Full Disclosure Network

Los Angeles, CA. According to public finance expert B. Scott Minerd, California is not yet insolvent but it could be soon. In an eleven minute Full Disclosure Network video news blog he addresses the issues of how California got to the brink of financial disaster and offers suggestions as to how the once golden state could return to a prosperous and stable economy.

Scott Minerd is Chief Investment Officer of Guggenheim Partners, a diversified financial services firm with more than $100 billion in assets under supervision. Previously he was a managing director for Morgan Stanley and later Credit Suisse, where he oversaw fixed income credit trading in the United States, Europe and Asia.

In the video Scott Minerd describes the most serious threat to California solvency, at both the state and municipal level, is the massive unfunded pensions and post retirement health care benefits promised to public employees in union contracts.

Pointing out that California public officials have missed opportunities to reserve past surpluses, Scott Minerd describes public debt instruments known as “Certificates of Participation” (non-voter approved COP Bonds) and Revenue Anticipation Notes (RAN) as tactics that can result in squandering of public assets to cover massive deficits while the economy is stagnate. He urges public entities to protect surpluses when they occur, for use in an economic turn down.