-- 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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Better late (decades late) than never. Moody’s still hasn’t noticed the flames erupting from the fiscal dumpster that is Chicago. Buyers of bonds during the ratings agencies’ reality-defying reporting should be able to sue these serial liars.
Chicago, and Illinois, should have junk status for bonds. Anything else and the analysts are not telling the truth.
Baby steps, S&P, baby steps.