-- 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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As usual socialize losses, privatize gains.
I would agree to a bailout only if the people responsible for the pension problems go to jail.
Goodness gracious, 3 billion dollars annually is a small price to pay to keep millions of formerly hard-working old folks from losing their pensions through no fault of their own, and it is truly a drop in the bucket compared to the recent tax cut that will cost the Treasury 1.6 trillion over the next ten years (and probably a lot more over a longer horizon).
I fail to see a principle upon which one could bail out multi-employer plans and not bail out state and local governmental plans. “No fault of their own” does not address the years of pay raises that escalated pension obligations; these were bargained by unions who knew the pensions were not being adequately funded. Leaders of the same unions mis-invested the plan assets for personal objectives. If your point is that all people too old to work should have income adequate for basic needs, that might be achieved in other ways. Unreasonable and unaffordable expectations. however, should not be bailed… Read more »
Why the kittens should the taxpayers bail out the pension of corrupt unions(which is the only kind of union)? Most of these unions held healthy companies hostage, threatening work slowdowns, out and out strikes, timed to do maximum harm to corporations and thus harm to the shareholders, most of whom are non-pensioned taxpaying investors.
Corporations bent over to union demands to keep their production lines and services going;they had little choice in the matter. Now it is time for the union pensioners to reap what they sowed. Furry kitten them.
I would not expect Trump to veto a bill that bails out Teamsters and other trade unions. Maybe he’ll even bail out the Major League Ballplayers DB plan. Pension millionaires are less prevalent with the trade unions but the health care costs will be daunting. By 2020 we’d have a precedent for bailing out government plans that have even more workers who have “depended on” growing old and joining the retired military and the retired civil service. Not to mention all of us that are then drawing Social Security. At that point pension haircuts for pension millionaires will be a… Read more »