FOR PUBLICATION: Ed Ring Response to CalPERS' disastrous 2015-16 earnings report

By Will Swaim

07/18/2016

For Immediate Publication July 18, 2016 California Policy Center Contact: Will Swaim Will@CalPolicyCenter.org (714) 573-2231 Latest earnings report is more evidence California retirement agency will reform or die By Ed Ring | California Policy Center The officials who run California’s public-employee retirement system should have released today’s earnings report with sound effects – a flugelhorn, maybe,...

TAGS: CalPERS, pension funds

Public Safety Unions and the Financial Apocalypse

By Edward Ring

05/17/2016

Imagine for a moment that two premises are beyond serious debate: (1) That there will be another financial crisis within the next five years that will equal or exceed the severity of the one experienced in 2009, and (2) That the political power of public safety unions will prevent local governments from enacting pension reforms...

TAGS: pension funds, pension reform, public employee pensions, public safety unions

Aggregate U.S. Pension Data Shows Grim Outlook

By Mike Shedlock

08/31/2015

Editor’s Note: This analysis by economics blogger Mike Shedlock clearly shows why government employee pensions are taking an awful risk by continuing to forecast annual investment returns of 7.0% or more per year. In his first chart Shedlock points out how between 2008 and 2014 the aggregate value of state and local government worker pension...

TAGS: pension fund insolvency, pension funds

Desalination Plants vs. Bullet Trains and Pensions

By Edward Ring

04/07/2015

Current policy solutions enacted to address California’s water crisis provide an object lesson in how corruption masquerading as virtue is impoverishing the general population to enrich a handful of elites. Instead of building freeways, expanding ports, restoring bridges and aqueducts, and constructing dams, desalination plants, and power stations, California’s taxpayers are pouring tens of billions...

TAGS: "bullet train", California drought, cost of living, desalination, high speed rail, pension funds

Pension Funds and the Ultimate Hedge, Taxpayers

By Edward Ring

03/17/2015

“We’re trying to make these guys’ money toxic because, as we’ve seen, their money is toxic,” Jonathan Westin, the director of New York Communities for Change, told Business Insider on Thursday. “I think it’s connecting the dots that many people don’t always connect.” – “Activists think they found a way to convince Democrats to stay...

TAGS: Dark money, government pension funds, government unions, pension funds

The Amazing, Obscure, Complicated and Gigantic Pension Loophole

By Edward Ring

11/18/2014

“The bottom line is that claiming the unfunded liability cost as part of an officer’s compensation is grossly and deliberately misleading.” – LAPPL Board of Directors on 08/07/2014, in their post “Misuse of statistics behind erroneous LA police officer salary claims.” This assertion, one that is widely held among representatives of public employees, lies at the...

TAGS: normal contribution, pension funds, pension reform, PEPRA, Public Employee Pension Reform Act, unfunded contribution

Public Pension Solvency Requires Asset Bubbles

By Edward Ring

04/29/2014

The title of this post expresses what is probably the greatest example of a monstrous hypocrisy – that public employee unions, and the pension funds they control, are supposedly helping the American economy, and protecting the American people from “the bankers.” Overpriced “bubble” assets caused by banks offering low interest rates hurt ordinary working people...

TAGS: American Federation of Teachers, CalPERS, CalSTRS, low interest rates, pension funds, Public sector pensions

Government Unions Attack Free-Market Nonprofits via Pension Funds

By Edward Ring

04/08/2014

“The AFT will be looking more closely at those who are supporting the dismantling of defined benefit plans at the state and municipal level.” – Ranking Asset Managers, A Retirement Security Report on Money Managers for Pension Fund Trustees, March 5, 2014 As reported in a Washington Examiner editorial on April 4th, the American Federation...

TAGS: American Federation of Teachers, Dark money, pension funds, public sector unions

Creating Opportunities to Bring Seawater Desalination to Coastal Federal Lands in California

February 12, 2026 Authored By: Edward Ring, Director, Water and Energy Policy Ed@CalPolicyCenter.org California Policy Center CaliforniaPolicyCenter.org 916.718.8572 18002 Irvine Boulevard, Suite 108 Tustin, California 92780 With Legal Research Contributions From: Tim Paone, Partner TPaone@CoxCastle.com Cox, Castle & Nicholson LLP CoxCastle.com 949.260.4655 3121 Michelson Drive, Suite 200 Irvine, California 92612 On Behalf Of: Board of...

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