-- 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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This will hit the United States. The crowded cities are toast. It might not be a bad idea to stock up on some staples that can be stored at room temp just in case. Worst case scenario, I go off the grid in rural Illinois for a few weeks this spring until the initial wave passes.
I am not at this point concerned about it becoming a big problem in the US. It’s catastrophic, however, for China, and that full story is not getting properly reported.
The communist party in china has put severe restrictions on wechat, the ‘officially government sanctioned’ chat/payment app, so little actual news is getting out, but the videos that do make it to twitter are scary and horrifying. I’ve seen a dozen videos of ambulance crews in hazmat gear forcibly removing suspected coronavirus carrier from their homes to be taken to isolation. In isolation, they are likely as good as dead, and the Chinese government says they are not allowing funerals, so the bodies are cremated almost immediately. Chinese officials are sealing doors to homes shut – sometimes the entire building… Read more »