Greek government bonds slid for the fifth straight day, sending the 10-year yield up by the most in more than a year, as Fitch Ratings said Prime Minister George Papandreou’s government doesn’t grasp the debt crisis’ severity.
Meanwhile, state tax revenue fell in FY 2008:
U.S. state government collections fell 16 percent to almost $1.7 trillion in fiscal 2008 from a year earlier, while spending increased 6.2 percent, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
The original press release from the Census says it all. Data on current state tax receipts probably isn't any rosier. That hard dose of reality is going to smack a lot of bond ratings - both state and federal issues - upside the head soon enough. How soon is anybody's guess. You can only inflate so many bubbles before you suck all the air out of your economy. Greece's news today is the U.S.'s news in 2010.