POWIP Piece of Work In Progress – Former Abode of Dan Collins

Pension and State Finance roundup, 19June2010

• Searchable database of NY pensions [can also find general payroll info elsewhere on the site] -- I recommend searching on year 2009 for info, not all info for 2010 is in there yet.
• Mortality of the ancient Romans - if one survived childhood [disease, mistreatment] and young adulthood [military service for men, childbirth for women], life wasn't necessarily short. Of course, most didn't make it to 30.
• Betting against state finances - it's the hot market tip! Except it's no secret....
• The asset return assumption is really about who pays for the pensions: the higher the assumption, the more it's future generations who will pay
• GASB kinda sorta changes the public pension accounting rules, but if states/municipalities promises that they reaaaally truly intend to fund their pensions properly.... dear lord, this is just wasting time. You get to use the old rules if you promise to behave? Or else what? People will go "nyah nyah"?
• Surprise! Blago trial involves pension obligation bonds -- gee whiz, why wouldn't I want public servants to have a big pot of money to play with? I'm sure if they promise reeaaaaaaally truly to abide by their fiduciary duties.... ugh.
• POBs are money-losers anyway, even without that extra dollop of corruption for the full flavor of public pension failure.

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.