| albertchampion | -- 11-21-2016 @ 10:18 PM |
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how will the public employee pension debt play out? before that question gets answered, did you ever want a policeman, a fireman to retire with a pension larger than your best ever annual income? perhaps even larger than the his/her annual salary when on "active" duty, so to speak? a pension pay-out that functioned as the top ranks of the u.s. military? where the pension could be received while the pensioner was continuing to earn a second, well-paying income? this is known as double-dipping. is that the economic circumstance that you ever voted for? i don't think so. but, that is the world that was created in the vacuum of voter scrutiny. in an expanding economy, i think that this largesse was overlooked by the electorate. but in a static, compressing economy, the reality of this largesse is beginning to capture the attention of the electorate. which, in the main, has no pension protection. excluding the long-term politicians and the largesse that the electorate has granted them[actually, the pols granted it to themselves], these pension promises are going to bankrupt many entities. as some may recognize, the corporations that developed the concept of unfunded, underfunded pension liabilities was predicated upon the concept that the taxpayer would pick up the bill via the mechanism of the pension benefit guaranty corporation[i think that i have that accurately]. of course, the congress never funded it. more smoke and mirrors. but, then there are the states and the municipalities. illinois is quite broke. michigan probably is as well. along with ohio. and who knows how many others. even that free market state, the state of texas. and then there are those essentially right wing texas cities. houston. it is bankrupt because of the pension deals it cut with police and firefighthers. but, more humorously in a certain sense, there is dallas. the big D[stands for debt]. perhaps one of the most right wing cities in north america. well, here is a synopsis of its forthcoming financial debacle… Dallas Stares Down a Texas-Size Threat of Bankruptcy By MARY WILLIAMS WALSH NOV. 20, 2016 DALLAS — Picture the next major American city to go bankrupt. What springs to mind? Probably not the swagger and sprawl of Dallas. But there was Dallas’s mayor, Michael S. Rawlings, testifying this month to a state oversight board that his city appeared to be "walking into the fan blades" of municipal bankruptcy. "It is horribly ironic," he said. Indeed. Dallas has the fastest economic growth of the nation’s 13 largest cities. Its streets hum with supersize cars and its skyline bristles with cranes. Its mayor is a former chief executive of Pizza Hut. Hundreds of multinational corporations have chosen Dallas for their headquarters, most recently Jacobs Engineering, which is moving to low-tax Texas from pricey Pasadena, Calif. But under its glittering surface, Dallas has a problem that could bring it to its knees, and that could be an early test of America’s postelection commitment to safe streets and tax relief: The city’s pension fund for its police officers and firefighters is near collapse and seeking an immense bailout. Over six recent weeks, panicked Dallas retirees have pulled $220 million out of the fund. What set off the run was a recommendation in July that the retirees no longer be allowed to take out big blocks of money. Even before that, though, there were reports that the fund’s investments — some placed in highly risky and speculative ventures — were worth less than previously stated. What is happening in Dallas is an extreme example of what’s happening in many other places around the country. Elected officials promised workers solid pensions years ago, on the basis of wishful thinking rather than realistic expectations. Dallas’s troubles have become more urgent because its plan rules let some retirees take big withdrawals. Now, the Dallas Police and Fire Pension System has asked the city for a one-time infusion of $1.1 billion, an amount roughly equal to Dallas's entire general fund budget but not even close to what the pension fund needs to be fully funded. Nothing would be left for fighting endemic poverty south of the Trinity River, for public libraries, or for giving current police officers and firefighters a raise. this i think is the harbinger of the financial end times for the usa. those who voted for trump sensed this coming financial calamity. that was another vesion of hope & change. i think some large numbers of the electorate remember the aesop fable, the ant and the grasshopper. and have recognized that the usa has been living the grasshopper life for far too long. and, too large a segment of the electorate still doesn't see this reality. doesn't see that a guns and butter economy eventually has to succumb to reality. as it did finally in the 1970's. one cannot wage unlimited war, spend as the wastrel obombya spent, and not have to finally inherit the wind. and that is where globalization ends up. every country that played the usa's game is trapped in the maelstrom of debt. and every pol, every corporate big shot thinks that this dept whirlpool can continue to be ignored. but the alligator, the shark, knows better. those creatures have that sensory apparatus that informs them that the bulwark of keynesian economics, debt[especially consumer debt], is going to hit the deep water and unending rip currents. mass drownding in debt. all over the planet. that is the future of globalization. every citizen of every country will have a very tough time surviving. nations will fall as they did in the 1920's, 1930's. and, i think that the precious metals will not be saving you. as the citizens of the indian sub-continent may be discovering in this reign of the confiscatory nahendri modi. as i think mose allison[rip] once wrote and sang, everyone's cryin mercy. and they don't know the meaning of the word.
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| bmurphy | -- 11-22-2016 @ 7:38 AM |
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Hello Albert, The Dallas pension issue is quite the problem here in Dallas, for sure ... taking some of the attention off of Chicago. The problem is growing with no solutions in sight. Guess it will be that way until the "system" begins to implode because of all the other debt out there. Best Bill
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| jpdell33 | -- 03-05-2017 @ 12:26 PM |
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Unfortunately we still need our police, fire, EMS and military. Without the promise of an effective pension system nobody in their right mind would volunteer to spend a career putting their lives on the line. We want to attract good people of sound character. We want smart people to manage these organizations. Senior members of these groups shoulder great responsibilities and are not compensated anywhere near what their civilian counterparts earn. Yet there are those that begrudge them. Don't unless you are prepared to volunteer for the sacrifices they make. Our society needs to understand the true cost of the burdens our civilians and military assume. That said our nation needs to cut costs and make services more efficient. We can do far more with privatization. We need to contract out as many services as possible. We already compete with the civilian sector with such things as weather forecasting. The Gov't tends to be its own worst enemy by adopting work rules that decrease its efficiency just to placate a headline grabbing politician.
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