|
|||||
|
[Ed. Note: Once again we see the seeds being planted; When the financial system finally collapses it will all be blamed on 'cyber terrorism', which will also be another great excuse for yet another unconstitutional war.] from Reuters, via CNBC: A top Federal Reserve official warned on Tuesday of potential risks to financial stability from cyberattacks on the U.S. payments system and from a looming funding gap in public pensions. Lockhart is the latest in a [...] Fed’s Lockhart Sees Risk in Cybercrime, Underfunded Pensions from Money News: A top Federal Reserve official warned on Tuesday of potential risks to financial stability from cyberattacks on the U.S. payments system and from a looming funding gap in public pensions. In a speech to a conference in the German capital, the president of the Atlanta Federal Reserve, Dennis Lockhart, said that at a global level the span of vigilance needed to be [...] $5 Trillion Price Tag for Public Pensions (U.S.News & World Report) “As strapped state and local governments scramble for ways to balance their budgets, it’s become very clear that it will be impossible for many to honor their pension promises to new employees and even current retirees. According to a recent economic study, the cost to fully fund these promises would cost taxpayers $5 trillion over a 30-year period, or nearly $1,400 [...] Moments ago we saw the following amusing headline crossing the BBG: ILLINOIS TEACHERS’ PENSION FUND CUTS RATE OF RETURN TO 8% FROM 8.5% It’s amusing because these are the same teachers who were demanding, and received, higher pay – 17% higher over four years in fact – following a several day strike. It is even more amusing considering that in a fiscal year in which we saw QE2, Operation Twist 1 and 2, and [...]
* Public pensions have record assets in alternatives * Alternatives are high-risk and have high fees * Pensions still face high funding deficits * Alternatives viewed as better than stocks and bonds By Sam Forgione NEW YORK, Aug 16 (Reuters) – Faced with growing obligations and shrinking returns, many of the largest U.S. public pensions have raised their exposure to alternative investments to record levels this year, despite ongoing criticism of the risks and costs. Public [...] U.S. state and local-government pensions ended the 2012 fiscal year with a median gain of 1.15 percent as the European debt crisis and a slowing global economy damped stock returns, Wilshire Associates said. It was a reversal after two years of gains for the retirement funds, which have $2.8 trillion inassets, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. The performance, included in a report Wilshire is set to release today, may add to political [...] U.S. public pensions are $4.6 trillion short of the amount of assets needed to cover projected liabilities, an advocacy group said. That’s more than twice what Moody’s Investors Service estimated this month. The average plan is 41 percent funded, State Budget Solutions said in a report today. The Alexandria, Virginia, group’s partners include the American Legislative Exchange Council, which advocates “conservative public policy solutions,” the Freedom Foundation and the State Policy [...]
June 26 (Bloomberg) — Spain is poised for a downgrade to junk by Moody’s Investors Service, according to investors who sent the cost of default insurance for the nation’s biggest banks and companies close to record highs. Credit-default swaps on Banco Santander SA, the country’s biggest bank, jumped 23 percent this quarter to 454 basis points, compared with an all-time high of 474 in November. Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria SA rose 26 percent to 477, approaching [...] by Charles Hugh Smith from Of Two Minds That Which Is Unsustainable Will Go Away: Pensions Publicly funded pensions and Medicare are two examples of unsustainable systems that will go away in the decade ahead. Today we look at pensions, tomorrow we examine Medicare. One of the few things we know with certainty is that which is unsustainable will go away and be replaced by another more sustainable arrangement. Whether we like it or not, [...] 1. Public pensions are HEAVILY invested in the market. What would happen to local, state and federal budgets if the market were back at 6,000? Shattering. Just a few headlines: China Banks Postponing Losses Damages Confidence, S&P Says From Sovereign Man: Yesterday, we discussed certain events that, in my view, are nearly mathematical certainties. Things like a restructuring of public pensions and Social Security in Europe and the U.S. Western governments blocking Internet and mobile networks. War. The U.S. government being forced to issue debt in a foreign currency. All of these events are underpinned by a simple premise: 1) Public and private debts included, most western nations are insolvent. Big [...] From Sovereign Man:
New Year’s predictions are always a fun exercise. We can bet each other over the price of gold on December 31, 2012, or who will win the White House this year, or even make wild, black swan predictions. It’s like the Charades of thought experiments… good for laughs at a cocktail party, but ultimately meaningless. Serious personal and financial plans cannot be developed from mere conjecture– it takes significant [...] Mrs. Obama: Houston has a problem ReutersClose An upcoming Houston fundraiser featuring first lady Michelle Obama at the home of a former Enron executive who is part of a movement to convert public pensions to 401(k)-style plans is angering some local Democrats. John Arnold, a Houston billionaire and former Enron trader, is hosting the Michelle Obama event with his wife, Laura Arnold, at their Houston home on Nov. 1. Arnold is part of an organization pushing [...] From Chicagotribune: Most city workers spend decades in public service to build up modest pensions. But for former labor leader Dennis Gannon, the keys to securing a public pension were one day on the city payroll and some help from the Daley administration. And his city pension is more than modest. It’s the highest of any retired union leader: $158,000. That’s roughly five times greater than what [...] By Washington’s Blog Riots Worldwide From Economic Uncertainty While most mainstream news outlets are blaming the British riots on random thuggery, they are really an outgrowth of bad economic conditions and governments’ poor response to the financial crisis. As I’ve noted for years, raging inequality and policies which help the big boys at the expense of the “little people” are causing unrest – not just in [...] Governor Andrew Cuomo is tackling New York state’s spending by limiting public employee pensions and cutting almost 10,000 jobs. According to the New York Times, Cuomo says the state can no longer afford to provide the “generous” benefits given to public workers in the past. The governor also targets the rampant benefit padding where workers step up their overtime the final year of employment to beef up their [...] Madison – Many of those who take part-time government jobs in the future would not receive retirement benefits under a measure adopted Tuesday by the Legislature’s budget committee. The provision also would require newly hired full-time workers for state and local governments and schools to work longer before they could qualify for their full pensions. The Republican-led Joint Finance Committee adopted the changes on a 12-4 [...] Conventional wisdom and the laws and constitutions of many states have long held that the pensions being earned by current government workers are untouchable. But as the fiscal crisis has lingered, officials in strapped states from California to Illinois have begun to take a second look, to see whether there might be loopholes allowing them to cut the pension benefits of current employees. Now the [...] In San Diego, fire stations are suffering brownouts. Library hours have been cut by a quarter, youth programs reduced by half. There are fewer cops on the street but more potholes, and because trimming of the city’s 30,000 palm trees has been reduced, pedestrians face more risk of being knocked silly by a falling coconut. The city has budget problems, just like every other major American [...] by Saxlayer00o1, ZH 1) IEA Raises Oil Demand Forecast, OPEC Sees No Supply Shortage ““The inescapable conclusion from our market balances is that the physical market has tightened significantly,†the Paris-based IEA, an adviser to consuming nations, said today in its monthly Oil Market Report. ” 2) Bernanke warns against steep budget cuts “(Reuters) – Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke on Wednesday warned against sharp cuts in spending at a time when [...] 1) States Warned of $2 Trillion Pensions Shortfall (CNBC) “US public pensions face a shortfall of $2,500 billion 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.” 2) Philippine Bonds Decline as 20-Year Debt Sale Fails; Peso Falls “Philippine bonds dropped for a third day as the government failed to sell all [...] by Quantum Nucleonics 1. State and local government officials captive to the powerful employee unions promised ever larger benefits packages, that are now far and away the most generous retirement benefits in America. 2. Pension fund accounting rules allow governments and pension managers to set expected returns to whatever they liked. That’s why they appeared fully funded in the middle of the last decade. Were they required [...] by Saxplayer00o1 1) Euro has ‘one in five chance’ of collapse, warns CEBR “In a research paper published today, the Centre for Economics and Business Research (CEBR) claims that keeping “the euro alive will require cuts in living standards greater than the UK faced in the Second World War” for weaker eurozone members. “There is no modern history of falling living standards in peacetime on the scale necessary to [...] Via Pension Pulse. A generation ago, when Ronald Reagan was president, the accounting rule makers forced American companies to come clean on the cost of the pension plans they were promising to employees. That decision, perhaps more than any other, heralded the eventual demise of defined-benefit pensions for employees of American companies. Now something very similar may be in store for public [...] by InMyBestInterest USA government employees need a good dose of austerity. Worthless parasites! Super-sized pensions, and a doomsday scenario US Public Pensions Face Day of Reckoning Most U.S. Union Members Are Working for the Government, New Data Shows Are Government Workers Taking Private Taxpayers to the Cleaners? More federal workers’ pay tops $150,000 Private pay shrinks to historic lows by InMyBestInterest Super-sized pensions, and a doomsday scenario US Public Pensions Face Day of Reckoning Most U.S. Union Members Are Working for the Government, New Data Shows Are Government Workers Taking Private Taxpayers to the Cleaners? More federal workers’ pay tops $150,000 Private pay shrinks to historic lows by Saxplayer00o1 1) US Cities Face Half a Trillion Public Pension Deficits “Big US cities could be squeezed by unfunded public pensions as they and counties face a $574 billion funding gap, a study to be released on Tuesday shows. The gap at the municipal level would be in addition to $3,000 billion in unfunded liabilities already estimated for state-run pensions, according to research from the Kellogg School of [...] 1) City pension funds lose $17 million in second quarter (Pittsburgh) “Pittsburgh’s municipal pension funds lost $17 million in the stock market during the second quarter, leaving them with just 27.5 percent of what’s needed to cover their obligations. The city has four months — until Jan. 1 — to raise that number to 50 percent and avoid a state takeover of the funds, which were worth [...] Look at Public Pensions for example. They are funded 90-99% (depending on the state) by taxpayers and the yearly cost including the Fed pensions is now at 1 TRILLION in payouts…this is much more then we spend on Military and is about what SS and Medicare cost… This has never been a problem before b/c the system was set up in the 70s and very few were collecting yet 200 million [...] Calif (Reuters) – The board of Calpers, the biggest U.S. public pension fund, voted on Wednesday to ask California’s government for an additional $600 million in funding to bolster its finances. The vote by the board of the $202 billion California Public Employees’ Retirement System comes as Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and lawmakers face the arduous task of balancing the state government’s books, which requires closing a budget gap of more than [...] “Full-time workers in much of Europe typically take seven to eight weeks of vacation and holidays each year  that’s double the American average for full-time workers. Overall, the average private sector worker in the United States gets about nine paid vacation days and six paid holidays each year. Low-paid, part-time, or small-business workers typically get far fewer, sometimes none. The same holds for paid sick leave: Seventy-two percent of the [...] |
Custom Search
    |
||||
|
Copyright © 2013 InvestmentWatch - All Rights Reserved |
|||||
