sharingwisdom
10-28-2010, 07:13 PM
https://www.WantToKnow.info/banking_finance/cafr_comprehensive_annual_financial_reports
[The Comprehensive Annual Financial Report (CAFR) is a very little known, yet detailed presentation of a US governmental entity's financial condition. The CAFR is also one of government's best kept financial secrets, as these reports show that almost all governments have far more money than people would ever suspect. Literally hundreds of billions of dollars are available to governments in investment accounts that are never mentioned to the public, as verified in these publicly available government reports. Read the powerful essay below to find out how we may be in much less fiscal difficulty than you ever imagined.]
By Carl Herman (edited for brevity and clarity, full essay available here (https://www.examiner.com/la-county-nonpartisan-in-los-angeles/cafr-us-agencies-have-billions-trillions-investments-while-crying-budget-deficits))
Gerald Klatt (https://www.cafrman.com/) and Walter Burien (https://cafr1.com/) are unrecognized heroes. These individuals are pioneering national leaders who have revealed how government agencies quietly conceal American taxpayers’ money in surplus accounts that collectively total literally trillions of taxpayers' dollars. The data is found and can be verified in publicly available documents for each governmental entity called Comprehensive Annual Financial Reports (https://www.ofm.wa.gov/cafr/) (CAFRs).
What CAFRs reveal is a little-known, yet devious policy whereby taxpayers collectively surrender enormous assets to the government, which then invests the trillions that swell in these accounts. As this money is secreted away, taxpayers are warned of debilitating budget deficits to either squeeze more taxes from them and/or cut public services. To add insult to injury, the state commits a gross lie of omission by never informing citizens of their withheld trillions as they eliminate jobs, reduce education, and attack the quality of our lives.
The American Constitution is a contract of limited government whereby the public informs and is informed by our representatives. CAFRs are damning public documents that expose political leadership from both left and right as exactly what leading economic voices (https://www.examiner.com/x-18425-LA-County-Nonpartisan-Examiner~y2010m4d30-Open-proposal-to-US-higher-education-end-oligarchy-economics-save-trillions-with-education-3-of-4) have said: a thoroughly corrupt and self-serving oligarchy.
Let’s look at the economic data revealed in CAFRs for 2009.
Take California, for example, which has a budget deficit of about $20 billion (https://gov.ca.gov/index.php?/fact-sheet/14147/). The combined investments reported in CAFRs for the state of California (https://www.sco.ca.gov/Files-ARD/CAFR/cafr09web.pdf), Los Angeles County (https://file.lacounty.gov/lac/cms1_141548.pdf), and the City of Los Angeles (https://ens.lacity.org/ctr/financial/ctrfinancial18265184_02262010.pdf) is over $450 billion! That's over 22 times the amount of the budget shortfall!!! Click on the links for verification.
These governments claim they need this money mainly for public employee retirement benefits. Let’s check that story....
[The Comprehensive Annual Financial Report (CAFR) is a very little known, yet detailed presentation of a US governmental entity's financial condition. The CAFR is also one of government's best kept financial secrets, as these reports show that almost all governments have far more money than people would ever suspect. Literally hundreds of billions of dollars are available to governments in investment accounts that are never mentioned to the public, as verified in these publicly available government reports. Read the powerful essay below to find out how we may be in much less fiscal difficulty than you ever imagined.]
By Carl Herman (edited for brevity and clarity, full essay available here (https://www.examiner.com/la-county-nonpartisan-in-los-angeles/cafr-us-agencies-have-billions-trillions-investments-while-crying-budget-deficits))
Gerald Klatt (https://www.cafrman.com/) and Walter Burien (https://cafr1.com/) are unrecognized heroes. These individuals are pioneering national leaders who have revealed how government agencies quietly conceal American taxpayers’ money in surplus accounts that collectively total literally trillions of taxpayers' dollars. The data is found and can be verified in publicly available documents for each governmental entity called Comprehensive Annual Financial Reports (https://www.ofm.wa.gov/cafr/) (CAFRs).
What CAFRs reveal is a little-known, yet devious policy whereby taxpayers collectively surrender enormous assets to the government, which then invests the trillions that swell in these accounts. As this money is secreted away, taxpayers are warned of debilitating budget deficits to either squeeze more taxes from them and/or cut public services. To add insult to injury, the state commits a gross lie of omission by never informing citizens of their withheld trillions as they eliminate jobs, reduce education, and attack the quality of our lives.
The American Constitution is a contract of limited government whereby the public informs and is informed by our representatives. CAFRs are damning public documents that expose political leadership from both left and right as exactly what leading economic voices (https://www.examiner.com/x-18425-LA-County-Nonpartisan-Examiner~y2010m4d30-Open-proposal-to-US-higher-education-end-oligarchy-economics-save-trillions-with-education-3-of-4) have said: a thoroughly corrupt and self-serving oligarchy.
Let’s look at the economic data revealed in CAFRs for 2009.
Take California, for example, which has a budget deficit of about $20 billion (https://gov.ca.gov/index.php?/fact-sheet/14147/). The combined investments reported in CAFRs for the state of California (https://www.sco.ca.gov/Files-ARD/CAFR/cafr09web.pdf), Los Angeles County (https://file.lacounty.gov/lac/cms1_141548.pdf), and the City of Los Angeles (https://ens.lacity.org/ctr/financial/ctrfinancial18265184_02262010.pdf) is over $450 billion! That's over 22 times the amount of the budget shortfall!!! Click on the links for verification.
These governments claim they need this money mainly for public employee retirement benefits. Let’s check that story....