-- 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.
SIGN UP HERE FOR OUR FREE WIREPOINTS DAILY NEWSLETTER
Illinois is committed to helping only the powerful, namely the unions
Sadly, one has to wonder if federal court supervised bankruptcy over truly forlorn Illinois communities would change much in Illinois. The corruption is structural, and the voters are apathetic. I guess we have no choice but to wait and see. I fear that the cabal which has gutted Illinois somehow will reach any cash flow freed in bankruptcy and redirect it to their own pockets and those of their toadies and co-conspirators. They will infest bankruptcy creditor committees and somehow lay the groundwork for future plundering.
Indeed. One key would be who runs the bankruptcy on behalf of the government. There has to be an emergency manager, like in Detroit, or an oversight committee, as in Puerto Rico. Not the incumbents. In addition, certain constitutional and statutory changes would have to be made to address post-bankruptcy matters.
Mr. Porter writes from a civics textbook grasp of politics. I’m sorry to tell Mr. Porter that he’s more likely to meet Santa Claus on Christmas Eve than he is to see the idealist’s conception of politics and government come to pass. We have a political system riven with corruption in part because citizens allow it. Citizens allow it because so many of us are bought off by political handouts (both overt “welfare” and the kind that goes to businesses that employ middle-income people.) We have a debt crisis because citizens turn on EPSN instead of caring that politicians are… Read more »
We have yet to find a cure for stupid or ignorant. How many voters will chant “right on” and wave their red hats when they are told that the Kurds failed to come to our aid at Normandy? We are, collectively, a large group of yokels being led about by reincarnations of Huey Long. And Rome wasn’t even a democracy!
Why wouldn’t Kurds come to our aid at Normandy? There were all sorts of British and other european missions in the middle east during WWII even though the US was not there. They weren’t on the allies side then and this particular group of kurds – the Syrian Kurds north of Turkey (which has been labelled a terrorist group around the world) is completely different from the Iraqi Kurds that we protected from Saddam for different reasons. Normandy was probably a bad example, but this sect of Kurds didn’t help us in any other war we’ve fought in the middle… Read more »
You make good points in support of the presidential thought process as it bears on the current situation. I expect Trump’s critics are aware of all the facts you cite. I am a bit weak on the alignment of governments following break up of the Turkish empire, but I don’t think the Kurds had an army or even a country in 1944. One of the things Churchill is criticized for is his opposition to formation of a Kurdish state after World War II. I expect Pres. Trump knows enough geography and history to know that lack of Kurds on the… Read more »
As for Normandy, while inarticulate, he was saying that our history with the Kurds is not a special relationship like the other anglo-saxon countries of the commonwealth. Trump supporters take him seriously but not literally; and trump haters take him literally but not seriously. Kurds weren’t with us on the beaches of normandy obviously like our other ally friends around the world. our relationship with them was short and not long term – we own them nothing. And they know that too. They were the enemy of our enemy, so they became our friend. That’s what he was saying, he… Read more »
Neither is the USA a democracy. And what if it was? Paraphrasing George Carlin, “have you met the average person? Do you realize half of all people are dumber than that?” We exist today in a fog of lies, historical revisionism and popular delusions. Few are more foundational than the worship of democracy. Hoppe was correct about it in his discussion here: https://mises.org/library/democratic-leviathan The notion that humanity has benefited from democratic liberalism is irrational. On the contrary, human advancement has certainly occurred despite such modern foolishness, not because of it. The American Empire is bankrupt, putting its wars on credit!… Read more »
The Roman Empire went through periods of decline – some caused by man, some not. A handful of authoritarian autocratic rulers slowed the decline. Democracy is the least worst of all forms of government because there is at least the ability to hold leaders accountable without resorting to violence; and there is a smoother transition of power. Barack H. Obama transitioned power to Trump the moment he was sworn in; and Trump, if not re-elected, will have security remove him from the oval office if he refuses to leave, and when the new guy or gal sits in that chair,… Read more »