When does corruption end your pension? Actuary Mary Pat Campbell takes a look.

Actuary Mary Pat Campbell: “Wirepoints has several features, and the best part is the daily email. Wirepoints has helped give me more detail on the players, and the specific tactics being tried out so I don’t look like a complete ass from the East Coast when I write about the Midwest. So if you want to know about one of the most

Actuary Mary Pat Campbell: “The actual public finance behavior of Illinois for decades is what I’m basing my remarks on. I have yet to see any stomach for any actual reform of the promise, promise, promise and not actually pay for their promises.”

Actuary Mary Pat Campbell: Some teachers unions, such as in Chicago, are pushing for remote schooling as omicron cases of Covid spread. There is a longer-term danger to teachers’ pensions, as many of these are underfunded and depend on growing tax bases. We’ve seen many of these places lose population due to people simply moving (not just dying). Teachers and their union representatives need to think longer-term — they may minorly reduce a short-term risk of a disease most of them (vaccinated) can deal with, while greatly increase the risk of undermining the future of their pension funds.

By actuary Mary Pat Campbell.

By actuary Mary Pat Campbell.

By actuary Mary Pat Campbell.

Actuary Mary Pat Campbell: One of the biggest “waiting for a bailout” offenders is Chicago and, of course, the legislature of Illinois. They’ve never made a difficult decision, and they’re waiting to see if the suckers, um, I mean, voters, take the bait and vote in the “we’ll keep defining ‘rich’ down til we get enough dough” state constitutional amendment.”

For math wonks, from actuary Mary Pat Campbell.

Comment: About 1/3 way down, actuary Mary Pat Campbell puts the infection fatality rate for COVID that we recently wrote about into context by comparing it, for older individuals, to their expected mortality from other causes.

By actuary Mary Pat Campbell.

By actuary Mary Pat Campbell on a persistent myth about pensions. Note two of the repeat offenders — Ralph Martire of the Center for Tax and Budget Accountability and Greg Hinz of Crain’s.

For number wonks, from actuary Mary Pat Campbell.

By actuary Mary Pat Campbell.

An actuary’s perspective — Mary Pat Campbell.

A detailed look by an actuary, Mary Pat Campbell.

By actuary Mary Pat Campbell

By actuary Mary Pat Campbell.

From an actuary, Mary Pat Campbell: “Shamtacular, one may say. And the shammiest of shamtaculars is what happened with pensions.

The perspective of actuary and numbers wonk Mary Pat Campbell.

A roundup through the lens of quant queen Mary Pat Campbell.

Comment: I like disagreement from people I respect, as Mary Pat Campbell does here. However, she didn’t answer the challenge at the end of my article, which is to describe a solution that doesn’t include bankruptcy. Further, I’ve always made clear bankruptcy is a bad option. That’s not the question. It’s about whether it’s the only option. As for whether the rest of the country should support bankruptcy for Illinois, I’m fine with letting them vote in their own self-interest. Illinois is a drag on the national economy and on safety net programs. What’s going to cost the country less?

By actuary Mary Pat Campbell.

More misuse of phony government “budget” numbers.

By actuary Mary Pat Campbell.

By actuary Mary Pat Campbell.

By actuary Mary Pat Campbell.

Of the state-to-state moves involving Illinois handled by suburban St. Louis-based United Van Lines in 2016, 62.9 percent of the moves were out of the state, while 37.1 percent were for moves into Illinois. The company said it handled 8,782 moves in Illinois last year, and 5,521 of them were for customers moving out of state. “Not as bad as New Jersey,” as our friend Mary Pat Campbell likes to say.

Comment: The “80% funding myth” is the idea that pensions with an 80% funded level — or even 90% — are considered sound. That’s fake news propagated by politicians trying to hide the mess they created and reporters too sloppy to catch it. Only 100% is generally considered sound. Author Mary Pat Campbell, an actuary, tracks the culprits.

From Mary Pat Campbell, an honest actuary who writes about pensions: “I hope the authors can rewrite the paper well enough to avoid any legal action on the part of the SOA or AAA.” Comment: Oh, hell, somebody please just leak it to us.

Actuary Mary Pat Campbell writes about a major book on the Detroit bankruptcy.

Author Mary Pat Campbell is an actuary who writes about pensions. Comment: She’s absolutely right that readers want facts, not opinions. We see that here. Our most viewed article in the past year, for example, was on south suburban Chicago property tax rates. Most conventional news sources would reject it as far too long and too jammed with data. Wrong.

Mary Pat Campbell, the author, is an actuary who writes about pensions. Next time you hear a politician say Illinois is making “full pension contributions” or “what the actuaries require” tell them they’re lying. Same for almost all local pensions.

By: Mark Glennon*   Crain’s Chicago Business’ editorial board today endorsed Rahm’s budget proposal under the headline, “Chicago’s road to reality paved with pain and politics.” Chicago is finally dealing with reality, they say. “The city of Chicago no longer can afford to put off the inevitable—it must cover its obligations” to pensions, they say. “We must pay. The time to reckon with that reality is now.” Their only concerns about Rahm’s proposal are the burden it puts on commercial property owners and the omission of further spending cuts, though they offered no suggestions on that.  Springfield should authorize the

And a ‘get well’ wish to author Mary Pat Campbell. We need honest actuaries like her at full capacity.

By Mary Pat Campbell, an actuary.

Latest in a series about each of Illinois’ statewide pensions from Mary Pat Campbell, an actuary.

Author Mary Pat Campbell is an actuary who has been going through each of the five state level pensions for Illinois. This is the latest in her series.

Author Mary Pat Campbell is an actuary who writes about pensions.

Author Mary Pat Campbell is an honest actuary who blogs about pensions.

From an actuary who blogs about pensions, Mary Pat Campbell: “For the country as a whole, the ARC seems to be growing fairly slowly compared to revenue, so that’s not too concerning… but  Illinois? Holy crap.” Comment: Remember this when you hear Illinois legislators claim they have been fully funding pensions in recent years.

http://stump.marypat.org/article/207/80-percent-funding-hall-of-shame-february-2015-round-up Author Mary Pat Campbell is an actuary who blogs on pensions, who ridicules politicians who claim that 80% or 90% funding is a proper goal for pensions. That’s like saying that having 80% or 90% of the gas you need to get home is enough; it’s just arbitrarily defining part of the problem away. Former Governor Jim Edgar is on her list.

Mary Pat Campbell at Stump is an honest actuary who blogs on pensions. Her take on our recent court decision: “Employees of Illinois: save as much cash up as you can, and follow the taxpayers out of Illinois as well…. All it means is that the end of your sweet benefits are just that much closer. Thinking that you’ll always get yours means that you will not make the deals that need to be made before catastrophe occurs.” via STUMP » Articles » Public Pension Watch: Illinois Reform Goes Down (as Expected) » 23 November 2014, 08:28.