-- 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.
SIGN UP HERE FOR OUR FREE WIREPOINTS DAILY NEWSLETTER
This reminds me of the Edgar Ramp. We will pay later to make up what we can’t pay today that sounds good but never happens
This is an important article, though incredibly dry. It is a road map in urban decline. Borrow tons of money based on past revenues as a third of the population leaves. Come up with get-rich-quick ideas like hotels and casinos as your crime problems multiply. Then as debts reach the breaking point, push a reckoning off into the future by suing the institutions who loaned the money to re-finance everything.
Right, Eugene, that’s why we follow it quite closely and link to all articles on it. (That, and it’s where I was born.) It’s a microcosm road map of urban decline.
This is an important article, though incredibly dry
This is the news equivalent of eating your spinach before you can have dessert.
Not every news story is gonna be all about hookers and cocaine (thank goodness for Hunter Biden).