More on governmental fiscal reliability, albeit as part of a gruesome overall situation.  How many billion?  (At least they are keeping track.)  How many did Enron lose?

The Taxinator may be breathing a sigh of relief over “fixing” California’s budget problems.

But darker clouds loom.

Case in point:

California’s huge government pension fund is expected to report today a whopping annual loss of an estimated $56.8 billion, almost a quarter of its investment portfolio. [Italics added]

That’s from the irreplaceable Michelle Malkin, thanks to link from the irreplaceable Instapundit.  Instant is right.  It’s how the b’sphere works — hand in hand with the main stream, in this case LA Times.  Malkin reads the paper for us, Insta’s Glenn Reynolds reads Malkin, etc., creating an epidemic of information disseminated by trustworthy sources.

Michelle’s closing comment is as scary as a Terminator left hook:

And as California goes, so goes the nation.

Or worse, one of his super-pistol blasts.