Baltimore County has maintained it's coveted triple-A bond rating from the top three bond rating agencies in the country.
The rating, announced Monday, continues the county's status as one of the few to get such a rating from Fitch, Moody's and Standard and Poor's. Only about 1 percent of all counties in the United States earn the so-called "triple-triple" rating.
The rating means that the county pays a lower rate of interest to bond holders than it would it the ratings were lower, thus saving county taxpayers money.
All three agencies praised the county for it's strong fiscal management, according to a statement released by the county.
"These ratings are confirmation that the County's commitment to innovation, consolidation, and efficiency are making a real difference in the day-to-day operation of county government," said County Executive Kevin Kamenetz, in a statement released by the county Monday.
The U.S. had a AAA bond rating until recently. They are now AA. Tim there will come a time when the county will meet the rubber against the road. The average person has never studied the county budget. I did when I ran for office and still do. Many people have no idea what bond issues are. They have no idea that the county continues to borrow money and those debts mount up along with the interest. We are mortgaging our future. The market was down 150 points today.
There once was a time, and you'll remember this, when Wall Street actually represented Main Street. On another note, wasn't the county's budget relatively flat this year? I'll see if I can find it on the internet here this afternoon. The bulk of our economic issues are national in nature. Honestly, more then national, global. Our recession will continue forward as much because the rest of the world - including Germany and China now - are slowly continuing to fall apart. I'd argue that our nation is in better shape going further then most. I really didn't want to derail this though, so I'll stop.
This now applies to both O'Malley on the state level, and Kamenetz on the county level. People may not like HOW it's being done, and that's fine. It is, however, being done.
I have read the budget many times. We are reaching the tipping point when the haves cannot support the have-knots. The key is the future instead of just kicking the can down the road. Look at the banks that just got whacked today.
You'll get minimal argument out of me on the federal level. I also don't question your knowledge of the details of the BC budget. However, I get the distinct feeling you're accidentally transferring federal level economic issues on the local level. What was the BC deficit this year (if any?) I've actually been busy at work the past couple days. Occasional time for posting, but not much else.
Progressive deregulation of the financial sector - starting in the 80's honestly under Reagan (creation of ARMs, for example) and finishing up with the Graham-Leach 1999 Act directly put us where we are now. No accountability.
http://dundalk.patch.com/blog_posts/baltimore-co-breaks-law-fails-to-respond-to-information-request Or about the thank you letter I sent Fire Chief Hohman (sound rings a bell) about the two wonderful angel paramedics that cared for my 91 year old mother. You would think that with his drop money and big pension he could find the time to send out an e-mail back acknowledging he work of these two lady professionals. Or how about this e-mail sent on 5/30/12 that I'm still waiting for an answer for. Dear Ms. Robinson: Can you please provide with the number of people in Baltimore County that are on food stamp programs in the years of 2002 and 2012, along with the total cost of each of the two years. Also can you provide the number of MTO (Section 8) vouchers for the same two years, also with the total costs of those two years. I am doing a comparison look at the figures. Thank your for you time. Maybe it's time for another PIA request. That seems to be the only way to get answers after you file suit in court. The only good thing for me is the county must pay the legal costs for their ignoring the law. Yep Ron, Baltimore County Government at its finest.
If you can, please provide your thoughts on exactly which deregulations have caused the recent housing market collapse? Thank you.
Now, i'm not an economist, but my understanding is that the housing market collapsed because of the repeal of the Graham-Leach act I've already mentioned. It allowed for way, way less fiscal accountability from banks, and allowed them to literally blow up to "Too big to fail" status. What specifically caused the was essentially a subprime mortgage fiasco. Banks started giving loans of to anyone and everyone irregardless of risk. These “fiscally responsible, free market” banks, then bundled these high-risk mortgages with legitimate low risk ones and then sold them, and/or sold derivatives off of them. When the high risk portion of these securities began defaulting on their mortgages, it become a cataclysmic snowball.
Additionally there was derivative trading that was going on over these securities. Financial institutions were basically gambling on whether or not securities would be paid or not. This couldn’t have happened under Glass-Steagall, which governed these things from 1933 on until Graham-Leach. Additionally, the sad fact is, the top 10 banks today hold a HIGHER percentage of banking wealth in this country then before the market collapse of 2007 which mandated TARP to begin with. “To Big to Fail” is alive and worse than before. Our government has done nothing, I repeat, nothing to prevent something like this from happening again. Glass-Steagall should still be in place today. This country's leadership has learned exactly nothing from this economic crisis - or they've learned, but refuse to actually do anything about it. Because you know, as Gordon Gekko said in Wall Street "Greed is good".
Fannie/Freddie certainly contributed to the collapse, however yes - I do think this still happens without Fannie/Freddie - although not to the severity it has. Of course there was political factors involved with this, of course, especially with the whole "owning a home is the American Dream". This includes Clinton (i.e. not a Republican) who's administration really pushed for this - as well as GWB after him. I was going to mention the political aspect in the previous messages, but as you see, once I get writing it's tough to stop sometimes. I often get the Tolstoy taunt from this website. The roulette example is funny though: We both know the rules that apply to you and I don't apply to the government or those who directly corrupt it. This again, is not partisan in nature.