You've probably already seen this, although maybe not the whole thing. The Burj Khalifa is the giant skyscraper (twice as tall as the Empire State Building) in Dubai. The three-minute clip is the opening ceremony - lots of fireworks.
Interesting article on the background and construction (and ongoing structural) problems.
Wednesday, January 6, 2010
Tuesday, January 5, 2010
Underfunded public pensions - $2 trillion worth
At Volokh: The Financial Times runs a story today by Francesco Guerrera and Nicole Bullock on the looming problems of underfunded public pensions at the state and local level in the United States. The news story cites a new study by Orin Kramer, chairman of New Jersey’s pension fund:
The estimate by Orin Kramer will fuel investors’ concerns over the deteriorating financial health of US states after the recession. “State and local governments are correctly perceived to be in serious difficulty,” Mr Kramer told the Financial Times.
“If you factor in the reality of these unfunded promises, their deficits will rise exponentially.”
Estimates of aggregate funding requirement of the US pension system have ranged between $400bn and $500bn, but Mr Kramer’s analysis concluded that public funds would need to find more than $2,000bn to meet future pension obligations.
Dr. Zero - The Carnivorous Government
The Obama Administration answers every question with a demand for more power, to implement nebulous plans no one is allowed to review. It’s striking that, over a year after the subprime mortgage crisis caused by activist government legislation, there is absolutely no area in which the Democrat Party thinks government should be made smaller… no problem they believe American citizens should be given greater liberty to solve. Their menu for the future of America consists of nothing but pork-fried government spending, sauteed in reckless deficit sauce and coated with greasy regulations… and just wait until you see the tax-hike surprise they’ve got under glass for the second course.
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