A couple of posts ago I noted that the faltering economy had produced the highest gold prices in U.S. history.

In my last post I reported that new home sales were on their way to reaching the lowest level since records started being kept in 1963.

Today, Alana Semuels in the Los Angeles Times  reported that California set a new record in lost businesses:

From 2001 to 2009, California ranked either first or second in the nation in creating businesses. But last year, the state plummeted to 50th as it lost 4,600 businesses, according to a study by Economic Modeling Specialists Inc.  California was among 29 states that saw a drop in net new businesses, according to the study, which calculates net new business creation by using the quarterly employment and wage information from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. . . . Entrepreneurs often complain about stringent environmental regulations and government red tape in California as obstacles to doing business.  Those things become more of a burden during bad economic times, said Hank Robison, chief economist at EMSI.

Yet more good news today, this time from Lisa Mascaro in the Los Angeles Times :

The federal deficit will hit $1.3 trillion for fiscal 2011, the third consecutive year of record shortfalls – and an emerging campaign theme for GOP attacks on President Obama and congressional Democrats.  The deficits of the last three years are at levels unseen since World War II and stem from the “long shadow” cast on the economy by the financial crisis and recession, the Congressional Budget Office said Wednesday.

Isn’t it exciting to live in a time when so many records are being broken?  Just like Olympic athletes, our state and federal leaders can take genuine pride in having produced results that no CEO could possibly achieve.  Of course, if a CEO could accomplish these things for a business, the business would have to enter bankruptcy.

Unfortunately, the Bankruptcy Code doesn’t provide for bankruptcy protection for either the states, or the federal government.  Therefore, as the feds continue their work hard debauching the currency, we may see an official devaluation in the near future.

Wouldn’t it be nice if you could resolve your debt problems by simply printing a lot of new currency?  Unfortunately, that is no more available to you than bankruptcy is to the feds and the states.  However, you can use bankruptcy to wipe the slate clean and start fresh.

In the meantime, watch and marvel at the records being broken.