China's ICBC to set up offshore yuan center in Los Angeles

http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/11/22/us-china-los-angeles-yuan-idUSKCN0J605B20141122

Obscene salaries for public officials in Bell

Meanwhile, in one of Los Angeles County's poorer municipalities, the natives are sharpening their pitchforks.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-07-20/california-official-s-800-000-salary-in-city-of-38-000-triggers-protests.html

Trade war--between LA and Arizona

In the category of a big "Ooops!", Arizona has just portrayed why government entities like the city of Los Angeles can totally mangle a delicate situation. The city council and mayor of LA (and apparently San Francisco) have decided to boycott the state of Arizona in reaction to SB 1070, the immigration bill. It's lights out for Angelenos--literally.

http://hotair.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/letter-azcc-villaraigosa.pdf.pdf

Dear Mayor Villaraigosa,

I was dismayed to learn that the Los Angeles City Council voted to boycott Arizona and Arizona-based companies — a vote you strongly supported — to show opposition to SB 1070 (Support our Law Enforcement and Safe Neighborhoods Act).

You explained your support of the boycott as follows: “While we recognize that as neighbors, we share resources and ties with the State of Arizona that may be difficult to sever, our goal is not to hurt the local economy of Los Angeles, but to impact the economy of Arizona. Our intent is to use our dollars — or the withholding of our dollars — to send a message.” (emphasis added)

I received your message; please receive mine. As a state-wide elected member of the Arizona Corporation Commission overseeing Arizona’s electric and water utilities, I too am keenly aware of the “resources and ties” we share with the City of Los Angeles. In fact, approximately twenty-five percent of the electricity consumed in Los Angeles is generated by power plants in Arizona.

If an economic boycott is truly what you desire, I will be happy to encourage Arizona utilities to renegotiate your power agreements so Los Angeles no longer receives any power from Arizona-based generation. I am confident that Arizona’s utilities would be happy to take those electrons off your hands. If, however, you find that the City Council lacks the strength of its convictions to turn off the lights in Los Angeles and boycott Arizona power, please reconsider the wisdom of attempting to harm Arizona’s economy.

People of goodwill can disagree over the merits of SB 1070. A state-wide economic boycott of Arizona is not a message sent in goodwill.

Sincerely,

Commissioner Gary Pierce

And people wonder why this state is bankrupt.

LA going bankrupt

Los Angeles isn't the only municipality or state about to go bankrupt. The financial media needs to stop focusing on Europe's problems and start examining our own fiscal problems.

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-rutten14-2010apr14%2C0%2C5438508.column

Riordan says he doesn't "believe the city will ever get those sorts of concessions from its unions. It would take tremendous guts on everyone's part. We're not seeing any evidence of that, and we're probably not going to because everybody negotiating for the city was elected with the unions' support." Bankruptcy, he adds, would allow a judge to do what city officials can't or won't: fundamentally restructure the city's labor agreements. As Riordan puts it: "Who wants to live in a city without decent police or fire protection or libraries or parks? Unless we get these pension costs under control, we won't be able to afford any of those things."

Carr would put that question differently: If a bankruptcy judge were allowed to decide whether or how L.A. would meet its obligations to its employees and creditors, "we'd need to ask ourselves, who wants to live in a city that doesn't keep its word?"

Kim Kardashian

I typed in "Kim Kardashian" to increase the number of hits to this blog, since she apparently has been "Googled" the most recently.





Meanwhile, Los Angeles, California, and the United States burns.

LA on the brink

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2010/feb/25/financial-crisis-useconomy

While the federal government has considerable wiggle room to borrow or simply increase the supply of money to help fight its way out of financial collapse, smaller government units in America don't have those options; increasingly cities, counties and states are facing the sorts of austerity measures we've come to associate with third world countries in crisis, or, in recent years, with vulnerable European nations such as Greece or Latvia.

The broader economy may be starting to show some signs of healing, but for those at the bottom of the economy, for those most reliant on government services in Los Angeles and the countless other cities teetering over financial abysses, 2010 looks more like a bona fide Depression year than one made beautiful by the myriad green shoots of recovery.