-- 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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The fallacy here is that we imagine that the current in-power group gives a rat’s-patoot about “a fragile fiscal state”. They don’t. They are saddling the City with more debt at the same time they are building significant amounts of expensive new housing on the west and south sides–the edifices will survive bankruptcy. Detroit and Gary are role models and not cautionary tales. Bankruptcy is a blessing, a salvation, and not a curse. Spend until they stop you: Oopsie!