Q&A: Funding of State Pension Funds

Question:  When you say the prior to the 1980’s, public pensions were funded in a traditional way, do you mean that the state governments simply put most of the funding in a fund as they went along, but then they started to put more and more of it into Wall St., so that after theContinue reading “Q&A: Funding of State Pension Funds”

The Fiscal Health of State Pension Funds by Iris J. Lav and Elizabeth McNichol (Center on Budget and Policy Priorities)

  The Fiscal Health of State Pension Funds: Misunderstandings Regarding State Debt, Pensions, and Retiree Health Costs Create Unnecessary Alarm Misconceptions and Also Divert Attention from Needed Structural Reforms (excerpts)   By Iris J. Lav and Elizabeth McNichol Center on Budget and Policy Priorities January 20, 2011 http://http://www.cbpp.org/cms/index.cfm?fa=view&id=3372 [moderator: This report provides substantive documented informationContinue reading “The Fiscal Health of State Pension Funds by Iris J. Lav and Elizabeth McNichol (Center on Budget and Policy Priorities)”

State Bankruptcy: A Right Wing Fantasy to Enable Confiscation of Employee Pensions

States currently cannot declare bankruptcy.  If the right has its way, that would change, according to an article, (“A Path is Sought for States to Escape Their Debt Burdens,”)  by Mary Williams Walsh in the January 20, 2011 New York Times. Walsh cites such right-wing politicians as Newt Gingrich and conservative media as The WeeklyContinue reading “State Bankruptcy: A Right Wing Fantasy to Enable Confiscation of Employee Pensions”

Unfunded Liabilities of Public Pensions, A Red Herring

Rarely have so many people believed as an article of faith something so fervently that wasn�t true: unfunded liabilities of public pensions are speeding us toward fiscal Armageddon. Unless something drastic is done very soon, we taxpayers will have to bailout overly generous, fiscally irresponsible public employee pension systems. A class war is looming, accordingContinue reading “Unfunded Liabilities of Public Pensions, A Red Herring”