The Republican Way To Create A Pension Crisis....
revolves around siphoning off retiree's cash and then claiming the system is insolvent. The only way to keep the system running is to cut benefits and put new employees into a 401(k) types plan. Why if we don't do something soon the system will go bankrupt! It's easy to put all of the blame on the employees. Just don't look behind the curtain to see what those in charge of the system are actually doing with the funds entrusted to them. Consider Chris Christie's genius plan that has cost the pension fund $4 billion in lost revenue and increased management fees. Christie's buddies are getting rich off the system while the people who actually earned the benefits and paid into the plan pay the cost and lose their security.
The $4 billion loss wasn't enough. While Christie's manufactured pension crisis owes a large part of it's origins to the mismanagement of pension funds and the payment of hundreds of millions of dollars in management fees to Christie's friends, he had to try to hide the magnitude of the diversion. That certainly runs afoul of NJ Law. But never mind, Christie is a brave reformer, making all of the difficult decisions that need to be made! It's good to be a FOC'er! (Friend of Christie)
Read David Sirota's article here: http://www.ibtimes.com/chris-christie-administration-paid-600m-financial-fees-2014-1833872
Under Chris Christie, the New Jersey pension system paid more than $600 million in fees to financial firms in 2014 -- 50 percent more than a year ago, and a higher rate than almost any other state reports paying for pension management. The figures are buried within an otherwise routine annual report that appeared to change the way the fees were counted to make them look smaller than they actually are.
That accounting change comes at a time when the Christie administration is under scrutiny for investing pension money in high-fee firms whose executives made campaign contributions to Republican political groups. The move obscuring the increase in reported fees also comes on the heels of Christie telling New Jersey teachers, firefighters, cops and other public workers that “there are no alternatives” to cutting their retirement benefits because the state pension system is so strapped for cash.
“The lack of transparency, skyrocketing risks and fees and chronic underperformance makes New Jersey the poster child for the kind of shenanigans happening in pension systems across the country,” said former Securities and Exchange Commission attorney Ted Siedle, who conducts forensic investigations of state and local pension systems.
The New Jersey Department of Treasury and Christie’s office did not respond to International Business Times' request for comment.
= new reply since forum marked as read
a cartoon can sometimes say so much more than words...
