-- 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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This seems to me as if society as a whole is deciding to kick the can down the road. (It could also be politicians trying to stay in office.) Many of us have developed a faith that everyone has a right to $50K or so per year and politicians will have their backs with minimum wage laws and unemployment benefits funded by deficit spending. Those who are able to stay in business will then raise their prices. Who knows if society will collapse when we can no longer eat artichokes and oysters or drive Audis? Perhaps the improved middle class… Read more »