US has a few financial advantages

 when compared to Europe.   Natural resources, intellectual property, even the political system.   Read more at  http://247wallst.com/2011/12/28/why-americas-financial-future-is-far-better-than-europes/

U.S. Faces Fitch AAA Downgrade By End of 2013 Unless Deficit Cuts Made

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-12-21/u-s-faces-fitch-aaa-downgrade-by-end-of-2013-unless-deficit-cuts-are-made.html

GAO: Navy, Marines have $22 billion in accounting errors

The GAO report, requested by seven House and Senate members, found the Navy and Marines accounting system failed an audit attempt of the “Fund Balance With Treasury,” which is the equivalent of a corporate bank account statement.
http://thehill.com/blogs/defcon-hill/navy/200837-gao-navy-marines-have-22-billion-in-accounting-errors-

Uh-oh! What's this run-out date for these pensions?

Thanks to the AGA for highlighting this research report of 126 public pension plans by Alicia Munnell of the Boston College team who did this research.  There is an interesting date that will get people talking.  As the AGA newsletter pointed out, there is a column in the appendix that might be otherwise overlooked.   It shows the year of the projected runout date for the pension trust fund using the methodology for evaluating pension funding that GASB has proposed.     http://crr.bc.edu/images/stories/Briefs/slp_23_508.pdf

The Center for Retirement Research has a number of publications of interest http://crr.bc.edu/publications/publications.html

Lessons from a century of public debt

in this research involving countries http://www.voxeu.org/index.php?q=node/7437

990 extension for certain organizations

who are efiling as per the Journal of Accountancy article http://www.journalofaccountancy.com/Web/20114913.htm

California pensions article

accompanied with a nice set of visuals at this Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research.   Every day that something is not done....those numbers add up.   http://siepr.stanford.edu/

GASB proposal for 5 year budget projections concern Treasurers

who were meeting at the National Association of Treasurers meeting.   Read their concerns here.  http://www.bondbuyer.com/issues/120_234/gasb-state-five-year-projections-1033938-1.html

HUD flaws in accounting

for the HOME program http://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/finding-more-flaws-in-huds-accounting-of-home-program/2011/10/13/gIQAkTlctM_story.html

GASB wants 5 year budget projections in FS

investors would get a fuller view  http://www.businessweek.com/news/2011-12-07/u-s-states-cities-face-accounting-push-to-disclose-forecasts.html