-- 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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Regarding Dr. Nemo’s posts below, though: “The Mayor’s quoted statement implies that widespread testing and contact tracing are needed but elides [sic] the fact that no reliable test is available at this time. ” What’s more, this (respiratory) disease is unlike the others he named, which are namely STDs, and one systemic or pulmonary disease (TB) which is more chronic. Tracing can’t be done reliably by definition for this anyway, and that’s another huge point that we must consider when it is clear we have a ridiculously callous and overbearing government, which at this point resembles a police state. And… Read more »
Groot and the Democrats want to inflict as much damage as possible on the economy. They think more economic carnage means more votes
Hopefully there a reckoning when this is all over and people turn on our dear democrat leaders for turning into little tyrants.
“That means widespread testing, contact tracing, and we got to see not just a flattening of the curve but a bending down.”
But I thought that the original goal was to “flatten the curve?” Now it has to “bend down?” How far down?
That sound you hear is the goal posts being dragged further back into the end zone.
“Contact tracing” means spying on everybody to see who they’ve met with.
Contact tracing is standard public health procedure in attempting to limit the spread of contagious diseases. It is the next step in case finding once an initial patient presents with syphilis, gonorrhea, HIV, tuberculosis, etc. You ask the initial patient who they may have given the infection to. People are surprisingly forthcoming in real life. Problem now is that the next step is testing the contacts for the disease and we don’t have a reliable diagnostic test yet. Sensitivity of the current test is no more than 70%, so false negative tests are common. False positives are not. (A false… Read more »
The sensitivity of a test is the percentage of people who have the disease who test positive. Seventy percent sensitivity is not a great sensitivity. The test misses a lot of people who have the disease. In NYC ERs, the doctors ignore negative test results if the patient has the Covid 19 syndrome of fever, cough, and shortness of breath especially if the chest xray or CT scan show typical abnormalities. CT and chest xray are often normal early in the course of the disease. The current nasal swab test is reliable in the sense that a positive test means… Read more »
Thanks. You sound like you know what you are talking about and we appreciate special expertise on these things.
So good — and unusual — to see some expertise in response to basic ignorance and mythology.
you are referencing mostly STDs which aren’t spread to everyone you come into contact with. tracing everyone you came into contact with is much harder
Not when apple and google track every person you come in contact with and one of those people has tested positive. Sure at first it will be voluntary. Plenty of virtue signaling by our Hollywood elites that will guilt people into downloading. Eventually they will just add it to the operating system of our devices. Who knows our government may even require it to return to work or shop at stores. Don’t worry it’s for your own good.
https://news.yahoo.com/edward-snowden-coronavirus-privacy-174113469.html
Bend down as in “bend over” which is technical legislative term applied to taxpayers who are the source of public employee (and retiree) income and benefits. The Queen of England expects less. Touching your ankles (with knees bent if necessary) is probably sufficient.