Public Pensions and Social Security roundup, 29 Sept 2010

29Sep/100

Public Pensions and Social Security roundup, 29 Sept 2010

First, let's enjoy a round of public union kvetching:
University of California workers bitching over having to pay for their benefits; and more bitching here.

NJ unions pissed at Christie altering their deals -- unions: pray Christie does not alter them further. [actually, they will have to be altered further: See this 8-parter on CRAP by actuary John Bury: pt 1, part 2, part 3, part 4, part 5, part 6, part 7, part 8 -- if you read only one part, read the last where Bury sums up (each part is on a particular aspect of Christie's proposal):

Using my real-world numbers the shortfall is about $181 billion right now. Forget about 2041. By then there will either be no pensions or $181 billion won't buy you a cup of coffee. Let's be brutally honest.

And that's the real deal. There will not be enough in taxes to make up the shortfall in some states. Some people will not be getting their pensions. The unions had better wise up real fast, because the pensions Ponzi is going to devastate them. They had better adjust to reality if they want to survive at all.

In the category of "Isn't that conveeeeeenient", we have Andrew Cuomo's cousin trying to make investment deals with NY pension funds. The comment section on that story is a hoot. Someone brought up the HUD scandals, which I bet Cuomo has bet that noone would bring up. Hey Carl, maybe you'd like to remind voters of that one?

Oh, stuff is going on in France. Yeah, that socialist-given right to retire at age 60.... well, let us know how that works out for y'all. Mind you, the protest is against raising that age from 60 to the very very old age of..... 62.

Speaking of which, it seems the Academy's recommendation to raise the Social Security Normal Retirement Age has been given some space in the media. Yay, we actuaries!

But there will always be idiots. Hey, dude, do you want people to die earlier?.

Meep

Meep is a member of the Irish Catholic mafia, having a suspiciously high number of green-eyed, red-haired friends. While she doesn’t have red hair herself [except when she goes into the sun (rare for any vampire)], she does have green eyes. She’s a raving Papist and is a life actuary on the side [i.e., she counts dead people]. An amateur pain-in-the-ass [willing to go pro!], she likes covering retirement, mortality, math, and education issues.