Tag: pension plans

Now Uncle is “Investing” in Tesla

Guest Post by Eric Peters

Elon Musk may be the ultimate crony capitalist – the PT Barnum of our time.Barnum lead

But to give PT his due, he was an honest con man.

He never used the government to make his marks hand over their money. People stepped right up without a bayonet in their backs.

Elon, on the other hand, depends entirely on the coercive power of government to line his pockets. Take that away and Musk goes away.

Unfortunately, he’s not going away. He’s going deeper.

Automotive News reports that Musk is not only fleecing taxpayers via multi-tiered subsidies for his electric turduckens. That’s old news.

Here’s the latest news:

The Michigan Department of Treasury has bought (with funds fleeced from taxpayers) 339,623 shares of Tesla stock – the proceeds of this “investment” (if there ever are any) to be used to fund the pensions of retired state workers.

Priceless.

The small termites helping feed the queen – so to speak.

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Establishment Tries To Suppress “Dissident Actuaries” Explosive Report On Public Pensions

It’s just maff. The looming government pension catastrophe can’t be avoided by faking the assumptions used to value pension assets. Almost every pension plan in America uses at least a 7% annual return assumption in their calculations – and this still reveals unfunded liabilities in the trillions. Well guess what, the 7% assumption is a fucking joke.

Stocks are more overvalued than any time in history. They are priced to deliver 10 year returns of ZERO!!! Ten year bonds are yielding 1.59%. Do you think there will be much appreciation in bonds? Not a chance. If pension managers weren’t lying hacks, they would reduce their assumption to 3% or less. The impact would be to show every pension plan in America as defunct and bankrupt – because they are. I hope anyone depending upon a government pension understands this fact.

Submitted by Walter Russell Mead via The American Interest,

America’s slow-motion public pension train-wreck (by some estimates, the shortfall currently exceeds $3 trillion) has been kept in motion for years by deeply dishonest accounting practices employed by state and local governments, which presume unrealistically that pension funds can consistently earn white-hot annual returns approaching eight percent. So it’s disappointing, but not particularly surprising, that the actuarial establishment moved to suppress a report pointing this out.

Pensions and Investments reports:

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BEST POLITICAL AD I’VE SEEN

I’m a sarcastic son of a bitch, so I really appreciate some good sarcasm. This is the most sarcastic dead on political commercial you will ever see. Tom Corbett is the Republican governor of PA. He tried to fix the bankrupt government pension system and tried to sell off the state liquor stores during his first term. Therefore, he will not have a second term. If you do anything that will take away power, control and money from government unions, you are finished as a politician. Tom Wolf is a multi-millionaire tax and spend Democrat who will win the upcoming election in a landslide. He promises to tax the “rich”. Of course, his definition of rich is anyone making over $70,000 per year. And considering everyone pays sales tax, even people making $25,000 will be considered rich come January.

Tom Wolf will never attempt to fix the government pension system that will ultimately bankrupt every municipality in PA within the next ten years. He will just raise taxes on people whose real household income is lower than it was in 1999. Yeah. That’s the ticket. Do you sense my sarcasm?