-- 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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I always take financial advice from a skulk with an office under a viaduct.
Alderman, have a staff person do ten minutes of research for you will you please. It is called “fiduciary obligation’– which means fund managers are supposed to be motivated by one thing only– maximizing returns for beneficiaries. They don’t do economic development, or tourism promotion, or social engineering projects or any other hair brained objective some ill informed politician might dream up. Pretty basic principle that the Chairman of a committee ought to know already.
Why aren’t pensions doing direct investments in real estate for economic development, Villegas asked. Who wants to explain Pensions 101 to him?
CalPERS owns a significant stake in Oakbrook Center.
Only natural that CTU would invest in a crooked business like Chicago real estate, where Obama BFF Tony Rezko was the poster boy for insider corruption