-- 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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CEO Lampert of course is doing well and is actually planing to buy Sears assets at firesale prices. And of course his hedge fund is being insulated from the carnage he wrought.
Will Sears retirees see their pensions? So the short answer is “Yes”………for the vast majority of pension plan participants (not ones with relatively large pensions over $65,000/year…….which would be very few). But the PBGC will financial rape Sears because it will say it needs enough money to pay all future bfts, even if the assets earn just ~ 3% invstmt egns per year ! Meanwhile the PBGC invests its plan assets very prudently, expertly, and tries to earn much, much more. Go figure, another Govt entity that rapes the private sector at HUGE cost. They’ve been doing this for decades,… Read more »