links for 2010-03-09

European countries are blocking Wall Street banks from lucrative deals to sell government debt worth hundreds of billions of euros in retaliation for their role in the credit crunch.

Chris Christie delivered a stark message on February 24, 2010 to about 200 mayors at the Statehouse on Wednesday morning. He warned them that they can expect a cut in state aid to municipalities in the Fiscal Year 2011 budget he will unveil next month. “The day of reckoning” has arrived, the Governor said, referring to what he called a decade’s worth of poor fiscal management of state government.

At the end of 2009 the gross debt was $11.9 trillion, $4.3 trillion more than the debt held by the public. Although many people get excited about this figure, it is in fact economically meaningless.