Tag Archives: liabilities

Teamsters’ Pension Plans Seek Massive Cuts to Retirees to Stay Solvent

Tuesday, 03 January 2017 06:54

This article appeared online at TheNewAmerican.com on Monday, January 2, 2017:

The Central States Teamsters pension plan, covering more than 400,000 participants, expects to receive permission shortly from the Treasury Department to cut benefits to those participants, possibly by as much as 30 percent. At the end of 2014 the plan had $35 billion in liabilities (future promises to participants as they retire) compared to less than $18 billion on hand to pay them.

Right behind Central States was the New York State Teamsters Conference Pension and Retirement Fund, which is also in trouble. Owing nearly $3 billion to its 35,000 plan participants, it has less than $1.3 billion to meet this obligation. Its plan, in its request to the Treasury Department, spelled out just how great the cuts would be:

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Boomers Are Retiring, Draining Pension Plans

Wednesday, 14 December 2016 07:27

This article appeared online at TheNewAmerican.com on Monday, December 12, 2016:

Roosevelt Signs The : President Roosevelt sign...

President Roosevelt signs Social Security Act, at approximately 3:30 pm EST on 14 August 1935.

In a moment of surprising candor, Danielle DiMartino Booth, a former advisor to the Federal Reserve, said in a Real Vision TV interview on Saturday that “the Baby Boomers are no longer an actuarial theory. They’re a reality. The checks [from their retirement plans] are being written.”

For years commentators have repeatedly asserted that “when” the Baby Boomers (that generation born between 1946 and 1964) start to retire, they will start using up funds set aside in pension plans, putting those plans into crisis. According to Booth, that day has arrived.

She pointed to the crisis in Dallas that threatens to put the city into bankruptcy, and the report from Calpers (the California Public Employees Retirement System),

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UPDATE: Dallas Pension Plan Stops Early Withdrawals

Monday, 12 December 2016 06:44

This article appeared online at TheNewAmerican.com on Friday, December 9, 2016:

On November 21, The New American published an article entitled “Dallas to Declare Bankruptcy?” suggesting that the Dallas Police and Fire Pension System was in such poor shape that Dallas was looking more and more like Detroit.

It was pointed out that Moody’s declared that Dallas has higher unfunded pension liabilities, relative to its balance sheet, than any major American city except Detroit. The article noted that the plans’ present troubles dated back to a 1993 decision to offer a “retention perk” to keep officers considering retirement to stay on for a few more years.

That “perk,” referred to as DROP — Deferred Retirement Option Plan — allowed those agreeing to stay on to

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Chicago’s Influence in Washington, D.C., Likely to End on January 20

Thursday, 08 December 2016 06:43

This article appeared online at TheNewAmerican.com on Wednesday, December 7, 2016:

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Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel (shown) told reporters last week that there is a check waiting for him from Washington D.C.: “Literally, in Washington, there’s a check with Chicago’s name on it. Over 50 percent of the resources are going to come from Washington, and I don’t want to miss an opportunity.”

In the present case, Emanuel is referring to grant money his city is requesting to renovate mass-transit lines in the amount of $1.1 billion. In a larger sense Emanuel is referring to the river of political influence his city has poured into the Obama administration in exchange for such financial favors.

He’d better get that check soon because that river is about to dry up, and he might just miss that “opportunity.”

That river of corruption dates back decades, from the days of Al Capone

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Illinois Governor Vetoes Chicago Bailout Bill

Tuesday, 06 December 2016 06:40

This article appeared online at TheNewAmerican.com on Monday, December 5, 2016:

Illinois Governor Bruce Rauner vetoed a bill on December 1 that would have provided a $215 million bailout of the Chicago public schools. So certain were school officials that he would sign it — allowing them to make a past-due payment to the Chicago Teachers’ Pension Fund — that they made it a part of their budget for next year.

The original bill passed by Democrat supermajorities in both houses was for $700 million, but during negotiations Rauner, a Republican, agreed to $215 million instead, in exchange for a promise that the Democrats would institute real pension reform. Once the bill hit Rauner’s desk, however, all deals were off: Give us the money, said the Democrats, and forget pension reform.

Rauner’s veto message is instructive in several regards.

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Chicago Dreaming

Tuesday, 06 December 2016 06:18

This article was published by The McAlvany Intelligence Advisor on Monday, December 5, 2016:

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Chicago Public School Officials were so sure that they would get another bailout from the state that they actually put it into next year’s budget. The city is behind on making a $730 million pension payment due its teachers’ pension plan, and the $215 million they were expecting from the state would allow them to make it.

The bill that passed the state senate unanimously and the house overwhelmingly was headed for Governor Bruce Rauner’s desk for signing until Rauner (pictured) learned that the Democratic leadership had no intention of keeping their promise to institute significant pension reform in order to get the bailout.

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Dallas to Declare Bankruptcy?

Tuesday, 22 November 2016 06:18

This article appeared online at TheNewAmerican.com on Monday, November 21, 2016:

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The New York Times just reported that the Dallas police and firefighters pension plan is $7 billion short of meeting its obligations and needs an immediate bailout of $1 billion just to stay afloat. The problem is that Dallas’ annual budget is $3 billion.

Three years ago Dallas wasn’t on anyone’s “watch” list.

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Social Security to Announce Tiny Increase in Benefits for Next Year

Tuesday, 11 October 2016 13:33

This article appeared online at TheNewAmerican.com on Tuesday, October 11, 2016:

Next Tuesday the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) will announce Social Security’s COLA (Cost of Living Adjustment) for 2017. It is widely anticipated to be between nothing and $3 a month for the average beneficiary.

But Medicare premiums (retirees are often expected to pay a monthly fee for coverage) for seniors receiving Social Security retirement benefits are expected to jump nearly $30 a month. That premium increase would reduce the average retirement benefit by about $25 a month, except that Congress had inserted a “hold harmless” provision into Medicare law. Instead, the premium increase will be funded by Medicare, thereby hastening the day when that part of Social Security runs out of money.

The statistics reflective of the current gradual liquidation of Social Security’s so-called Trust Fund are familiar to most recipients:

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Vulture Funds Expecting to Profit Handsomely from Puerto Rico’s Problems

Monday, 29 August 2016 15:26

This article was published by The McAlvany Intelligence Advisor on Monday, August 29, 2016:

English: Map of Peuto Rico, with inset showing...

Map of Peuto Rico, with inset showing it’s position in relation to American continents.

George W. Plunkitt was not the world’s first dishonest politician, but he might have been one of the first ones to be honest about his dishonesty. Plunkitt was a Tammany Hall pol who served in the New York State Assembly and then in the New York State Senate around the turn of the 20^th century. He called what he did – and what made him wealthy – “honest graft.” He defined “dishonest graft” as efforts to work solely for his own interests. “Honest graft,” on the other hand, was graft that worked for the interests of his own party.

He made his money by

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California’s Pension Plans Report Dismal Results, Increasing Shortfalls

Thursday, 21 July 2016 05:26

This article appeared online at TheNewAmerican.com on Wednesday, July 20, 2016:

Ted Eliopoulos, the chief investment officer of the country’s largest pension plan, the California Public Employees Retirement System (CalPERS), did the best he could with the bad news: “Positive performance in a year of turbulent financial markets is an accomplishment that we are proud of.” That “positive performance” was a measly 0.61-percent return from July 1, 2015 through June 30, 2016, on his $300 billion pension plan. That means that the fund is now about $100 billion short of meeting its future obligations.

But that $100 billion number greatly understates the real liability because it’s based on a pixie-dust assumption that the plan can earn an average

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Chicagoans Hit With Massive Tax Increases Over July 4 Weekend

Tuesday, 12 July 2016 05:53

This article appeared online at TheNewAmerican.com on Monday, July 11, 2016:

The second installment of property taxes due from Chicagoans hit their mailboxes over Independence Day weekend, thus proving the adage that “if one didn’t like taxes without representation, he certainly won’t like taxes with representation.”

William Phillips of Rogers Park (one of 77 communities on the far north side of Chicago) was almost first in line at the assessor’s office on Tuesday, hoping to complain to someone about his bill. “Our taxes increased fivefold,” he stated. “I was expecting [them] to go up maybe twice as much but not four to five times as much.”

Right behind him was Cornes King of Chatham, who told ABC7 News:

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Day of Reckoning for Chicago Taxpayers

Tuesday, 12 July 2016 05:43

This article was published by The McAlvany Intelligence Advisor on Monday, July 11, 2016:

Chicago landsat image

Chicago landsat image

Chicago just experienced a great irony. Its bill for past extravagances run up by its corrupt politicians arrived over the July 4^th weekend. It was of course then that Americans were celebrating Independence from British politicians seeking to impose taxes without representation.

With representation, Chicago taxpayers have allowed themselves to be saddled with taxes far exceeding those that triggered the American Revolution. The trouble is that the realization just hit home over that weekend.

The second half of 2016 property taxes was due on July 1^st, and on Tuesday unhappy taxpayers were lined up outside the tax assessor’s door to complain. It was a little late. About two decades late.

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Illinois Governor Vetoes Plan to Reduce Chicago’s Pension Contributions

Tuesday, 31 May 2016 05:59

This article appeared online at TheNewAmerican.com on Monday, May 30, 2016:

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Chicago’s pension contributions to its four dreadfully underfunded pension plans were supposed to double this year to $1.1 billion, up from $478 billion in 2015. But state legislators passed a bill (which had been bottled up for nearly a year) to cut that back to under $900 million. On Friday Illinois Governor Bruce Rauner (above) vetoed the bill, expressing in no uncertain terms that he was tired of politicians kicking the can down the road:

By deferring responsible funding decisions until 2021 and then extending the timeline for reaching responsible funding levels from 2040 to 2055, Chicago is borrowing against its taxpayers to the tune of $18.6 billion.

This practice has got to stop. If we continue, we’ve learned nothing from our past mistakes.

Those past “mistakes” have got Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel in a pickle.

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Meet Michael Madigan, AKA “the Real Governor of Illinois”

Tuesday, 31 May 2016 05:51

This article was published by The McAlvany Intelligence Advisor on Monday, May 30, 2016:

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Little happens legislatively in Illinois without the approval or acquiescence of House Speaker Michael Madigan (shaking hands with another corruptocrat, above). A Chicago pol, he has been speaker for 31 out of the last 33 years. When a bill arrives, it is shunted immediately to his Rules Committee, run by his second-in-command, Rep. Barbara Flynn Currie, also from Chicago, also a Democrat who was appointed Majority Leader of the House by Madigan.

If a bill ever sees the light of day (most don’t) it then is assigned to one of 50 committees, each of them chaired by a Madigan selectee.

A present example is SB 777, which

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Are Federal Bailouts of States’ Pension Plans Inevitable?

Wednesday, 13 April 2016 16:20

This article was published by The McAlvany Intelligence Advisor on Wednesday, April 13, 2016:

English: Devin Nunes, U.S. Representative from California (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

California Representative Devin Nunes, a middle-of-the-road Republican from the state’s 22^ndDistrict with a middling voting record (a Freedom Index rating of just 53), got something right: he sees the coming implosion of underfunded pension and health care plans across the country, and offered a bill to do something about it: force the states and the pension managers to tell the truth about the numbers:

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States’ Pension, Health Plans Increasingly Vastly Underfunded

Tuesday, 12 April 2016 09:31

This article appeared online at TheNewAmerican.com on Monday, April 11, 2016:

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The numbers being reported by pension fund managers are so out of touch with reality that Representative Devin Nunes (R-Calif.) has proposed legislation to correct them. Said Nunes: “It has been clear for years that many cities and states are critically underfunding their pension programs and hiding the fiscal holes with accounting tricks. When these pension funds go insolvent, they will create problems so disastrous that the fund officials assume the federal government will have to bail them out.”

According to Joshua Rauh, a senior fellow at the Hoover Institute, the amount of underfunding is

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New Law Threatens to Revoke Al Sharpton’s Passport for Unpaid Taxes

Wednesday, 23 December 2015 06:30

This article appeared online at TheNewAmerican.com on Tuesday, December 23, 2015:

Al Sharpton by David Shankbone

Al Sharpton by David Shankbone (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Buried in the highway spending bill just signed into law on December 4 by President Obama is this provision: “If the Secretary [of the United States Department of Transportation] receives certification by the Commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service that an individual has a seriously delinquent tax debt, the Secretary shall transmit such certification to the Secretary of State for action with respect to denial, revocation or limitation of a passport.”

It clarifies just what “seriously delinquent” means:

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The US Welfare State is One Gigantic Underfunded Pension Plan

Wednesday, 09 September 2015 04:51

This article was published by The McAlvany Intelligence Advisor on Monday, September 7, 2015:

View image | gettyimages.com

Think of it this way: a pension plan is a system or program whereby promises are made to beneficiaries based upon contributions made to the plan by those beneficiaries and by the plan sponsor, either a local or state government or a private entity, company, or corporation. The assumptions are that the monies will be invested carefully, prudently, and wisely until they are needed. For those services the plan sponsors take a fee.

A welfare state is

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Public Pension Plans Cut Rate of Return Targets; Still Not Enough

Tuesday, 08 September 2015 04:49

This article appeared online at TheNewAmerican.com on Monday, September 7, 2015:

View image | gettyimages.com

Twenty million pension plan beneficiaries have just been warned: You won’t be getting what you have been promised when you retire. Part of the reason is that pension managers have been far too optimistic in estimating what they are able to earn on your money. And part of the reason is that they continue to remain so.

In its analysis of 126 public pension plans, the National Association of State Retirement Administrators (NASRA) noted that more than two-thirds of them have reduced their estimates, however slightly, since 2008, while 39 of them are still stuck

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Social Security Disability Trust Fund Could Be Depleted by Late 2016

Friday, 24 July 2015 09:45

This article appeared online at TheNewAmerican.com on Thursday, July 23, 2015:

View image | gettyimages.com

Every year the language of the trustees of the Social Security system becomes more strident, and every year the managers of the program kick the can further down the road. In its report issued on Wednesday, the Social Security and Medicare Board of Trustees stated that “Social Security’s Disability Insurance (DI) Trust Fund now faces an urgent threat of reserve depletion, requiring prompt corrective action by lawmakers if sudden reductions or interruptions in benefit payments are to be avoided.” The report noted:

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