US State Budget Crises Threaten Social Fabric

The reality of austerity and balance budgets in the face of an international debt crisis. The same thing happened in the Great Depression. The unemployment rate surged to 1 in 4 before austerity was abandoned for devaluation and the equivalent of today's quantitative easing. Keep this in mind when G-20 nations pledge to cut deficit spending in half by 2013.

The small southern California city of Maywood has hit on a unique solution to its budget crisis. Crushed by the recession and falling tax revenues, the city is disbanding its police force and firing all public sector employees.

Maywood has opted for an extreme solution, by contracting out all public services, including the most basic, to save cash. But it is not alone.

Source: cnbc.com