-- 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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It reminds me of the scene near the end of Zorba the Greek where the townsfolk line up to await the widow’s death so they can steal her possessions. Here the spore of eventual bankruptcy is in the air and the hyenas don’t want to leave behind any fragment that they might pick off the bones. After all, their predecessors did it and “taught” them how it’s done. Administrators who play along are part of a conspiracy to bilk both the pubic and the pension trusts and some of these folks are fiduciaries who should have civil as well as… Read more »