Friday, April 16, 2010

The Teacher Pension Nightmare

The Teacher Pension Nightmare - Forbes.com
"Pension and retirement plans all over America have lost value.
Plans covering public school teachers, by their own admission, are underfunded by $332 billion.

However, the plans' real funding gap is far worse than their financial statements show, at nearly a trillion dollars--and you and I will bear the burden of covering their shortfall.

The story of how this happened is familiar:
States expanded their promises to retirees when times were good.
Then, the economy tanked, pension assets fell in value and states skirted their obligations to deposit cash in pension funds--all causing a funding gap.
But because benefits are contractually guaranteed, the obligation to cover any funding shortfall lies with taxpayers."

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