Not quite Greek, but still weak

摘要

For a decade now California, the world's ninth-largest economy, has run budget deficits. Its constitution says it must technically balance its books every year, but it has done so with accounting tricks that have only pushed the underlying problem into the next accounting period. It may do the same again this year. The hole to be plugged amounts to $15.7 billion if the governor, Jerry Brown, is to be believed; about a billion more if the non-partisan legislative analyst is right.