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”
Category Archives: Public Employee Pensions
Bad Timing of Investments Harms 401(k)s and Pension Funds
There is an interesting graphic on investment returns in the January 2 New York Times, titled In Investing, It’s When You Start and When You Finish. Thanks to Nat Trumbull for pointing this out to me. It indicates one of the reasons why 401(k)s have done so poorly. I would argue, though, that even withContinue reading “Bad Timing of Investments Harms 401(k)s and Pension Funds”
Scapegoating Public Employees and Their Pensions
Despite its title, “Public Workers Face Outrage as Budget Crises Grow,” by Michael Powell in the January 1, 2011 New York Times is not a typical public-workers-and-their- pensions bashing piece. It points out that pension fiscal problems have been brought on by states not properly funding them. New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, for example, isContinue reading “Scapegoating Public Employees and Their Pensions”
The Retirement Crisis and This Blog
The Perfect Swindle is about understanding and finding solutions to the growing retirement crisis facing tens of millions of Americans. Since 1981 shaky 401(k) schemes that depend on stock market investing have increasingly replaced secure, traditional pensions. The financial services industry encourages the belief that these schemes will produce generous benefits. But 30 years afterContinue reading “The Retirement Crisis and This Blog”