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.
Just a decade ago, these same ratings companies gave their blessing to mortgage backed securities and CDOs. The result was a catastrophic implosion of the financial markets. I was on the trading floor at the time and EVERYONE on the floor knew it was coming, we just didnt know when. The same is going on now. Stupid politics and policies are leading us toward another financial crisis and more looting of the middle class. There had to be a lot of political gamesmanship going into a decision to upgrade Chicago debt with increased pensions cost, population loss, sanctuary city costs,… Read more »