-- 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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I understand this may not be the most sensitive way to look at the statistics, but 115000 adult gang members – 5 percent of the population – has to really negatively impact economic productivity- especially if the externalities these gang members generate are somehow measured. It makes me wonder just how many we’ll off productive people (125k and above?) exist to pay off Chicago’s debts. I can envision someone saying gang members pay taxes,but I don’t see it.
Gangs culture to many areas of the south side is akin to Cubs culture to many areas of the north side. Its omnipresent, no matter where you go, it’s always there, one way or another. The gangs are smaller and less structured now that the main guys are all in prison. Most of these murders on the street are adults under 30 shooting at rival ‘gang’ members, when the ‘gang’ is no more than a loose affiliation of people who all affiliate with a larger structure, and they all get their drugs from the cartels to distribute.