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To: Broken_Clock who wrote (270029)	8/19/2010 1:46:05 PM
From: Broken_Clock	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 306849

Broke States Should Save Themselves By Selling Off Roads, Colleges, And Other Assets, Says Altucher Posted Aug 19, 2010 12:08pm EDT by Henry Blodget in Investing, Recession, Politics One of the many looming financial crises in the United States is the horrendous budget shortfall faced by many states. James Altucher, managing director at Formula Capital, floats an innovative solution to this problem. Instead of raising taxes, cutting spending, or going even deeper in debt, Altucher says, states should sell off some assets. What assets? Assets like roads, bridges, state parks, public transportation systems, and universities. If New Jersey were to sell the New Jersey Turnpike, for example, it would immediately raise tens of billions of dollars, which would radically improve the state's financial health. And a private road operator might do a better job of running the turnpike than the state can. Is that a crazy, wacko, radical idea? In the case of roads, transportation, and other infrastructure, no. There's actually plenty of precedent for it. And there's no reason other than convention why city bus and subways systems are publicly run and interstate systems, including airlines, are private. In the case of universities and state parks? Well, there, the idea is a lot more radical.