Pensions in the time of a pandemic

By Larry Sand
05/05/2020
Willfully blind to the reality of the fiscal impact of Covid-19, the teachers union is demanding billions from the already beleaguered American taxpayer. Long after the coronavirus fades into history, there will be many lingering effects. And high on that list very well may be the toll on public employee pensions and the beleaguered taxpayers...

TAGS: 401K, defined benefit, EdChoice, Larry Sand, National Education Association, teachers union

To Save Defined Benefit, Unions Need to Accept Investment Realities

By Matthew Vadum
04/23/2015
Editor’s Note: The president of the California Professional Firefighters union, Lou Paulson, has criticized Mayor Chuck Reed’s pension reform, stating “His idea of pension reform is, you sign up for one pension system, we’re going to change it now in mid career, and now you’re going to get something different.” But Paulson, and anyone who thinks...

TAGS: defined benefit

Why Middle Class Private Sector Workers Are NOT “Ripping Off the Next Generation”

By Edward Ring
12/17/2013
A few months ago we published an editorial entitled “Social Security is Healthy Compared to Public Sector Pensions.” The highlights offer compelling evidence of two very distinct categories of “middle class workers” in America: “According to the U.S. Census Bureau, in 2030, when Social Security will be supposedly approaching insolvency, there will be 99.4 million citizens...

TAGS: defined benefit, defined contribution

Union Controlled Illinois Politicians Consider Tax Increases to Fund Pensions

By Mike Shedlock
10/30/2013
Editor’s Note:  This post by regular UnionWatch contributor Mike Shedlock documents the latest bad news for the Illinois Teachers Retirement System. And of course, union-controlled Illinois politicians have a solution: More taxes in one of the most overtaxed states in America. Like many if not most pension reformers, Shedlock advocates a scrapping of defined benefit...

TAGS: Adjustable Defined Benefit, defined benefit, defined contribution

Saving Pensions Will Require Unions To Face Reality

By Edward Ring
08/27/2013
“Not surprisingly, within moments of news of Detroit’s bankruptcy, pension scare mongers took to their pedestals to place all the blame on pensions. California, Los Angeles, and other governments would surely follow Detroit’s footsteps in short order, they cried. It’s simply not true, like most of the claims made by the anti-pension soldiers who have...

TAGS: 401K, AFSCME, defined benefit, defined contribution, Detroit bankruptcy, Public sector pensions, public sector unions