-- Connecting the dots between our economy, government and business --
Summary and audio linked here.
Chicago’s political leadership is floating a pension buyout program as evidence it is seriously addressing the city’s thirty-six-billion-dollar unfunded pension liability, but Mark Glennon, founder of the Illinois policy research organization Wirepoints, said that the proposal moves debt from one column to another rather than reducing it, and that the broader fiscal picture facing the city continues to deteriorate across every measurable dimension. Audio here.
Expect no retraction or apology. This what they do.
The state’s existing buyout program for its own pensions is the precedent for Chicago, which should be a warning: Look out for similar exaggerated claims and shoddy analysis.
Full interview and summary linked here.
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ComEd is a pseudo public agency already. Its “competitors” are straw dogs, speculators who “buy electricity” to resell to customers without any power-generation resources themselves. ComEd costs are so high because Illinois, Cook County, and municipal Chicago corruption-related transactional costs are so high. Costs of bribes, sweetheart deals, ghost payrollers, and other political favors are passed-on to ComEd’s customers. No ComEd executive has been convicted of their crimes, nor ordered to pay restitution to ComEd customers. Cheaper electrical costs require ComEd to run its business operation like a public-traded corporation: political donations, yes, but within reason, and ultimately accountable to… Read more »
Do it, Chicago. Nationalize it, force everyone to buy city electricity. The Feds will use it as a vehicle to put alderman and city officials in jail.