-- 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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“Must be repaid.” Are they secured? Even by anticipated future federal monies? Why bother with these self-negating illusory conditions? It reminds me of “loans” from the World Bank that are never intended to be repaid. They can show up as assets on somebody’s balance sheet for a period of time. Enron perpetrators went to jail. It’s another self-perpetuating Ponzi scheme that is part of the exceedingly shaky foundation of the national and the world economy. It’s all basically short-term economics providing opportunities for a few insiders to profit without accountability. How many Tokayevs and Nazarbayevs and Duvaliers and Madigans are… Read more »