-- 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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That’s a rather rosy scenario that some economists at the Becker Friedman institute don’t agree with. They believe that 40% of jobs lost will be permanent. At the current number of unemployed that means 16 million jobs aren’t coming back. That’s double all the jobs lost during the recession of 2008 – 2009. The only thing that will get Trump re-elected is that Biden is running against him. The economic bounce back Trump is hoping for is probably not going to happen and that won’t be good for his re-election chances.
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/major-reallocation-shock-from-coronavirus-will-see-42-of-lost-jobs-evaporate-172558520.html
This is a feature, not a bug, that both sides use politically. Democrats want the economy bad, and people not working, until election day so Biden will win; but Republicans know that when the bonus ends in July, they’ll return back in August and September, meaning that economic figures released in the weeks before the election will be fantastic. Right now my money is on the R’s with this one.