Tag: unfunded liabilities

Chicago’s pension funds looking more like a collapsing Ponzi scheme | Wirepoints

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A falling population means the city’s massive pension debts are falling on a smaller base of taxpayers. That’s bad news enough.

But another key demographic – the ratio of active government workers to pensioners – is even more concerning.That ratio, which equaled 1.4 actives for every pensioner in 2005, has collapsed to nearly 1.05. And if the trend continues, in just a year or two there will be more pensioners draining money from the pension funds than active workers putting money in.

Source: Chicago’s pension funds looking more like a collapsing Ponzi scheme | Wirepoints

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Can you spell “unfunded liabilities”?

Clearly, this is the USA’s problem writ large!

The current 121T+ national debt and the guesstimated 200T+ in unfunded liabilities is something that our posterity will have to deal with; not just the Chicago / Illinois taxpayers.

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VOCABULARY: “Tender Vittles Retirement Plan”

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http://www.economicpolicyjournal.com/2017/06/investigator-who-exposed-madoff-fraud.html

MONDAY, JUNE 12, 2017
Investigator Who Exposed Madoff Fraud Reports New Boston Transit Authority Fraud

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“Tender Vittles retirement plan,” meaning (sarcastically) that its participants would be eating cat food.

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So sad.

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POLITICAL: Let’s get the “unfunded liabilities” out of the shadows

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http://blog.independent.org/2015/10/20/milton-friedmans-solution-for-social-security-would-work-for-government-pensions-too/

Milton Friedman’s Solution for Social Security Would Work for Government Pensions Too
By Lawrence J. McQuillan  •  Tuesday October 20, 2015 3:16 PM PDT  

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Friedman’s approach to Social Security can also be applied to ending the state and local government pension crisis. The programs are very similar: Social Security and state and local public pensions have massive unfunded liabilities; and they promise a stream of benefits after retirement.

Applying Friedman’s solution, state and local governments across the country would close their defined-benefit pension plans and issue bonds to beneficiaries equal to the current expected value of the stream of benefits owed. The bonds would be due today or at retirement depending on the beneficiary’s stage of life.

As with Social Security, this approach would ensure that people receive what they have been promised. It would force governments to acknowledge the true extent of the unfunded pension liabilities and establish a specific financing plan (something they refuse to do today). And it would permanently close these politically mismanaged defined-benefit plans.

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The current 18T+ national debt and the guesstimated 200T+ in unfunded liabilities is what our posterity will have to deal with.

“When there’s an elephant in the room introduce him!” From his “Last Lecture” by Randy Pausch (RIP 2007 at age 47)

Just pretending it’s an “off balance sheet” entry is reminiscent of Enron.

Take the medicine now when it’s just disgusting; rather than dies a horrible death from a self0inlicted wound.

Take off the blinders and wake the flock up. 

“We, The Sheeple” are heading for a slaughter!

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POLITICAL: Switch all pension plans to defined-contribution!

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http://www.economics21.org/commentary/wake-call-public-pension-systems

A Wake-Up Call for Public Pension Systems
Jason Russell | 10/03/2014 |

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For decades, public pension systems have been doling out more than they take in. Labor unions have stymied reform efforts, but the latest estimates of the public pension gap may finally serve as a wake-up call.

A new study from Moody’s Investors Service, the bond credit rating business, reports that the level of unfunded liabilities for the 25 largest state and local U.S. public pensions is now more than $2 trillion. The gap is more than three times higher than it was just a decade ago.

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No one wants to see pensioners live poorer lives, caused by broken promises and bankrupt pensions. The public pension system’s integrity must be protected with common-sense reforms that acknowledge the reality of the constantly growing pension gap. The ideal reform for struggling pension systems would be a switch from defined-benefit to defined-contribution pension plans.

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For the various Pepuls Republiks of Nu Jerzee, Nu Jerk, Taxachusetts, Kalifornication, and Flori-Duh, it’s too late.

The Teachers Unions, the politicians, the bureaucrats, and Crony Capitalists control the Gooferment.

Best possible outcome for the poor and the taxpayers is that these “disaster zones” go broke. Like Detroit.

Withdraw your consent by leaving these “theft zones”. 

Expect the worst.

Buy a mini bond, you must be out of your mind.

Even a silver coin will preserve your wealth better!

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ECONOMICS: The “ugly chicken” of unfunded liabilities

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http://www.survivalblog.com/2013/03/become-your-own-central-banker-by-lbg.html

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Today the U.S. has spent the nation’s blood and treasure as well as our emotional capital on the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan. We have become involved in Libya, Egypt, and Syria.  Potential issues with Iran and North Korea loom large. There are 47 million people on food stamps. Unreported millions are unemployed. Spending on social programs has exploded.  The housing market collapsed and has never fully recovered. The banking system is on life support. The Federal Reserve is purchasing $85 billion dollars each month (a trillion dollars a year) in U.S. Treasury issues because no one else is willing to do so.  Despite government statistics and reports Inflation has driven prices on energy, food, clothing, health insurance, and everyday items beyond reason.  Expenditures outstrip tax revenues. Government spending is out of control and we are approaching $17 trillion dollars in national debt with untold (and unfathomable) amounts in promised future benefits, entitlements, mandates, and promissory notes.  By some estimates the U.S. has 238 TRILLION DOLLARS in unfunded liabilities.  We can’t cover it. We are flat busted.  And if our leadership refuses to address and fix the problem, the rest of the world will fix it for us.

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And why are the Sheeple and Clovers happy? Dancing Idol is on TV!

Fools.

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MONEY: Pensions in the bulls eye

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http://www.wnd.com/2013/03/poverty-hits-the-suburbs/

WND EXCLUSIVE
Poverty hits the suburbs
Disturbing stats show dangers overlooked as Wall Street bulls run wild

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He calls “the great 401k experiment of the past 30 years” a “disaster,” and says the actual average 401(k) balance for 65 year olds is closer to $25,000 than the $100,000 claimed by the retirement industry. Siedle predicts, “a catastrophic outcome for at least a significant percentage of our elderly population is inevitable.”

He is just as pessimistic about pensions, warning, “Americans today are aware that corporate pensions have been virtually eliminated and that the few remaining private, as well as the nation’s public pensions, are in jeopardy. Even if you are among the lucky few that have a pension, you cannot rest assured that it will be there for all the years you’ll need it. Whether you know it or not, someone is busy trying to figure how to screw you out of your pension.”

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Obviously, the individual will have to save for themselves.

And, it’s in things that will retain value.

Not numbers on a bank statement.

Productive assets.

Bullion.

Bullets, bandaids, beans!

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QUOTE: Not enough to cover the giant web of obligations

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“What remains are games of musical chairs, Ponzi schemes, frauds, swindles, stonewalls, ruses, ploys, scams, dodges, bluffs, subterfuges, QE martingales, interventions, rehypothecations, pretenses and other modes of evading or disguising reality. The reality is that there is not enough real wealth to go around, certainly not enough to cover the giant web of obligations that masquerades as ‘money.'” – James Howard Kunstler in an essay titled The Cyprus Fiasco Is A Metaphor For The Entire Global Financial System

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RANT: A conversation about a past war and future ones

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I was having an conversation on one of the Yahoo Groups I administrate with a fellow I went to high school with, and wrote this. I thought I’d share my frustration with the Universe.

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No, John (my best friend in high school) was an “evader”; he didn’t go to Canada. Just went underground, and was killed in a traffic accident on the 495 around DC in 1972. I’d lost track of him in early 1971. I didn’t find out about it until the 80’s when I by chance met his sister.

My thinking is that this was a national disaster. Some served like you; some went to Canada; others just went underground. A terrible mess. A lot of “casualties” that don’t get recorded anywhere. As a little L libertarian, I just shake my head at the hidden costs of that war, and the others. And, lives disrupted. John DuBois, my cousin Pete, yours, mine, … … all changed by … Johnson, McNamara, other politicians, and bureaucrats. As disasters go, terrible. And, what’s even more puzzling, maddening, frustrating … we didn’t learn squat from the bloody lesson. I read somewhere that the USA has been in 25 “wars” of various sizes since Viet Nam.

I’m sorry I didn’t know you were a WIA. I was just a rear echelon paper pusher. “Defending Maryland” at NSA. I think I did good work, but it wasn’t in the same league with you and the folks under fire. I’m glad you got out of the meat grinder alive. Well done.

I’m conflicted because, while the individuals and their stories are awesome, the strategic blunder that they all were sacrificed in is such … frustrated that I can’t find the right words for it … “wasteful” is the best I can come up with.

I hear the current set of commercials for Wounded Warrior. I combine that with the unfunded liabilities and with the national debt. And I know that once again the vets are pawns in today’s politics. That makes me mad.

Maybe the evaders and “Canadians” were right?

I don’t know.

But, back to the point, I was hoping that “we” could identify Prepsters on The Virtual Wall and make sure their story is recorded somewhere.

Argh,

 

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Can’t express the outrage I feel with all the politicians and bureaucrats that put “The Republic” and all those young girls and boys in harms way. “Chicken Hawks” are about the politest epithet I can level at them. If they’re so anxious to get in a shooting war with say Iran, then why aren’t they on the front lines. Or Shut The <synonym for the act of procreation> Up!

Argh!

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GOLD: Unfunded liabilities

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http://lewrockwell.com/spl3/gold-chart-walk-2012.html

Gold Chart Walk 2012
by Morris Hubbartt

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Unlimited government requires unlimited funding. The unfunded liabilities of the USA are staggering. Over the next 20-25 years there is probably a gigantic $75 trillion unfunded liability problem for the US government. Think of the move in gold against the dollar with a debt of $15 trillion. Can you imagine the action in gold with a debt five times the current size?

The United States could be headed towards decades of dollar devaluation. With all of the problems in Europe, why isn’t the euro hitting new lows? Why can’t the dollar mount a real rally, instead of this tiny bit of strength?

The answer is that the dollar isn’t really very strong at all. If America goes into a crisis like you’ve just seen in Europe, the fall in the dollar could dwarf the euro’s fall, because America is the largest debtor nation in the history of the world.

The nature of all fiat currencies is to be competitive, with each currency group looking for an advantage in trade, and more importantly, an advantage in debt relief for the governments that issue these currencies. Fiat currencies are designed to be depreciated over time. Buy Gold in this time of gold price weakness, because your opportunity won’t last forever.

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Regardless of how you feel about gold — the magic mineral, an obsolete anachronism, or something in between — this quote should strike fear into the heart on anyone who understands “real life”.

As if “unlimited government” was NOT scary enough, “unlimited funding” should be down right terrifying.

The national debt stands at 15T$ and growing every second.

Then you hit the guesstimate of 75T$ of unfunded liability, which should knock your socks off. It does mine.

How did “we” get in this mess? Even a crooked accountant, with two sets of books, has one that tells him the truth. Even Bernie Made-off knew he was “underwater”. We don’t even have ONE set that tells us the truth.

“Jobs created or saved”, “unemployment” stats that don’t account for the “99 week”-ers, and an inflation rate that doesn’t include food or fuel.

These are the statisticians that you’re looking to tell you “the truth”.

Can you even handle “the truth”?

“The truth” is that we’re going to be like Japan, the Soviet Union, and Zimbabwe all rolled into one.

As one of those war movies said: “Tell everyone to get small in their holes because trouble is coming.”

Argh!

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