…state politicians are now calling on local pension funds to make “socially responsible investments” in local businesses and other community endeavours.
…state politicians are now calling on local pension funds to make “socially responsible investments” in local businesses and other community endeavours.
I think politicians and bureaucrats believe that they have knowledge that has eluded the best financial/investment minds through the centuries…the ability to pick winners 100% of the time.
No slippery slope there……
Got gold that no one else knows about? Good idea.
Public Service pension funds? What Public Service pension funds? These have been quietly allocated to dissolving government debt when the SHTF. I have to laugh at the arrogance, trust and smugness snivel servants have in their so called pension security. PS Pension funds will be the first thing thrown to the credit wolves who will ravage insolvent governments.
Well, if they could guarantee there would be no top ups if the investment goes wrong I think every single dollar of public servants should be invested.
The problem is these are all defined benefit plans, so any shortfall is made up by the employer (i.e. the taxpayer)
Time to end defined benefit plans. They should be illegal for any employer, especially public service, to offer anyone. I can think of one exception and that would be armed forces personel. You work there the country owes you a payment for life.
Anyone else, including cops and firefighters. Defined contribution only. Manage your own affairs. The state should not have a trailer to you. MP’s in particular should be suject to this very provision.
Most USA government pension plans are underfunded and have ROI estimates in the 8 to 8.5% range. Returns like this are needed to make their ‘numbers’ work as far as having sufficent resources to meet drawdowns.
Most responsible investment managers are suggesting a 4 to 4.5% is more realistic expection over the next 5 years. Considering inflation’s real number is probably in the order of 8% purchasing power will drop.
Out of curiosity I checked CPP’s ROI estimates expecting 8%. I was pleasantly surprised to find a conservative estimate of 4%.
You mean like the Obama administration’s investment in Solyndra, or the newly defunct battery manufacturer? In a just world, this thinly disguised looting of the Treasury by politically connected people would be paid back by them standing in front of firing squads.
One could start with former Senator Corzine.
Yeah remember Californica’s pols demanding pensions divest stock in firearms manufacturers. Currently the only booming industry….
Pension funds investing in Solydra’s is not just moronic but criminal.
“…Got gold that no one else knows about? Good idea.”
Posted by: The Grey Lady
Make sure your portfolio is diversified. Also invest in a more lead/copper composites than you think you will need.
And here’s another good idea…
Let’s pressure financial companies to make loans to disadvantaged groups, even when such loans do not meet normal lending requirements.
Never learn.
Excellent idea in Ontario! Liberals made teachers so wealthy the whole stock market moves when they play with their billions. Let’s get ‘consensus’ in Ontario to take their money and ‘invest’ it in all the windmills that are coming online, that way our electricity prices won’t have to double over the next 3 years and teachers can feel double plus good about themselves because they’ll believe they’re saving the environment! It’s a win-win!
I think that that is what happened to CUPE’s pension fund.
Fortunately, leftists are greedy, and that limits their enthusiasm for socially correct investment.
Governments who hit a debt servicing/expenditure wall regarding unfunded public pension schemes, and yes an unfunded pension liability is a scheme, face a dilemma.
Either they take from existing general revenue and reduce services to the voting public, they raise taxes to the existing voting public without providing or increasing a benefit or they reduce the pensions to the level to they are funded.
Guess which option is more likely to get them re-elected?
So if your pension plan invested, over the Obama terms, in firearms industries rather than solar photovotaics, well, you’ll have to live with that choice or should I say, you’ll have to live on the earnings of that choice. 🙂
Great IDEA ….they could be as successful as The Crocus Fund!!! …. oh …. hang on.
The thieves in government here have apparently been made aware of how things
are done in Argentina and think it is now high time they got in on similar action.
Stephen “Time to end defined benefit plans. They should be illegal for any employer, especially public service, to offer anyone. I can think of one exception and that would be armed forces personnel. You work there the country owes you a payment for life.”
Defined contribution, paid in cash, with strict limits on investments to ensure the value remains.
Screw the armed forces. I’ve done office work all my life and I’m on multiple medications to keep the blood pumping and the stress hasn’t helped my mental state a bunch. The few years I spent in the Cold War Army was like Boy Scout camp for grownups. We got to shoot things, blow up things, drink to excess, and have a hell of a time.
I can see the stress of war permanently affecting people but most of our soldiers have never seen a war and half of those that did were sucking back Timmies, never stepping out from behind the wire. I’ve seen what one could label PTSD from pretty much any job. Productive people suddenly lose the will to work through one reason or another. What they lack is a handy excuse.
You nailed it, Scar my man.
Face it, the closest the average armed forces member gets to actual combat is training exercises.
For those that do make it combat, they are there by their own choice – fully aware of the trials and tribulations.
You don’t like the terms of service – don’t sign on.
I remember when politicians and bureaucrats would waste taxpayer money and even the proponents would call it spending. Now they have the arrogance to describe it as investing.
Rather than invest money in the economic Titanic, one would be better off to just get a lobotomy. Then at least you would be mentally equal to the politicians advocating investments in public pension plans , the green industry or socially responsible fairy dust. Look at the bottom line in red. Any bets when this ship hits the rocks and sinks ?
http://www.usdebtclock.org/index.html
Start thinking no taxable income
Scar
Yeah, I have encountered quite a number of “Vets” whose service experience was getting drunk in Germany. I also met a few USMC types who got asigned “to the fleet”…..no leeches, snakes or toe-poppers….
I also heard of a guy who got a Purple Heart from busting his leg tripping over a mop, during TET in Saigon….
I suggest you perhaps, mustered into the wrong army….from what I heard, our R&R tours to the Philopines and Bangkok were a lot more fun….the rest…well that goes with the territory…
Nobody smart ever said that life was fair….
I think that ALL public pensions are already deep in the Craper. They are now trying to make a post-mortem decision to invest & cover the loss. The supporters of AGW included a list of most Public Unions pension plans. Big Al won, they lost
In AZ the AGW folks got School Boards to invest in Solar & Wind, the politicians are mute (silent). We don’t have Journalistic decency anymore
BTW: I agree with Scar, time to dump all pensions
Unfortunately for Spain but perhaps fortunately for the rest of us, the Spanish pension system is setting itself up for a spectacular collapse:
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-01-03/spain-plunders-90-social-security-fund-buy-its-own-debt
“Spanish officials defend the heavy investment of the Social Security Reserve Fund in their government’s high-risk bonds. They say the practice is sustainable as long as Spain can continue borrowing in financial markets, and they predict the economy will start to recover late in 2013, easing the debt crisis.”
Suppose, though, that the economy doesn’t recover? Or that investor confidence is torpedoed by financial scandals, or that budget deficits in the Eurozone spook them, or that Greece has to leave the Euro? Any such recovery would be derailed.
Suppose Spain were to default and then have to support an aging population by fully funding their social programs and the entire pension system with taxes. The taxes would be so high that most people with money or talent could end up leaving.
What then? In 5 or 10 years, will there be teary global telethons to support the destitute Spanish elderly?
With such a stunning example of the consequences, perhaps other nations will be dissuaded from taking the same path.
Let’s hope this doesn’t happen, for all our sakes. But it’s hard to expect a different outcome, when such stupidity wins the day.