-- 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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And when there are no insurers…
It’s hypocritical of insurance companies. Insurance companies stopped healthcare providers, like hospitals, to cost shifting to help with the financial burden hospitals experience for caring for patients without health insurance. Now these same companies are shifting cost burdens to other states for California wildfires, hurricane damages to states that don’t have these risks. This cost shifting should be illegal. Insurance companies choose to insure property in high risk areas and people choose to live there. Insurance companies should absorb the cost. The only thing that consumers can due is choose regional insurance companies instead of national companies.