5 Comments
User's avatar
Tom F's avatar

Does anyone in corporate America do a pension? I wonder how many of them are 80% funded? The Federal solution is https://www.pbgc.gov/ and I wonder how fair that is to the taxpayer?

Expand full comment
Mary Pat Campbell's avatar

To keep is simple, here is the bit on MEP bailout:

https://marypatcampbell.substack.com/p/moneypalooza-monstrosity-it-passed

If you scroll down toward the bottom of the post, you will see what the size of the needed MEP bailout was...

... and the size of a needed public pension bailout would be (at that time) .... and the ginormous hole of the Social Security liability.

I'm working up to that.

Expand full comment
Mary Pat Campbell's avatar

Soooooo, the situation with private pensions (single employer or multi-employer, aka union pensions) is very different.

And that's a whole different story. I do have coverage on that, esp. the MEP bailout in 2021. But that's a different order of magnitude compared to public pensions.

As for 80% fundedness, the 80% funded level actually came from the private pensions regulations originally, and had a meaning there. It has nothing to do with actual soundness, though. Just when the PBGC would take action.

Expand full comment
J. Butler's avatar

What's the current situation in Illinois? I'm asking because Governor Pritzker is making noises about running for President. Also asking because Pritzker is worth $3billion+, and perhaps he could fix a shortfall by writing a check...

Expand full comment
Mary Pat Campbell's avatar

Oh $3 BILLION?!

AHAHAHAHA

my child

the hole in Illinois pensions (just the state - not including Chicago pensions) is over $100 billion

https://stump.marypat.org/article/906/illinois-idiocy-let-s-run-some-scenarios-on-a-gargantuan-pob

That post was from 2018. I should revisit this - it was about an insane idea to issue a $100+ billion pension obligation bond on the Illinois state pensions.

I need to re-run the post(s) because there are some very painful lessons coming up, and I need to get it on the record before the reality hits.

Expand full comment