US public pensions face a shortfall of $2 trillion that will force state and local governments to sell assets and make deep cuts to services, according to the former chairman of New Jersey’s pension fund.
“States face cost pressure, most prominently from retirement benefits and Medicaid [the health programme for the poor],” Orin Kramer told the Financial Times.
“One consequence is that asset sales and privatisation will pick up. The very unfortunate consequence is that various safety nets for the most vulnerable citizens will be cut back.”
Keep in mind that despite Kramer's dire forecast. state and local government bookkeeping is so opaque that no one knows how big the shortfall really is. It could be a multiple of what Kramer has forecast.
QE3 = Fed buying muni bonds
ReplyDeleteAwwwe, the taxtaker parasites are going to have some hardship...Awwwe. Their income was derived at gun-point with threats of burying civil people in a rape-cage...So drop dead.
ReplyDeleteI thought I heard in one of M.Whitney's interviews that she said that the most recent data on pension funding is from 2008, pre meltdown and that everything we have right now is based on estimates. I think she said that 2009 would be out in March of 11. I have read articles that the liability could be as high as $4T if proper accounting were done.
ReplyDeleteQuestion: Why is it when people quote the how much public debt we have they only include the Federal Debt. Wouldn't a more honest answer be the Federal Debt + Municipal Debt. Thus our total Debt before underfunded pension obligations would be $14T + $3T = $17T. At least when one does a debt to GDP calculation, it would be more accurate since it would now include all debt at all government levels.