After originally suppressing the release of ‘Financial Economics Principles Applied to Public Pension Plans’ and disbanding the task force that developed it, the actuarial establishment has relented, but with a consumer warning:
Now that you have been cautioned, the paper is here. More on Monday.
Posted by skip3house on September 9, 2016 at 2:01 pm
Why can’t Actuaries agree on what 2 + 3 adds up to?
Posted by Anonymous on September 9, 2016 at 2:20 pm
Why indeed but doesn’t that sum up life in general?
Posted by skip3house on September 9, 2016 at 2:26 pm
Math has no nuances if you accept a curve is straight if made impossibly short
Posted by Ken Churchill on September 12, 2016 at 6:02 pm
If you ask a public sector actuary what 2 + 3 is the answer they will give you is; What do you want it to be?
Posted by George on September 10, 2016 at 9:25 am
Search on ‘Financial Economics Principles Applied to Public Pension Plans’, not too many google hits, in fact maybe no google hits under news.
In other non news:
The Chilcott inquiry has finally been published, Tony Blair is not awaiting execution in the Tower of London. There is a movie out the Killing$ of Tony Blair, but that’s it.
A respected scientific journal claims that the airplane strikes cannot explain the collapse of any of the Word Trade Center buildings.
http://www.europhysicsnews.org/articles/epn/pdf/2016/04/epn2016474p21.pdf
Europhysics News appears not to be a bunch of kooks:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Physical_Society
http://www.epj.org/
So don’t get your hopes up to high about your SOA report.
Posted by Second Financial Economics Paper Out | Burypensions Blog on September 12, 2016 at 11:31 am
[…] « Financial Economics Paper Out […]
Posted by talltalk on September 12, 2016 at 3:31 pm
what will all the actuaries do for those rich salaries, if defined benefit plans go the way of the dinosaur????
Posted by TB on September 13, 2016 at 3:36 pm
More and more people are beginning to realize that Defined Benefit plans like public pensions are not sustainable, including the private sector which has more or less done away with them. Here is my solution to this looming crisis that is only going to get worse without any correction of course:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B90sU3A85q46OE9BZHJFSWEzbGM/view?usp=drivesdk
Please help spread the word…
Posted by Anonymous on September 14, 2016 at 6:44 pm
The genius knows how to cut and paste, spread the word.
Posted by Anonymous on September 14, 2016 at 7:00 pm
Why disparage, do you have any suggestions on how to stabilize public pensions so that those people who are counting on them (maybe you are one) will not be devastated when the funds go bankrupt? Are you familiar with the Teamsters Central States Pension collapse in the private sector that is happening NOW? Unless something is done, this will start occurring in the public pension world as well – it’s a math problem!
BTW – I’m the author.
Posted by Anonymous on September 14, 2016 at 7:04 pm
Appreciate you shallow disconcerning commentary, BTW never heard of you or your works but keep it up whatever it is.
Posted by Anonymous on September 14, 2016 at 7:16 pm
Thank you – I hope it helps save your pension as well.
Posted by Anonymous on September 14, 2016 at 7:43 pm
Your welcome and likewise for current and future taxpayers. Unless there’s clawbacks against prior taxpayers alleged to have benefited from these services.
Posted by S Moderation Douglas on September 15, 2016 at 12:57 am
The author should recheck his facts. Government workers are at least fifteen percent of the workforce, and that doesn’t include contract workers. No way federal workers make 78% more than private workers. If a pension continues to a surviving spouse it is because the base pension was actuarially reduced to compensate. The “overly generous pensions” are a tradeoff for verifiable lower average salaries. To a large extent, “Intergenerational theft” is simply because governments didn’t pay the bills.
Mary Pat Campbell:
24 February 2016, 22:00
I’ll give it away at the beginning: they’re in trouble because they’re not making the “required” contributions to the pensions.
Yes, there are all sorts of other reasons as well, such as spiking, early retirements, sluggish payroll growth, optimistic valuation assumptions, etc.
But ultimately the reason the pensions are so little funded is because the state didn’t put in enough funds.
And they knew it.
They knew it for years.
It’s not because of investment fees, though those should be more transparent. It’s not because of part-time board directors who get a lifetime pension for very little work, though that doesn’t help. (I’ll address why these aren’t significant problems in a later post.)
DON’T PAY THE BILLS, THE DEBT GETS LARGER
Posted by Anonymous on September 15, 2016 at 9:30 am
SMD say it ain’t so, the anti-publics can’t handle the truth.
Posted by Anonymous on September 15, 2016 at 8:38 pm
Here is the TRUTH: http://www.cato.org/blog/federal-government-pay-exceeds-most-industries
What’s your source?
Posted by Anonymous on September 15, 2016 at 9:50 pm
Guess your attention span is too short. While SMD didn’t post a link he referenced individual source information. Like I said keep up the good work and remember there’s always two sides to every story but the truth usually is somewhere in between.