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Just as farmers are starting to harvest crops like corn and soybeans, the barge companies tasked with carrying their products downriver for global export are up against low water. About 60% of the country’s grain exports are shipped down the Mississippi River, but the water has to be at least 9 feet deep for vessels to travel safely. Otherwise, they can run aground on sandbars and cause a traffic jam, like last fall, when more than 2,000 barges were at a standstill.
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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