Do you know how many governments exist in the United States and what that has to do with the CAFR?
The 2007 Census of Government listing says…
“There were 89,476 governmental units in the United States as of June 2007. In addition to the Federal Government and the 50 state governments, there were 89,425 units of local government. Of these, 39,044 are general purpose local governments – 3,033 county governments and 36,011 subcounty general purpose governments, including 14.561 school district governments and 37,381 special district governments.”
Did you know that there are so many “governmental units”?
But what is a CAFR and what does it have to do with the myriad of “governmental units”?
CAFR is the acronym for Comprehensive Annual Financial Report which is government’s complete accounting of “Net Worth”. The CAFR was established as local government’s complete accounting record starting in 1946 through the efforts of a private group located out of Chicago, IL by the name of Government Financial Officers Association (GFOA) and became mandatory by Federal requirement on all local governments in 1978 to complete if they did not all ready do so.
The CAFR is “the” accounting document for every local government which is being effectively “BLACKED OUT” from open mention over the last 60 years. This fact of intentional omission of coverage is the probably biggest financial conspiracy that has ever taken effect in the United States.
What Government, both political parties, organized education, and the syndicated News media have presented to the public over that 60 year time period were Budget Reports. A Budget Report is strictly planned expenditures for the year from a grouping of specific government service agencies. A budget may also note some statistical, statutory, and demographic data for reference. Most Government budget reports show where “tax” revenue will be used. The CAFR on the other hand is not a projection of one year’s expenditures from a select grouping of agencies, but a complete cumulative record of assets, investments, and gross income from all agencies and all sources benefiting or held by that local government body.
It has been reported that trillions of collective dollars not shown in government Budget reports are shown through Government CAFR reports and they are virtually never openly discussed by the syndicated NEWS media, both the Democratic and Republican Party members, the House, Senate, and organized public education, and as in such over the last 50 years the domestic and international investment assets of US Federal and Local Governments as a whole have taken over the Stock, Derivative, Insurance, and Debt Markets. The collective private sector’s assets and investments are now insignificant in comparison with what US Government now owns by and through investment.
Did you get that? The domestic and international investment assets of US Federal and Local Governments as a whole have taken over the Stock, Derivative, Insurance, and Debt Markets. The GOVERNMENT OWNS IT “ALL” BY INVESTMENT. Is it any wonder that the “bail out” or forced “insurance” (Obama Care) or that a push for Stock Market “retirement” accounts has occurred? How could it not when the US Federal and Local Governments have a strong interest in secretly “profiting” from those “investments”?
PROFITING? But there’s a budget crisis, it’s all over the news. There might be a default. right?
How could you know what the financial health of any organization is without the full accounting known and analyzed objectively?
Forget the budget report, it is the CAFR that holds the facts we need to understand “governmental finances”.
See the post “The Corporation Nation Master” for a more detailed explanation of “governmental finances”.
My next post will start to give you the tools and know how to analyze any CAFR and discover just what is and has been going on with our “governmental units” and their posture of crying poverty.
I learned about the above information from Walter Burien – CAFR1.com, but I find his site is not organized well for getting the basic concepts to understanding and analyzing the CAFR. I hope, (at least in my view), to organize his CAFR information in my posts to facilitate the understanding of this vital subject.
There is also an archived site, at the WayBackMachine.com, from the CafrMan which has good information.