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Please read my latest entry and post your comments here:
http://pensionpulse.blogspot.com/2010/05/bailing-out-union-pension-funds.html
Thank you,
Leo Kolivakis
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So the Union boys are corrupt "Who wouda thunk?" and the Wall Street boyz are corrupt - both feeding at the same trough. If there was anymore reason needed to believe that Reps and Dems are really the same corrupt outfit, except with different uniforms to confuse the sheeple better.
If that isn't enough to make your blood boil, take a gander at this:
http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/columns/special-editorial-repo...
It turns out that the pension funds for union officers are nearly all fully funded, while those for rank-and-file workers sink further under water. Don't let 'em tell you it's all due to naivete or bad markets, it's a conscious choice by the union leadership. They've got their priorities, and the future of their members ain't too high on that list.
Leo:
This makes me sick. Not only does the private employed taxpayer get the challenge of managing their own 401k in an environment of betting against the house, but when the house goes broke, we have to bail them out.
On the solar front......Has there been much written about the association of insane subsidies (spain, italy, germany) and its affect on govt debt and the distortion it has created in the solar industry? I am all for solar - however- if we blow our capital before it is prime time we will have no capital...I would rather we moved more slowly and sustainably. Shipping $6 of borrowed money from future generations with every dollar of panel is not any way to go through life.
Follow the trail folks. The sheep (union members) follow the shephard (the union), but who does the union follow? Where were the pension funds putting their money? What gains were they promised? What "gains" did they realize? Who got bailed out when these "gains" failed to materialize? This article is quoting 160 billion dollars in pension shortfall. What has the financial industry gotten so far? 2+ trillion? To fund what? Record bonuses and continued criminal fraud? How is this better than making pension funds whole so the working generation isn't saddled with their impoverished parents?
WAKE THE FUCK UP.
> "Tread carefully dear senator, tread very carefully. If you don't know what you're getting involved with, this bill is going to come back and bite you in the ass."
No it won't. It will come back to bite the American people in the ass, not Senator Casey. And that is the problem; these clowns in Washington can do whatever they want, take all the kickbacks they like, retire on a full pension, and then the citizens have to face the consequences down the line.
Who's going to bail out my 401K? Who's going to bail out my social security and Medicaid/Medicare? Who's going to take care of me when I am old after a lifetime of having my wealth stolen from me and given to others?
The unions bought the office for the guy. It is now payback time. IIRC, the SEIU alone contributed $85 million for the campaign. This article is somewhat about the teamsters, but do note that the largest number of union members are public employees.
Think we could get the 1/2 Trillion back of Medicare?..(:>
How about a bail out of the SS sytem..........
I KILL MYSELF!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!......Hahahahhahahahahahahaha.
What scumbuckets we have for SO called leadership...........hurl.
Leo,
Thanks for the article. Forwarding to my Senators with a follow up phone call to express my views on how they need to vote.
Mr. Hoffa, criminal like his father. Looks like he needs to meet the same fate as his father.
Y'know,it would be unacceptable for Pensions to bring the house down. From what I've picked up thru the cracks, there isn't enough in the pot to be worth unloeveraged money market returns. Look, how about putting the Pension money into the non state-owned Oil companies; displacing lots of the money in those companies into alternative-energy?
unfortunately the ones holding the purse strings are getting either snookered or paid off to blow the pension funds down the tubes with a wink wink that they will be saved by the tax payer like any other planned to fail racket in the past 10 years.
the logic being- 'well if it is going to fail anyway, and it is going to get bailed out, then let's steal a bunch out of it first'
anyone notice that Indiana teacher pension dropping money in failed banks as some sort of 'smart move' for the pension's future returns??
yeah - that'll end well
Leo,
Thanks for the article.. I guess I never realized how much the Unions have abused the tactics of privatizing gains and socializing losses... Doesn't this make it so much easier to create informational asymmetries between two opposing forces: labor and capital? Doesn't it makes it easier to divide ordinary workers into uninformed camps of politicized categories of: "it's not me, its you" beliefs that come with the tremendous loss of public and private wealth of the pension system?
Any suggested readings here, Leo?
Oh boy, you can read a book called Plunder, which came out last year. Not that great, but it gives you a flavor of abuses from unions. I do not take the stance that unions are inherently bad. Unions are needed to protect workers from abuse, but when I see unions abusing their power, it makes my blood boil. And in many instances, they do the exact opposite of what they claim to be doing - ie. protecting their members.
Is this Dean Baker's Book (Plunder?)
No, my apologies, it's Steve Greenhut's book, Plunder: How Public Employee Unions are Raiding Treasuries, Controlling Our Lives and Bankrupting the Nation. I found it way too biased, but still, some interesting parts in there.
Leo, what can you tell us about the mechanics of PBGC?
My understanding is, when they take over a pension system, there is a fairly complicated cap on the amount the individual pensioner can receive.
Also, a quick read indicates that its sources of funding are (from Wiki almighty):
"- Insurance premiums paid by sponsors of defined benefit pension plans
- Assets held by the pension plans it takes over;
- Recoveries of unfunded pension liabilities from plan sponsors' bankruptcy estates and
- Investment income. "
So, absent Casey's bill, there would be absolutely no taxpayer obligation to PBGC, is that correct?
Taxpayers are on the hook for PBGC too. Don't kid yourself. If they become massively underfunded, which is a real possibility, then they have to be bailed out. And yes, if the PBGC takes over a pension plan from an insolvent company, they do not cover the entire amount dollar for dollar. Go the the links on my blog to read more about PBGC.
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same old, same old corruption...
Obama down on one knee in front of Hoffa, Jr. saying, "What is thy bidding my master?"
Hoffa, Jr., "You will go to Congress and get the law changed to better protect the gold-plated pensions of my members at the expense of the U.S. taxpayer."
Hi, Leo. Read the post as you suggested. Interesting and worthy of some further thought and follow up. You have a nice list of other resources at the right side of the page. It would have been nice of you to post a bit of a teaser so that going to the site was more palatable. Sort of felt like I was being herded there. Independent minded ZHers are like that. All in all I will seek out your posts, but the day may come when I'm just too busy to do that 1/2 second delay in opening another tab.
A question or two for you: Where else (other sites) did you post the link to your website entry? Are there other places that you post references to your website? Have you considered taking a page from Reggie's playbook by posting your entire comment instead of just a link?
When time permits, I do post the enire post on ZH. I do not allow comments on my site (no time to police idiots), so when I post a link to my blog, I ask ZHers to post their comments here.
The problem I have is when copying and pasting long articles into ZH, I have to then edit each paragraph to make the appropriate spacing. There should be an easy upload from Blogger into Word press, but alas, there isn't.
To be honest, it's not a big deal going to my site to read a comment. One click away, and it gives you all the opportunity to scroll through numerous links I have taken the time to place at your fingertips. :)
Leo...anyway you can block certain epople from comenting on your postings?
"Please read my latest entry and post your comments here"
1-800-EAT-SHIT ( make that solar shit )
These union members get really touchy over their taxpayer-funded pensions.
TBTF get really pissy when Unions take crumbs off their welfare plate
El Hoser, you're a miserable excuse for a human being. All that pent up anger. Go see your shrinks and ask them to increase the dosage.
C'mon, Leo. He is already taking the maximum dose. What is making him made is the doctor prescribed that he take it rectally, and, well, a suppository the size of a goose egg just kind of hurts, until he gets used to it.
on Sun, 12/13/2009 - 09:46
#161969
And who the hell are you? Another pension pussy or dimwhit invesment banker with his head up his ass?El Hosel:
I am a total outsider but IMO, the article seems to be fact based.
Instead of an impudent(or maybe I should say "impotent") rant, why not address, item by item, the errors that you find in the post.
IMO,nobody is going to pay attention to the comment as it is posted. You know that you can edit your posts.
Neither, I got NO agenda and NO conflicts of interest. I call it like I see it. Now do me a favor, go away and fart somewhere else. You're stinking up ZH.
Pay attention Leo, Those are your words not mine.
I told you months ago your solars were going to get cut in half, you started slinging "your" insults, anger, and ridicule. You have Zero Credibility, start your own blog.... ZC
You need to lighten up. A lot of people like ribbing Leo, but you are taking this too far. Go back to Yahoo news & post there.
Dude, you don't get it. I love it when solars get whacked hard: I KEEP ADDING MORE TO MY POSITIONS!!!