-- 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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The article points to $700m to improve Amtrak service to Rockford, Quad Cities, and Carbondale. Amtrak makes virtually no money off these routes, so who in their right mind spends $700m to make nothing?
The improved Amtrak service is irrelevant in Keyseyian economics. Keyes once suggested that you could pay people to dig holes and pay other people to fill them in, IIRC. Which is basically what this project is. But it’s really just a $700,000,000 giveaway to the unions at state prevailing wages under the guise of improving service.
Good point.