SES Foundation

Steep Losses Pose Crisis for Pensions

Russ Steele

Our local government agencies have some tough decisions to make.

The financial crisis has blown a hole in the rosy forecasts of pension funds that cover teachers, police officers and other government employees, casting into doubt as never before whether these public systems will be able to keep their promises to future generations of retirees.

The upheaval on Wall Street has deluged public pension systems with losses that government officials and consultants increasingly say are insurmountable unless pension managers fundamentally rethink how they pay out benefits or make money or both.

Details in the Washington Post

You have Been Warned

Michael McDaniel Feb 13 2008

I received this quote from a friend which I thought would spur some comments/thoughts (I assume written by Mitt Romney):

" Most politicians don’t seem to understand the connection between our ability to compete and our national wealth, and the wealth of our families. They act as if money just happens–that it’s just there. But every dollar represents a good or service produced in the private sector. Depress the private sector and you depress the well-being of Americans.

That’s exactly what happens with high taxes, over-regulation, tort windfalls, mandates, and overfed, over-spending government. Did you see that today, government workers make more money than people who work in the private sector.

Can you imagine what happens to an economy where the best opportunities are for bureaucrats?"

M. Romney Feb 8,2008

Subprime Lenders

George Rebane

Today’s Union op-ed page cartoon by Fairrington, shown nearby, contains more than just another blast at unfettered capitalism. The implication is clear, the unscrupulous lending houses have offered loans with ridiculously low interest rates to suck in the ignorant of the land and fleece them with the inevitable rate raises which are the consequences of Adjustable Rate Mortgages (ARMs) that start at rates too good to believe. Presumably Fairrington is calling for some form of government protection for those unfortunates who bought those loans with no anticipation of or provision for their inevitable future rate increases.  Read the rest on my blog - Rebane's Ruminations - on the online Union site.

Polling Questions Boggle the Mind

George Rebane

The following was submitted as an item of public information to The Union of Nevada Country on 28 October 2006.

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We are peppered with polling results during normal times of the year, each being used by the journalist or pundit du jour to make some point and shape our beliefs.  During the election season news about polls becomes a deluge as various writers try to prognosticate the election.  This morning (28 October 2006) the venerable Wall Street Journal ran an article ‘Polls and Pundits: How Reliable Are Forecasts?’  In it was a graphic that contained the key question asked by the prestigious WSJ/NBC News Poll.  It reveals something disturbing which we the targeted public should consider before swallowing all these percentages and mood shifts reported to us.  The awkwardly worded key question and the interpreted answer are found below the pie charts. (Please click on image to enlarge)

This question totally confuses the notions of 1) the desirability of a Democratic majority in Congress, and 2) the likelihood (i.e. probability) of the Democrats winning congress in the upcoming election – two distinct ideas which can and should be addressed in separate, clearly written questions.  The results presented here depend on how we think the respondent understood the question.  But, of course, the unknown mix of understandings in the polled sample is not revealed in the answers’ summary statistics.  So what’s a body to do if this kind of lower division performance comes out of our best and brightest pollsters?  Or alternatively, how large of a grain of salt should we suck on as we digest published polling results?