-- 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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During Old Joe’s working days he rode the shinkansen from Osaka to Nagoya. Quell train. Why nothing like this exists in the US is 8th Wonder of the World.
I had a dream once that one could be constructed that would go from Chicago to Detroit to Toronto several hours. The cost would be cheaper than driving. Then my alarm went off….
Wow. A fellow government planning and spending sceptic gets it right. Two billion dollars. That doesn’t cover future maintenance costs, either. The IDOT Soy Manbun Types are still trying to shake down Railway Development Corporation to pay for a similar line from Chicago to the Quad Cities. RDC Chairman Henry Posner is having none of it. He knows that it will be the job of his short line, the Iowa Interstate Railroad, to pay for the ongoing maintenance of the track and signals should such a passenger buildout to occur on RDC’s line. If healthy and wealthy Union Pacific doesn’t… Read more »
Billions on a high speed train that’s still slower than driving — that’s Illinois in a nutshell
I’m reminded of a high speed rail crash outside Seattle a few years ago. It was caused by a switching error. A bullet train connecting a major California city (San Francisco or Los Angeles) derailed with multiple deaths. The cost with over-runs totaled billions, the time saved over the old slow train was 11 minutes. Amtrak is Scamtrak.
So they have spent $2B so you can get to St. Louis faster so you can get shot or killed there or vice versa. 20 miles an hour faster to get shot quicker. Makes sense now.
Top speed capable vs actual top speed in practice are two different things. Take a ride from Alton to Chicago once and you will understand.