California On the Verge of Bankruptcy

Along with numerous state and local governments, the state of California is on the verge of bankruptcy.  Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger wrote a letter yesterday to the US Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson saying that if the federal government doesn’t give California an emergency loan, the state will run out of money in a matter of weeks.

How did this happen?  Years and years of deficit spending have left the state of California and other local & state governments neck deep in debt.  Now that the short term credit markets have dried up, California has no access to cash and needs to beg the federal government for money.
What’s the scary part?  Pretty soon the federal government itself is going to be in the same position… and there will be no one to bail it out.  Get ready to embrace the second Great Depression or a major war… or both.  Our government desperately needs to balance the budget and stop putting debt on future generations to pay off.