CalSTRS/CalPERS
For decades, CalSTRS and CalPERS have been the crown jewel of pension plans with reputations of safe, sound money management. Page 10 of this Document cuts to the chase and sums up the current condition of these pension funds—as reported by the California State Controller’s Office.
Broken Promises – Time Magazine
As this Time Magazine reports, the problem of companies defaulting on pensioner payments and courts ruling in favor of companies to default has been a growing problem since the 2001 economic downturn. The 2008 downturn has spread the problem into the public/government sector. This article shows the heartbreaking consequences.
The Warning – PBS (Alan Greenspan)
On October 1, 1998, Alan Greenspan stated, “I know of no set of supervisory action we can take that would prevent people from making dumb mistakes. I know of no piece of legislation that can be passed by the Congress which would require us to prevent them from making dumb mistakes.” Now we Americans are suffering from Alan Greenspan’s, Wall Street’s, and Washington D.C.’s dumb mistakes and/or by their respective willful corruption and complete ineptness. It wasn’t until one decade later that Mr. Greenspan admits that his views on how the world works financially were flawed—therefore, his policies were also flawed, as were the mega-structures under his economic architectural administration—this would include investment, retirement, pension, and other structures. There is a reason why Americans are facing a retirement dilemma: Dumb Mistakes—but not by the masses, but instead by the establishment gurus and the politicians they buy to control what the masses and company owners can and cannot do—the vast majority of which benefits Wall Street and the top 5%.
