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.
The King is loathe to let the peasants have their freedom, but he fears a rebellion is brewing. He’ll relent for now, knowing he can use his vast fortune to curry favor and break their spirit once and for all in less than a year’s time.
Rinse and repeat. There must be some elections coming up….