Tag: pension crisis

The latest casualty in the global pension catastrophe is…

Guest Post by Simon Black

In the year 6 AD, the Roman emperor Augustus set up a special trust fund known as the aerarium militare, or military treasury, to fund retirement pensions for Rome’s legionnaires.

Now, these military pensions had already existed for several centuries in Rome. But the money to pay them had always been mixed together in the government’s general treasury.

So for hundreds of years, mischievous senators could easily grab money that was earmarked for military pensions and redirect it elsewhere.

Augustus wanted to end this practice by setting up a special fund specifically for military pensions.

And to make sure there would be no meddling from any government officials, Augustus established a Board of Trustees, consisting of former military commanders, to oversee the fund’s operations.

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Staggering Chart Shows Your Personal Share Of Your State’s Underfunded Pension

Much worse than the chart indicates. Those pension liabilities are based on 7% or 8% annual return assumptions. Using the real returns will double the pension liabilities. 
Tyler Durden's picture
by Tyler Durden
Oct 18, 2017 11:10 PM

Back in March we shared the staggering results of a Bankrate survey which found that the average American household couldn’t afford to write a measly $500 check in the event of an unexpected emergency (see: “The Reality Is, Half Of Americans Can’t Afford To Write A $500 Check”).  Of course, as we note frequently, while the talking heads of daytime financial TV shows love to reference surging economic indicators like unemployment figures, the fact is that the number of Americans not participating in the work force remains near all-time highs and wage growth, despite “full employment” levels, has been practically non-existent since the great recession.

Given the above, we can only presume that the average person in New Jersey, Connecticut, Illinois, Kentucky, etc. is going to have a somewhat difficult time producing their $10,000 – $27,000 share of their state’s massive pension and debt obligations. 

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Teamsters Local 707 Goes Bankrupt

Guest Post by Martin Armstrong

TeamstersThe Pension Crisis on the horizon is far worse than anyone can imagine. This is the final straw that will break the back of socialism the same as communism fell. Pensions are in a state of crisis for they lost money in stock in the 2007-2009 crash and then sold the bottom shifting to government bonds and then interest rates plummeted when they needed 8% to survive. The management skills have been nonexistent for the propaganda has always been that government bonds present no risk when in fact they are UNSECURED DEBT and the riskiest of all investments long-term.

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