cut for the wealthy? The ones that can sell their million dollar home and move into a ten million dollar home and drag their old property tax assessment to the new home?

My property tax cut was $30.00. Big Whoopee.

[depakid]

7. The comments from the Canucks are interesting

On the whole- much more informed and insightful than in most mainstream American publications.

This one for example:

"they elected bush for president twice, and his brother was governor. go figure.

When subprime mortgages were getting popular, many state governors stepped in to stop it. In return local state banks would associate themselves in partnerships with federal banks so that state laws would not apply to them. When states appealed to the Federal Government under the leadership of Bush, directives would come from the government to allow these banks to continue their ponzi practice.

Florida, participated willingly in this ponzi scheme so of course when it falls they are one of the worst affected.

all that was covered in this article

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/27121535/

[Warpy]

8. What drew people to Florida was the year round summer

and all the beaches that were an hour or so away from any point in the state.

Enter Jebbie, who allowed developers to line nearly all those beaches with a solid wall of high rise condo towers while eliminating public access to them.

Paradise was turned into a walled in swamp, in other words. That endless summer became oppressive without access to sea breezes and swimming.

[Frustratedlady]

9. After reading this article, my gut feeling was that Jeb let it happen.

This is their modus operandi. It follows them no matter where they go or what they are involved in. Bad traits.

[hedgehog]

11. It's nothing new or particular to Florida or to the Bushes. Years ago,

California had a world class educational system from kindergarten to College. That was before people decided that they didn't wanted to be taxed for schools.

[hedgehog]

10. Hidden away in all the names and dates you learned in high school

is the fact that a lot of American wealth was and is still being generated by Ponzi schemes. Remember that George Washington started out as a surveyor? Ever wonder why? Back then, the deal was to get a land grant and then sub-divide it and sell to the next guy. My house is built on land taken from the Iroquois (they backed the wrong side in 1776) and given in lieu of pensions to soldiers who'd fought in the revolution. They in turn sold it to speculators. The Republican party around here is still dominated by one of the families that bought up and re-sold thousands of acres.

Go back and look at your history, and ask why Jefferson died a bankrupt. It seems being underwater on your mortgage is nothing new! Look out West at all the towns built by the railroads that are now being abandoned because there is no way for people to make a living now.


What's the biggest thing going on in my town now? People jockeying to try to get a developer to buy 100 acres here or 60 acres there. These people don't care if a strip mall or a hundred houses go in as long as they get their money. Too bad if the town loses forever what gives it character now. The strip mall built on woodlands on one edge of the city when my son was n junior high is now being abandoned 15 years later because Walmart is building a strip mall on the other side of the city.

[Hannah Bell]

18. good post. i've been studying the same history.

[The Backlash Cometh]

13. And crap infra-structure. Don't forget the crap infra-structure.

The state doesn't care.

[B o d i]

14. I cross posted this to the Florida State Forum

and felt like giving this GD thread a kick for the late afternoon crowd.

Here's the other thread http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=145&topic_id=11405&mesg_id=11405

[ddeclue]

15. I see you've read our investment brochure...

:rofl:

:P

[BGoldsteinish]

16. ...and next thing you know, Charlie Crist is running for president

[tkmorris]

17. Not gonna happen

That guy can't win a national campaign, no way no how.

[Deep13]

19. Ponzi = Potsy + Fonzy?

:shrug: