If you’re not subscribed to the Pension Watch newsletter, you’re missing out on a lot of good information. The website www.pensiontsunami.com does a great job covering the issue of how the taxeaters continue to make a mess of things at the expense of the taxpayers.
Here is how the site describes itself:
“That approaching wave of pension debt is a lot bigger than it looks. The purpose of this site is to provide an overview of the multiple pension crises that are about to drown America’s taxpayers. Our primary focus is on California, but we also track other states, corporate pensions, social security and international trends.”
In today’s edition, three links are about the public pension fiasco here in Illinois. From Crain’s Chicago Business comes this headline:
The article opens with this:
As Illinois’ fiscal crisis deepens, the word “bankruptcy” is creeping more and more into the public discourse.
“We would like all the stakeholders of Illinois to recognize how close the state is to bankruptcy or insolvency,” says Laurence Msall, president of the Civic Federation, a fiscal watchdog in Chicago.
The article closes with this:
“All the obligations of the state, whether vested or not, will be competing for funding with the other essential responsibilities of state government. Even vested pension rights are jeopardized when a government is insolvent.”
From NBCChicago.com is this:
And from the article:
“Many foresee a governmental collapse in which vendors will stop bidding on contracts, investors will stop buying bonds and employees will be paid with IOUs, similar to what California has done.”
From Mish’s Global Economic Trend Analysis is this:
Illinois Careens Towards Bankruptcy; Governmental Collapse Coming
Mike “Mish” Shedlock, writes (emphasis added):
“Since I live in Illinois, I am bombarded with political ads. Not one of them, by any candidate, from either party mentions the pension crisis, let alone what to do with it. Instead we bombarded with finger pointing ads about the silliest of issues like who said what 10 years ago…
I hope whoever wins has enough courage to say ‘we are broke,’ stop paying all but emergency ongoing bills and toss those unfunded pension liabilities into court where they belong. Unions and politicians helped bankrupt Illinois thus unions and politicians should be the one taking the biggest hit.”
We report, you decide.
