-- 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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As an Illinois public pensioner I am acutely aware that my pension may be cut at some point, constitutional guarantees notwithstanding. However, those of you expecting to receive Social Security, Medicare or a Federal pension should not exactly feel smug either. According to Moody’s, the unfunded liabilities of these 3 Federal programs combined was just over $20 Trillion last year, vs. a combined total of $3.5 Trillion for all state and local government pensions (https://www.moodys.com/research/Moodys-US-government-pension-shortfall-overshadowed-by-Social-Security-Medicare–PR_346878). Now I get that the feds can – in theory – print money, but I’m not sure how that would work in practice with an… Read more »
The global economy is headed for complete collapse sooner than later. All this arguing over pensions of Social Security doesn’t really matter in the end. The human race is overpopulated and doomed, and our time is about out. When the global economy collapses in less than thirty years, much of humanity will not make it.