-- 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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Well, you can dynamite industrial buildings too. If WP readers want to see the ghost of Christmas future just Google on Detroit’s Budd Wheel plant.
Rockford is closer to home with industrial areas almost indistinguishable from Detroit. There are an estimated 5,400 abandoned buildings in Rockford. Here’s a video of abandoned paint factory in Rockford built in 1929. The city is littered with buildings like this.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LGztmAQHT-Y
So sad. To think at one time we manufactured everything we consumed in this country. Good luck when we get in a shooting war with China.
Corporate middlemen shipped those jobs overseas to save a few pennies. Prices for the end-consumer remained the same as the corporation made record profits. The person shipping your job overseas involved everybody from the C-Suite down to the middle managers. C-Suite said “Cut costs!” and the middle managers took their overseas trips China to scout factories, or India, and in the process, destroyed the rust belt. Critics try to blame the consumer, saying “well, the consumer wants cheaper foreign goods over american goods”. But that’s a lie, the consumer never had a choice. They bought what was sold on the… Read more »