-- 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.
SIGN UP HERE FOR OUR FREE WIREPOINTS DAILY NEWSLETTER
Don’t show this data to Lori. She’ll lose whatever marbles she has left in that rock hard head of hers.
Be interesting to see the suburban numbers. I know of one office park in Oak Brook that is way up on occupancy.
Chicago is lost!
Vote republican for positive change
Vote democrat for the same old!
Corporations may or may not be able to survive lockdowns, shutdowns, relocations and restructuring, with the help of Tiffs and government redistributions of wealth; however, costs and risks are impossible for small businesses and sole proprietorships. This is a design feature, not a flaw, of political cronyism. Most people can easily learn productive skills that have value to society, but making a business that pays the bills is near impossible for regular people in bandit towns..unless it is violence and misery for sale. The bastards running this ship are only about themselves, fattened larvae feeding at the trough.
The vacancy rate hasn’t peaked. Workers do NOT want to come back into the crime ridden Loop. Companies have to allow their employees to continue to work remote or they will quit.
NoHope – it will get worse. Companies either won’t renew their leases or will drastically downsize the space they rent. Throw in violent crime, especially on public transit, where employees can persuade their employers it is not worth the risk to commute, and the Loop commercial real estate business has likely changed in a permanent way.
I’m not coming back. I have my new job in the burbs 15 minutes from home and not the hour and a half slog I suffered in the past on chicago’s mobile shooting ranges . No one has been shot in my town in 15 years and that was an accident. Somebody is shot every 2 hours and nearly 4 people a day are killed in the City of Big Shoulder Wounds. LL has had no positive effect on the city since she was inaugurated, in fact the city is sliding downhill and is accelerating to the bottom.
Hmmmmm…So all is not roses? Crain’s come out into the light and stumbles into the obvious. No longer restrained by Lori they’re going be daring and acknowledge the city is wrecked.
A bit like Musical Chairs, I think. These real estate “investments” change hands every few years to give another fund a chance to take tax write offs. The latest limited partners are in line for some serious hits on fund valuation. Hopefully not too many pension plans have put money into these assets. They are figuratively under-water and if the NY Times is correct the basements may be flooded soon. Tenants will fight their leases based on Covid or who-knows-what and values will shrink so the tax collector can pound sand. As the wheel turns, the promoters will probably find… Read more »