CMA data shows Illinois and California are in the top ten list of sovereign default risks world wide, with Illinois leapfrogging California in terms of increasing risk.

Please consider CMA Market Data as of Wednesday, 23 June 2010.

Sovereign Default Risks

Investing in Illinois is ranked a safer risk than Iraq, but riskier than Portugal and California.

The countries (or states) are ranked by their cumulative probability of default (CPD), which gives the market’s assessment of an issuer’s likelihood of default over the life of a CDS contract (i.e. municipal bonds).

Some of the largest contributing factors are excessive pension benefits and excessive union benefits.  9,111 retired California government workers receive pensions in excess of $100,000

Here is the CalPERS Top Ten list

Bruce Malkenhorst is the top recipient making over half-a-million dollars a year in pension benefits. Is that insane or what? A former public employee makes over $500,000 per year plus benefits not to work while joblessness remains rampant across the country.  Bankruptcy and foreclosure defense are your legal rights – exercise them!  (619) 794 0460

Please click on previous link to search the entire CalPERS list and see for yourself.

California classrooms are overflowing and teachers are being laid off in droves but over 3,090 retired California teachers and administrators receive pensions in excess of $100,000

Here is the CalSTRS Top 10 List

Please click on previous link to search the entire CalSTRS list.

California teachers deserve pay raises TO WORK in the classroom – not to make annually nearly 6 times the California Means Test threshold to qualify for a Chapter 7 Bankruptcy NOT to work.

In one extreme case in Wisconsin, an Ironman Competitor Deemed “Permanently and Totally Incapacitated” Collects huge pension benefits.

Dave Orlowski, 54 years young, is fit enough for multiple “Ironman Competitions” but amazingly collects $53,063 disability benefits a year plus full health benefits because the Milwaukee police union deems him “permanently and totally incapacitated for duty.”

Please consider Fit enough for Ironman but not for the MPD

Dave Orlowski can swim 2.4 miles. He can bike 112 miles. He can run a 26.2 mile marathon back to back to back.

He completed six Ironman triathlons last year, has done three so far this year and hopes to compete in yet another one in Klagenfurt, Austria, on July 4.  Anyone who has run a triathlon knows how taxing it is on your body let alone an Ironman triathlon.

But this is something the guy won’t do:

He won’t work for the Milwaukee Police Department.

That’s because the former homicide detective has been declared “permanently and totally incapacitated for duty.”

As an injured ex-cop, Orlowski has been paid nearly $500,000 in tax-free pension checks by the city since 1999. He is currently receiving $53,063 a year from the city Employees’ Retirement System, plus full health benefits.

You may be asking yourself what does Orlowski’s case have to do with me?  I regularly talk with people who don’t file Chapter 7 or 13 bankruptcy and simply accept foreclosure out of a misguided sense of loyalty to their creditors, rather than get a fresh start.  Whether you agree with Orlowski or not, you can’t argue that he used the system to his benefit in order to maximize his financial gain.  This is precisely the level of service we strive to provide our clients.  However, unlike Orlowski, we help you to ethically maximize your potential financial gains and cut losses under the Bankruptcy code and California law.  You have options and the freedom to exercise them.  Call now to see how Safer Law can help you rebuild 619 794 0460