Public Pension

primary 6/16 
SEE DIVEST 3 public pension 10 22see Defund the Left (not to be confused with "Pension Plan" of gop pol ops)

also includes private pension being abandoned by industry (and dumping obligations on public where possible?)new development: teachers and others using clout on CSR. shareholder revolt and divestment
see NY CA

=<div>=</div><div>Climate change: Democratic Sens. <a href="https://calmatters.org/legislator-tracker/scott-wiener-1970/">Scott Wiener</a> of San Francisco, <a href="https://calmatters.org/legislator-tracker/lena-gonzalez-1981/">Lena Gonzales</a> of Long Beach and <a href="https://calmatters.org/legislator-tracker/henry-stern-1982/">Henry Stern</a> from Calabasas <a href="https://twitter.com/Scott_Wiener/status/1620160839365046272?s=20&t=_KVBb68DDqKwnIQBLx3OlA">introduced, or rather reintroduced, a package of bills</a>.

Wiener put forward SB 253, the Climate Corporate Data Accountability Act — a <a href="https://www.jdsupra.com/legalnews/key-corporate-climate-accountability-3692165/#:_{:text=Senator%20Scott%20Wiener's%20S.B.,to%20disclose%20their%20greenhouse%20emissions."}>bill that failed last year</a> to require corporations with more than $1 billion in revenue that operate in California to <a href="https://www.sacbee.com/news/politics-government/capitol-alert/article271831502.html">publicly disclose their greenhouse gas emissions</a>. He said the bill would make corporations “a heck of a lot more interested in buying clean energy.”

<ul><li>Wiener: “It gives large corporations two options:

disclose your emissions publicly or stop doing business in California —

and they won’t choose the latter.”
</li></ul>

Gonzalez introduced SB 252, a proposal that was <a href="https://calmatters.org/newsletters/whatmatters/2022/06/california-crisis-lawmakers-solutions/">also blocked last year</a> and that seeks to force the state’s public pension funds to divest from fossil fuels. Stern introduced <a href="https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=202320240SB261">SB 261</a>, another measure that also failed last year. It requires companies that earn more than $500 million in revenue to prepare <a href="https://mobile.twitter.com/Scott_Wiener/status/1620160852031832065">climate-related financial risk reports</a>.

The climate efforts come in the midst of negotiations to cover a projected $22.5 billion budget deficit. Newsom has <a href="https://calmatters.org/environment/2023/01/california-climate-budget/">proposed cutting $6 billion</a> from the $54 billion, five-year <a href="https://calmatters.org/environment/2022/09/california-climate-change-legislature/">climate package he pushed through last year</a>.  
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</div><h1 class="page-header"> Press Democrat: New state senate bill would force CalPERS, CalSTRS to divest from major fossil fuel holdings</h1>

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</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-pubdate field-type-datestamp field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">February 17, 2022</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><div>By MARY CALLAHAN</div>

<div>California’s two powerful public employee pension funds would be

required to withdraw their investments from fossil fuel companies to

help fight climate change under a state Senate bill introduced Thursday.</div>

<div>Authored by Sen. Lena A. Gonzalez, D-Long Beach, and co-sponsored

by Sen. Scott Wiener, D-San Francisco, the legislation would give the

California Public Employees' Retirement System and the California State

Teachers' Retirement System until July 2027 to divest a combined $9.9

billion from the Carbon Underground 200 — a list of companies considered

to have the greatest potential for future emissions from their coal,

oil and gas reserves.</div>

<div>

<div>The bill also would prohibit any new investments in those companies....</div></div></div></div></div></div></section></div>=<div>=</div><div>heated mail</div><div>
</div><div>10 22</div><div>
as governor of the <a href="https://substack.com/redirect/d22f3853-881c-4fad-98c0-b36b667de6ce?r=1n6e6" rel="" target="blank" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://substack.com/redirect/d22f3853-881c-4fad-98c0-b36b667de6ce?r%3D1n6e6&source=gmail&ust=1664739280240000&usg=AOvVaw19Uct9vVgRaVfHSERmqy7D" style="text-decoration-line: none;">most climate-vulnerable state in the U.S.</a>, Ron DeSantis has gone to great lengths to convince people that he is Not Like Other Republicans.He created a <a href="https://substack.com/redirect/b423c788-e14b-4af9-a037-424998f86be7?r=1n6e6" rel="" target="blank" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://substack.com/redirect/b423c788-e14b-4af9-a037-424998f86be7?r%3D1n6e6&source=gmail&ust=1664739280240000&usg=AOvVaw2h3VtuE-oqfliAbeSebmts" style="text-decoration-line: none;">chief resilience officer position</a> for his administration to "prepare Florida for the … impacts of climate change.” He signed two bills to <a href="https://substack.com/redirect/b8230d98-d609-4bee-9060-a53dafc563d5?r=1n6e6" rel="" target="blank" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://substack.com/redirect/b8230d98-d609-4bee-9060-a53dafc563d5?r%3D1n6e6&source=gmail&ust=1664739280240000&usg=AOvVaw1nX0veJhDotlJsbh9pPMW8" style="text-decoration-line: none;">strengthen sea level rise protections</a> across the state. Overall, DeSantis has committed a total investment of <a href="https://substack.com/redirect/208d50ac-87d0-4854-baa6-17b2f4c91461?r=1n6e6" rel="" target="blank" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://substack.com/redirect/208d50ac-87d0-4854-baa6-17b2f4c91461?r%3D1n6e6&source=gmail&ust=1664739280240000&usg=AOvVaw0B6wiEWNCJFmf7FD6DTsms" style="text-decoration-line: none;">$1.2 billion in resilience projects</a> to prepare Florida for climate impacts.But as DeSantis invests all these taxpayer dollars protecting Floridians from climate change, he is also enacting anti-climate policies to ensure those investments will fail. It’s like spending a bunch of money to buy new tires, while also installing a bunch of spikes in your driveway. Stupid. Why would anyone do that?I don’t know, but DeSantis is doing it. The only explanation I can think of is that he doesn’t think spikes cause holes in tires, or that fossil fuels cause climate change. That is evidenced <a href="https://substack.com/redirect/09e9dcb7-4539-46a1-8e69-76692ca83111?r=1n6e6" rel="" target="blank" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://substack.com/redirect/09e9dcb7-4539-46a1-8e69-76692ca83111?r%3D1n6e6&source=gmail&ust=1664739280240000&usg=AOvVaw1IxtOLwx_2C0utVAPwTLMq" style="text-decoration-line: none;">not only by his rhetoric</a>—he’s said he’s not ”<a href="https://substack.com/redirect/f68f26f3-964f-441a-b4bc-f3b4e81c9446?r=1n6e6" rel="" target="blank" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://substack.com/redirect/f68f26f3-964f-441a-b4bc-f3b4e81c9446?r%3D1n6e6&source=gmail&ust=1664739280240000&usg=AOvVaw2-RDZhjnCjKAAGpxYr8rpC" style="text-decoration-line: none;">concerned about what is the sole cause</a>” of climate change—but by two major policies he has recently enacted to ensure fossil fuels keep burning as long as humanly possible.These policies, if adopted on a national level, would all but doom Florida and other climate-vulnerable states. Considering DeSantis is widely considered a 2024 presidential contender, it’s worth taking a look at how truly dangerous and financially irresponsible they are—and how lots of other Republicans are adopting them, too.<h4 style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 1.16em; margin: 1em 0px 0.625em;">Two recent policies to keep Florida underwater</h4>The first policy enacted by DeSantis in Florida is what <a href="https://substack.com/redirect/9b6ae28a-4e4a-4ada-8ebb-008040c82e66?r=1n6e6" rel="" target="blank" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://substack.com/redirect/9b6ae28a-4e4a-4ada-8ebb-008040c82e66?r%3D1n6e6&source=gmail&ust=1664739280240000&usg=AOvVaw3mfLlQX5ItP4K_37h-kjgq" style="text-decoration-line: none;">Food & Water Watch called</a> “the most extreme energy preemption bills in the nation.” Signed last year, these bills <a href="https://substack.com/redirect/248ce9be-dc18-4d9a-8567-a2cc40d4047a?r=1n6e6" rel="" target="blank" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://substack.com/redirect/248ce9be-dc18-4d9a-8567-a2cc40d4047a?r%3D1n6e6&source=gmail&ust=1664739280240000&usg=AOvVaw0laQGd-E_k_RCnZ3zcjPLX" style="text-decoration-line: none;">ban Florida cities and towns from adopting 100 percent clean energy goals</a>, reasoning that those goals “discriminate” against fossil fuels.That means municipalities in the literal Sunshine State are being forced to keep using fossil fuels even if they don’t want to. It doesn’t matter if a climate change-fueled hurricane destroyed your town and now you want to be part of the solution. Sorry, honey. <a href="https://substack.com/redirect/93c9a4b8-0bf9-4b2f-b106-291cc729ab0d?r=1n6e6" rel="" target="blank" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://substack.com/redirect/93c9a4b8-0bf9-4b2f-b106-291cc729ab0d?r%3D1n6e6&source=gmail&ust=1664739280240000&usg=AOvVaw0EiVQipqX2j0Ilx4n-ebJC" style="text-decoration-line: none;">DeSantis said no</a>.The second policy came about a month ago, when DeSantis adopted measures to ban the state’s $186 billion pension fund from <a href="https://substack.com/redirect/a5133ca2-8a0f-4179-89ab-9910637772c3?r=1n6e6" rel="" target="blank" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://substack.com/redirect/a5133ca2-8a0f-4179-89ab-9910637772c3?r%3D1n6e6&source=gmail&ust=1664739280240000&usg=AOvVaw1JUMADSHcnZc03CKFmEpZd" style="text-decoration-line: none;">making investment decisions that consider climate change</a>. DeSantis did this because he said such decisions constitute an “<a href="https://substack.com/redirect/d6f74e5a-145b-4944-ab83-1fdcdc30e6f3?r=1n6e6" rel="" target="blank" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://substack.com/redirect/d6f74e5a-145b-4944-ab83-1fdcdc30e6f3?r%3D1n6e6&source=gmail&ust=1664739280240000&usg=AOvVaw11AHa-s6L2P4nHBkhWqGmI" style="text-decoration-line: none;">ideological agenda.</a>"the pension measure is particularly mind-boggling given <a href="https://substack.com/redirect/9847b06c-b89f-4e9c-befc-645905ea4de6?r=1n6e6" rel="" target="blank" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://substack.com/redirect/9847b06c-b89f-4e9c-befc-645905ea4de6?r%3D1n6e6&source=gmail&ust=1664739280240000&usg=AOvVaw3_Xa2I5HSK0OUILEyzU8St" style="text-decoration-line: none;">the staggering economic damage of Hurricane Ian</a>, which scientists have already confirmed <a href="https://substack.com/redirect/ede5a49e-cbce-40f1-b0d6-fde8336a0fba?r=1n6e6" rel="" target="blank" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://substack.com/redirect/ede5a49e-cbce-40f1-b0d6-fde8336a0fba?r%3D1n6e6&source=gmail&ust=1664739280240000&usg=AOvVaw3OQk2bMWMYmItIfTsfFOd4" style="text-decoration-line: none;">was made worse by climate change</a>. That excess rainfall contributed to massive economic damage, which could total between <a href="https://substack.com/redirect/033ee079-10e1-4d29-9981-f5c0075d43f5?r=1n6e6" rel="" target="blank" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://substack.com/redirect/033ee079-10e1-4d29-9981-f5c0075d43f5?r%3D1n6e6&source=gmail&ust=1664739280240000&usg=AOvVaw2r_2p-ohA1ytx6pdM4Mipm" style="text-decoration-line: none;">$100 billion and $120 billion</a>, according to AccuWeather. Many Florida insurance companies <a href="https://substack.com/redirect/006a2cb5-1fc9-43da-92ec-af50e53555c6?r=1n6e6" rel="" target="blank" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://substack.com/redirect/006a2cb5-1fc9-43da-92ec-af50e53555c6?r%3D1n6e6&source=gmail&ust=1664739280240000&usg=AOvVaw013cUzBrT7_FmAMDPwm9ob" style="text-decoration-line: none;">will likely go bankrupt</a>.Climate change is also just generally very costly, both to Florida and the world. Locally, Florida homes have lost <a href="https://substack.com/redirect/b0c851e8-de7d-4123-9fd1-dc975f3e99a4?r=1n6e6" rel="" target="blank" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://substack.com/redirect/b0c851e8-de7d-4123-9fd1-dc975f3e99a4?r%3D1n6e6&source=gmail&ust=1664739280240000&usg=AOvVaw1C6Iihwb55Y2YkjsNCZpxj" style="text-decoration-line: none;">$2.4 billion to floods</a> since 2005, and $2.86 trillion of insured state property is vulnerable to hurricanes. Globally, the insurance provider Swiss Re predicted climate change could reduce global GDP by 11 to 14 percent by 2050 compared with a world without climate change, amounting to a <a href="https://substack.com/redirect/3d37bea4-b0db-45a0-aca6-f28834044ca2?r=1n6e6" rel="" target="blank" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://substack.com/redirect/3d37bea4-b0db-45a0-aca6-f28834044ca2?r%3D1n6e6&source=gmail&ust=1664739280240000&usg=AOvVaw1MqUBrcwDU9LAXsJfxve-k" style="text-decoration-line: none;">$23 trillion loss</a>.It is obviously not “ideological” to consider climate change in investment decisions. This is why BlackRock, the world’s largest asset manager, <a href="https://substack.com/redirect/75e1168b-db36-4fa6-9310-b342ba6bc30d?r=1n6e6" rel="" target="blank" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://substack.com/redirect/75e1168b-db36-4fa6-9310-b342ba6bc30d?r%3D1n6e6&source=gmail&ust=1664739280240000&usg=AOvVaw3rFwCOl8-QQfuRSCWKblkU" style="text-decoration-line: none;">said it would make climate change central to its investment decisions</a> in 2020.But DeSantis is not trying to make financially prudent decisions. He’s trying to make politically prudent ones. After all, this is what all the other Republican governors are doing. And hopping on the oil train is known to have its perks.<h4 style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 1.16em; margin: 1em 0px 0.625em;">Courting the oil industry for political gain</h4>For DeSantis to make a successful 2024 run, he needs to have the oil industry on his side. To that end, there’s nothing better he can do than push their priorities—which just so happen to be the <a href="https://substack.com/redirect/f6021eac-316d-417f-8eb8-40bbaa34e860?r=1n6e6" rel="" target="blank" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://substack.com/redirect/f6021eac-316d-417f-8eb8-40bbaa34e860?r%3D1n6e6&source=gmail&ust=1664739280240000&usg=AOvVaw2PEPn4FIhPqIns6TJXAUgn" style="text-decoration-line: none;">two policies</a> <a href="https://substack.com/redirect/bc758626-8cf7-47c2-8e88-870801f23d2a?r=1n6e6" rel="" target="blank" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://substack.com/redirect/bc758626-8cf7-47c2-8e88-870801f23d2a?r%3D1n6e6&source=gmail&ust=1664739280240000&usg=AOvVaw21dch4Z_icVWzPAxeoe1Xv" style="text-decoration-line: none;">described above</a>.“DeSantis is following political trends,” said Dan Cohen, an energy researcher for the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis. “Republicans across the country are trying as hard as they can to move the funds they have control over to stand against the tide”—the tide being toward clean energy and a safe climate.Indeed, Florida is just one of <a href="https://substack.com/redirect/a98ace8d-e79d-4ec1-8af1-513c6214feba?r=1n6e6" rel="" target="blank" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://substack.com/redirect/a98ace8d-e79d-4ec1-8af1-513c6214feba?r%3D1n6e6&source=gmail&ust=1664739280240000&usg=AOvVaw3uyPLyoeuCrPkD4LScXflY" style="text-decoration-line: none;">17 Republican-led states</a> that have <a href="https://substack.com/redirect/846ff182-25f7-4b28-b5b9-f794a6ff937f?r=1n6e6" rel="" target="blank" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://substack.com/redirect/846ff182-25f7-4b28-b5b9-f794a6ff937f?r%3D1n6e6&source=gmail&ust=1664739280240000&usg=AOvVaw0B5LBukElrazxzriNoSkOw" style="text-decoration-line: none;">proposed or adopted legislation</a> limiting the ability of the state government to do business with entities that are moving away from fossil fuels. DeSantis is also part of a coalition of 19 Republican-led states that <a href="https://substack.com/redirect/e88f1446-d442-4ea6-8001-33a20e7298d2?r=1n6e6" rel="" target="blank" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://substack.com/redirect/e88f1446-d442-4ea6-8001-33a20e7298d2?r%3D1n6e6&source=gmail&ust=1664739280240000&usg=AOvVaw0fKUP76aVoFKgW-PJhjZzM" style="text-decoration-line: none;">sent a strongly-worded letter to BlackRock CEO Larry Fink</a>, threatening legal action against him for investing with a clean energy future in mind. 19 other Republican-led states have adopted <a href="https://substack.com/redirect/00fea660-5051-4fd4-a368-01ded43bebe2?r=1n6e6" rel="" target="blank" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://substack.com/redirect/00fea660-5051-4fd4-a368-01ded43bebe2?r%3D1n6e6&source=gmail&ust=1664739280240000&usg=AOvVaw2fPxgj8NOPC1pLOXgNrO8P" style="text-decoration-line: none;">laws that prohibit cities from banning natural gas</a> and other fossil fuels.If legislation like this were adopted nationally, effective action to slow climate change would be near-impossible. Both governments and financial institutions would be forced to fund fossil fuels, financial risks of climate change be damned.“This is the Republican’s latest version of climate denial, where all of a sudden climate science is out the window,” said Jackie Fielder, co-director of the Stop the Money Pipeline coalition. “Ultimately, the people who will pay for it are the folks in Florida having to repair their homes, and so many other victims of climate change.”<h4 style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 1.16em; margin: 1em 0px 0.625em;">So stupid that it probably won’t work — for now</h4>Republicans like DeSantis are trying their best to prevent financial institutions from moving away from fossil fuels. But it turns out that, at least for now, their best is not very good.DeSantis’s new policy to ban Florida’s pension fund from considering climate risk, for example, “doesn’t actually change much,” said Cohen. “He's making a big show of it, but Florida law already says that investments must be made for the sole, exclusive purpose of providing benefits to members and beneficiaries.” And if you want to get the best investment benefit, you actually have to consider climate change.This is the problem with all these Republican states’ efforts to ban investments that move away from fossil fuels and toward clean energy: they’re <a href="https://substack.com/redirect/33a109e3-fbab-436d-b89e-5caf55ee9768?r=1n6e6" rel="" target="blank" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://substack.com/redirect/33a109e3-fbab-436d-b89e-5caf55ee9768?r%3D1n6e6&source=gmail&ust=1664739280240000&usg=AOvVaw2R1h3ERDI8JgbTZDfgwpsb" style="text-decoration-line: none;">not actually in the states’ best financial interest</a>. “In order to believe [DeSantis is] right, you have to agree that climate risk is not an investment risk,” said Cohen. “But climate risk is an investment risk, and Florida just got bombarded again. They’re trying to make you forget that that’s a real thing.”Because of this reality, the Republican states’ threats to sue financial firms like BlackRock for investing with climate change in mind are likely empty. Last month, Martin Lipton, the founding partner of one of of the world's most <a href="https://substack.com/redirect/978d0fcb-6f4d-406b-90a8-65c10200657c?r=1n6e6" rel="" target="blank" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://substack.com/redirect/978d0fcb-6f4d-406b-90a8-65c10200657c?r%3D1n6e6&source=gmail&ust=1664739280240000&usg=AOvVaw0v7r4lD1tAedwX1yc8VCz4" style="text-decoration-line: none;">influential corporate law firms, agreed</a>, accusing Republicans of spreading “misinformation” about environmental risks in order to “politicize” them.Of course, this could all change if Republicans continue their coordinated drive to <a href="https://substack.com/redirect/aff30c69-2989-49bd-b551-7149f5db1e9e?r=1n6e6" rel="" target="blank" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://substack.com/redirect/aff30c69-2989-49bd-b551-7149f5db1e9e?r%3D1n6e6&source=gmail&ust=1664739280240000&usg=AOvVaw1i9myQ-ylOZlPUzAp_iGnG" style="text-decoration-line: none;">appoint judges that are against climate action</a>. And if a Republican like DeSantis wins the presidency, there’s no telling how far these financially stupid actions could go.For now, though, some climate advocates are just taking it as a sign that the tide is truly turning against fossil fuels.“I view this as a sign that the divestment movement is winning, the fact that DeSantis and all these Republicans are suddenly engaged on this topic,” said David Arkush, the policy director of Public Citizen’s climate program. “Of course, I would like them to not do these things, not hurt their own citizens … But these are ultimately fossil fuel lobbying dollars that are behind this push. So if they’re pushing money here, it's because they feel themselves losing.”f<a href="https://substack.com/redirect/925e5e31-88b9-4c32-a631-c0544271975c?r=1n6e6" rel="" target="blank" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://substack.com/redirect/925e5e31-88b9-4c32-a631-c0544271975c?r%3D1n6e6&source=gmail&ust=1664739280240000&usg=AOvVaw2Y-2D_7SgEao85p4kpFGXj" style="text-decoration-line: none;">lorida’s Statewide Climate Change Response Ignores Cause</a>. Tampa Bay Times, March 2022.-<a href="https://substack.com/redirect/80b2c58d-9eb7-441d-b1b6-d50555c2ab3e?r=1n6e6" rel="" target="blank" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://substack.com/redirect/80b2c58d-9eb7-441d-b1b6-d50555c2ab3e?r%3D1n6e6&source=gmail&ust=1664739280240000&usg=AOvVaw27r-4LGBmUhGIb3T5--CC" style="text-decoration-line: none;">The Deranged Demands of the “Anti-ESG” Movement</a>. The New Republic, August 2022.-<a href="https://substack.com/redirect/f6021eac-316d-417f-8eb8-40bbaa34e860?r=1n6e6" rel="" target="blank" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://substack.com/redirect/f6021eac-316d-417f-8eb8-40bbaa34e860?r%3D1n6e6&source=gmail&ust=1664739280240000&usg=AOvVaw2PEPn4FIhPqIns6TJXAUgn" style="text-decoration-line: none;">Rightwing Lobby Group ALEC Driving Laws to Blacklist Companies That Boycott the Oil Industry</a>. The Guardian, February 2022.-<a href="https://substack.com/redirect/bc758626-8cf7-47c2-8e88-870801f23d2a?r=1n6e6" rel="" target="blank" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://substack.com/redirect/bc758626-8cf7-47c2-8e88-870801f23d2a?r%3D1n6e6&source=gmail&ust=1664739280240000&usg=AOvVaw21dch4Z_icVWzPAxeoe1Xv" style="text-decoration-line: none;">How the Natural Gas Industry is Freezing Climate Action in its Tracks</a>. Vox, September 2021.</div><div>=</div><div>=</div><div>spn 2019</div><div><div>Wednesday October 30, 2019 </div><div>  General, Wednesday</div><div>
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</div><div>Forecasting the Future of Pension Reform in the States (Sponsored by Reason Foundation)</div><div>Come enjoy complimentary cocktails and discuss the future of pension reform in the states with experts from the Pension Integrity Project at Reason Foundation. Learn about trends gleaned from their technical consulting work with reformers in the field in states like Michigan, Colorado, and Arizona, and explore the latest on how underfunded teacher pensions are undermining school budgets and fiscal health. The session will also offer a practical and achievable vision for the future of public sector retirement benefits and pension solvency.</div><div>Speakers</div><div>avatar for Zachary Christensen</div><div>Zachary Christensen</div><div>Senior Policy Analyst, Reason Foundation</div><div>Zachary Christensen is a senior policy analyst for Reason Foundation's Pension Integrity Project, which develops advanced pension analyses and advises stakeholders so they can build more secure retirement plans for public workers. Christensen's public policy research has primarily... Read More →</div><div>
</div><div>Ryan Frost</div><div>Policy Analyst, Pension Integrity Project, Reason Foundation</div><div>Ryan Frost is a policy analyst with the Pension Integrity Project at Reason Foundation. Prior to joining Reason, Ryan was a senior research and policy manager for the Washington state law enforcement officers’ and firefighters’ pension plan board. Ryan’s focus during his seven... Read More →</div><div>
</div><div>Steven Gassenberger</div><div>Policy Analyst, Reason Foundation</div><div>Steven Gassenberger is a policy analyst with Reason Foundation's Pension Integrity Project. Prior to joining Reason, Steven worked as a consumer advocacy manager for Xerox Corporation specializing in financial consumer regulation and compliance. He also worked as a senior associate... Read More →</div></div><div>=</div>=sac beeOPINION AND COMMENTARY Editorials and other Opinion content offer perspectives on issues important to our community and are independent from the work of our newsroom reporters. VIEWPOINTS How California’s pension funds can invest in the future by divesting from fossil fuels BY LENA GONZALEZ SPECIAL TO THE SACRAMENTO BEE APRIL 20, 2022  The CalPERS building in downtown Sacramento. JAY MATHER Sacramento Bee file As the state and economy make the transition to cleaner energy sources to help reach a global goal of zero net emissions by mid-century to stop global warming, a growing number of institutions worldwide are choosing to divest trillions of dollars from fossil fuel companies. This is the ethically and financially responsible choice, and more union members in California are demanding divestment and standing up for climate justice. The California Faculty Association passed a resolution calling for the California Public Employees Retirement System (CalPERS) and the California State Teachers’ Retirement System (CalSTRS) to divest from fossil fuels. Their members count on them to make healthy financial decisions about their funds for retirement. The faculty group was joined in calling for divestment by state associations representing higher education faculty, the academic senates at California State University and the University of California, and local chapters of unions representing teachers in cities from Los Angeles to Oakland. These educators and public employees have made it clear that they do not want their hard-earned pensions to be invested in the destruction of our planet. TOP VIDEOS × OPINION Fossil fuel stocks have underperformed for the last five years and are exposed to significant market risks. Looking into the future, the financial risk will be even greater as California and governments around the world continue to commit to more ambitious goals for lowering emissions. Markets are moving away from fossil fuels and toward carbon-free technologies. It’s increasingly evident that fossil fuels are simply a bad investment. In fact, studies have shown that if CalPERS had divested from fossil fuels in 2010, it would have generated an estimated additional $11.9 billion in returns by 2019. But the risks go beyond the financial costs of fossil fuel mining and drilling. Fossil fuels also have a disastrous impact on our environment and our health. From oil spills to land contamination and air pollution, it’s low-income Black and brown communities that suffer the most. In my district, Southeast Los Angeles and Long Beach suffer from high air pollution, public health burdens and social and economic disadvantages. These places have been referred to as “Asthma Alley” and called a “Hot Spot for Polluted Air” by the media. It’s time to take more expeditious action to protect our vulnerable communities from the harmful effects of fossil fuel pollution. Economic prosperity and a clean environment are not mutually exclusive goals, and that’s where Senate Bill 1173 comes into play. SB 1173 continues the bold and progressive actions California must take to address climate change. It will prohibit CalPERS and CalSTRS from investing in fossil fuel companies and require that they divest from current investments by 2027. T. Among the nation’s largest pension funds, CalPERS and CalSTRS are powerful entities that can help make a difference through their investment power. They have an estimated $469 billion and $327 billion in assets, respectively, and they invest the retirement futures of California’s state and school employees. California cannot be a climate justice leader if we continue to invest in the companies that are polluting our environment. The data is clear: Fossil fuels are a risky financial investment, and they are furthering the climate crisis. From South African Apartheid to Big Tobacco, divestment has been proven effective in bringing about change. Let’s do what’s right for our communities and our future: Divest from fossil fuels, starting with state pension funds. Sen. Lena Gonzalez is a Democrat from Los Angeles County.
Read more at: <a href="https://www.sacbee.com/opinion/op-ed/article259465499.html">https://www.sacbee.com/opinion/op-ed/article259465499.html</a>#storylink=cpy=<div>=</div><div>yikes bill tracker</div><div>
</div><div><a href="https://projects.propublica.org/trump-midnight-regulations/">https://projects.propublica.org/trump-midnight-regulations/</a></div><div>
</div><div>small eg# finalized 1220</div><div>
</div><div><div>Loosening Efficiency Standards for Clothes Washers and Dryers</div><div>This rule would loosen water and energy efficiency standards by creating a separate class of clothes washers and dryers based on how long they take to complete a load. More efficient washers use less water, and take longer, because they require more time for the soap to penetrate soiled clothes. Major manufacturers oppose the change, but small-government conservatives still want to slash regulation.</div><div>
</div><div>Department of Energy, Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy • Read more: regulations.gov</div><div>FINANCE</div><div>This rule has moved ahead since Election Day</div><div>Loosening Restrictions on Banks Acquiring Deposits Through Brokers</div><div>This rule would loosen restrictions on banks accumulating deposits by acquiring them from other banks through brokers. Financial reform advocates have raised concerns about allowing less well-capitalized banks to grow to an unsafe size.</div><div>
</div><div>Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation • Read more: fdic.gov</div><div>FINANCE</div><div>This rule has moved ahead since Election Day</div><div>
</div><div>Confining Retirement Fund Pressure on Corporations</div><div>This rule would constrain the ability of private retirement fund managers to vote on shareholder resolutions that influence the behavior of public companies. Critics such as Investor Advocates for Social Justice and the California State Teachers’ Retirement System say it will reduce corporate accountabiltiy and oversight.</div><div>
</div><div>Department of Labor, Employee Benefits Security Administration • Read more: regulations.gov</div><div>OTHER</div><div>This rule has moved ahead since Election Day</div><div>Bolstering the Position of Faith-Based Organizations in Government Grants</div></div>=<a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/10/retirement/">https://www.alternet.org/2020/10/retirement/</a>pro publThe Federal Reserve, which these days seems to be the only major part of the federal government capable of operating drama-free, has done a lot to help keep our economy afloat. It has cut interest rates to unprecedented low levels, bought billions of dollars of corporate IOUs, helped stabilize the debt markets and helped rescue a stock market that had begun falling sharply in mid-February when the COVID-19 recession started and that seemed headed for a crash.<div>In the process, the Fed has indirectly provided support to house prices and to the vital home construction business by forcing down mortgage interest rates to all-time lows of about 3%. Given that home equity is a major asset for many middle-class Americans, supporting home prices is especially important. As is supporting the home construction industry, which is a major source of blue-collar jobs.But if you dig deeper, you'll see that the Fed is unintentionally worsening economic inequality by providing the most help to Americans who are least in need of it. And it's also putting stress on the middle class' most important asset: retirement benefits.Higher stock prices are great for people (including me) who own a lot of stocks, but those people are primarily the top 10% of the country, in terms of wealth. According to <a href="https://www.federalreserve.gov/releases/z1/dataviz/dfa/distribute/table/#quarter:123;series:Corporate%20equities%20and%20mutual%20fund%20shares;demographic:networth;population:1,3,5,7;units:shares" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">Fed statistics</a>, more than half of stocks — 52% — are owned by the wealthiest 1% of Americans, and 88% are owned by the top 10%.To show you a different aspect of helping the upper class but not the working class, the Fed's securities purchases include buying debt <a href="https://features.propublica.org/cleveland-bailout/the-big-corporate-rescue-and-the-america-thats-too-small-to-save" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">issued by firms that are laying off workers while paying substantial dividends to shareholders. And for some imprudent or troubled corporate borrowers, the Fed's moves have been hugely helpful.</a>But those moves are hurting prudent savers of modest means by greatly reducing the income they can earn on Treasury securities and other no-risk investments such as bank certificates of deposit. That tends to drive people seeking income into the stock market, where their capital is at risk. By contrast, if you buy a Treasury security, you're sure of getting your money back when the security comes due, even though the security's market value will fluctuate both up and down while you hold it.Interest rates are so low that they've largely erased the key benefit — income — Treasury bonds are theoretically supposed to provide over stocks. If you own a low-cost Standard & Poor's 500 index fund, you're getting much more income from dividends than the interest you'd earn having the same amount invested in a 10-year Treasury note. For example, the dividend yield (a year's worth of dividends divided by the current market price) on Admiral shares of Vanguard's S&P 500 fund is more than double the interest yield of a 10-year Treasury. It's even higher than the yield on a 30-year Treasury bond, something that you rarely see.The yield on the Vanguard fund was 1.65% as of Sept. 30, the most recent available date. As I write this, the yield on a 10-year Treasury, the security it generally makes the most sense for a retail investor to buy and hold to maturity, was 0.76%. The yield on the 30-year Treasury was 1.56%.Despite its good intentions, the Fed is setting the stage for huge problems down the road for pension funds and, therefore, for potential pension recipients. There are also going to be problems for insurance companies and for other firms onto which many corporate employers have offloaded their pension obligations in order to clean up their balance sheets and minimize their future financial risks.The firms that have assumed the responsibility for paying these pensions typically own bond-heavy portfolios. And while bond prices have risen because interest rates have fallen — I'll explain how that works some other day — rates seem much more likely to rise from their current low levels in the future than to fall even lower. And when rates rise, it will decrease the market value of the bonds held by the firms that have assumed responsibility for paying pensions.What it all adds up to: The Fed is trying to salvage the present by pumping trillions of dollars into the U.S. and world financial systems but in the process is putting our economic future at risk. “We're bailing out the present and making the future pay for it," said Gene Steuerle, a co-founder of the Tax Policy Center.Please note that I'm not blaming the Fed for what it's doing. It's trying to fulfill its mandate to keep employment high, inflation relatively low, the dollar reasonably stable and interest rates at what it considers an appropriate level. The Fed's job, which is already difficult in strange and uncertain economic times like these, is being made much harder by the lack of new economic stimulus packages from Congress and the White House. These packages, as we saw when they were in effect earlier this year, not only help individuals but also stimulate the economy when recipients spend the money they've gotten.The Fed, by contrast, can help the financial markets and the economy but can't directly help individual people.Now, let me show you how the Fed's near-zero rates, the culmination of a dozen years of ultralow rates and which Fed Chair Jerome Powell says will continue indefinitely, are undermining the long-range future of the U.S. retirement system. This matters — a lot — because Fed statistics show that retirement benefits (not including Social Security) are hugely important to the middle class.Prof. Edward Wolff of New York University, who specializes in studying income and wealth inequality, told me that Fed statistics show that pension wealth accounts for 70.3% of the net worth of the middle class, which he defines as people ranking in the 20^th through 80^th percentiles in terms of wealth. By contrast, he said, retirement benefits are only 2.2% of the upper class' wealth.This makes the middle class particularly vulnerable to rising rates in the future. Let's take this piece by piece.For starters, near-zero rates are making the financial problems of the already-stressed Social Security system worse than they would otherwise be by sharply reducing the interest that Social Security can earn on its $2.9 trillion trust fund. That trust fund consists entirely of Treasury securities and is legally barred from owning stocks. That means that the fund's interest yield is falling and it's not benefiting from the 50% rise in stock prices since the market bottomed on March 23.The near-zero rates also affect private pensions. David Zion of Zion Research estimates that the pension funds of the Standard & Poor's 500 companies, which he says were underfunded by a total of $279 billion at the end of 2019, were underfunded by $407 billion as of June 30. “The main driver of the increase is lower interest rates," he said. (I'll explain the math behind lower rates raising pensions' underfunding in a bit.)Large as it is, the S&P companies' total shortfall is only a fraction of the underfunding afflicting state and local government pension funds. Keith Brainard, director of research for the National Association of State Retirement Administrators, estimates that the 5,332 retirement funds sponsored by state and local governments were $1.96 trillion underwater as of June 30, the most recent available number, up from $1.90 trillion as of year-end 2019. This has happened, he said, even though the funds' assets totaled about $4.65 trillion, an all-time high.What's more, if you use dispassionate math rather than the generous accounting principles that public pension funds are allowed to use, you see that lower long-term interest rates are doing much more damage to these funds' financial status than the numbers from Brainard's organization suggest. For instance, Steve Church of Piscataqua Research estimates that the shortfalls of the 127 public pension funds that he follows, which have a total of about $4 trillion of assets, are about $7.44 trillion. That's more than quadruple the funds' reported $1.53 trillion shortfall.This huge difference stems mostly from different assumptions about interest rates and different ways of calculating how much money a fund needs to have on hand today to meet a future obligation. A public pension fund comes up with how much it needs to have on hand today based on the income it expects to earn on its portfolio. Corporate pension funds engage in the same process, but they are required to make far less optimistic assumptions. They have to set aside enough money to meet that obligation if the money were invested at the interest rate on high quality, long-term risk-free bonds.Let me give you one example of the difference. If a pension fund expects to pay someone $10,000 in 10 years and anticipates it will earn 7% a year, compounded, today's cost of that benefit — what numbers crunchers call its “present value" — shows up on its books as a liability of $5,083. If, however, the fund predicts it will receive 3% per year, which is about the rate that corporate pension funds use these days, the fund would need to set aside $7,441.All of this is leading private and public pension funds to take on more risk. “When yields are low, you go looking for income somewhere else," Zion told me.That means putting money into stocks and various aggressive (and high-cost) Wall Street schemes such as private equity and venture capital funds.In addition, some public pension funds are borrowing money to try to earn what financial types call “spread income" by investing the borrowed money in assets whose returns exceed the funds' borrowing costs. “When the risk-free rate is zero and you need seven, that's what prompts plans to move outside their traditional comfort zones," Steve Foresti, chief investment officer of Wilshire Consulting, said.Foresti, who advises numerous public pension funds, says that the use of borrowed money, alternative investments and such began getting more popular about a decade ago. That's about when the Fed knocked rates to near zero and has pretty much kept them there.One prominent example of a fund trying to borrow its way out of trouble is the California Public Employees' Retirement System (CalPERS), the nation's largest government pension fund. It's considering borrowing up to $55 billion more than it has already borrowed, hoping that its return on the assets it will buy with that borrowed money exceeds what it will pay in interest.The fund, which says it currently has about $25 billion of borrowed money for which it's paying an average interest rate of 0.18%, now has authority to borrow up to 20% of its assets. That's roughly $80 billion. CalPERS says borrowing has helped it because it's been earning more on the assets it bought with the borrowed money than the interest it's paying.“It's a moderate use of leverage. We will do it opportunistically and gradually," Marcie Frost, CalPERS' chief executive, told me. “We can tie up our capital for a long time. …We are able to be opportunistic." However, as Frost readily acknowledges, “Leverage can exacerbate your losses."Or let's look at another big fund, the Teacher Retirement System of Texas, which last year lowered the assumed rate of return on its investment portfolio to 7.25% from the previous 8%. Among other things, that lower assumption is indirectly responsible for teachers, school districts and the state of Texas having to increase their future contributions to the pension fund to avoid the fund having to slash future benefits.Jase Auby, TRS' chief investment officer, says the fund has been borrowing 4% of its assets for about a year. The idea, he said, is “to diversify away from equity risk" — the danger that stock prices will fall — caused by low interest rates. “Equity risk is greater because interest rates are low," he said.The fund says its borrowing cost is currently about 0.25% a year. TRS says there were no specific assets financed by its borrowings, but it's ahead so far because its total fund return has exceeded its borrowing costs. If, however, the value of the assets bought with the borrowed money goes down, the fund obviously will be worse off than if it hadn't borrowed the money.By forcing bond yields down sharply and helping drive up stock prices, the Fed's low-interest rate regime has made 401(k) and 403(b) and other individual retirement accounts more valuable — for now — by boosting the market values of both stocks and bonds.However, these low rates are now exposing those individual accounts to considerably more risk than if stock prices were lower and bond yields higher.Why do I say this? Because high stock prices can fall — we've had two 50% market drops in the past 20 years — and low-yielding Treasury securities will lose value if interest rates move higher.How can U.S. Treasury securities lose value, given that the federal government can create as many dollars as it needs in order to redeem its obligations? Let's say that you spend $10,000 to buy a 10-year Treasury note yielding 0.76%, the current rate. You'd collect $76 in interest a year, $760 over the issue's lifetime, before getting your $10,000 back in 2030.But let's say that a year from now, despite Fed Chair Powell's predictions, the rate on such a security has risen to 1.76%, around where it was for parts of last year. The market value of your now-nine-year security would be only about $9,174, according to my handy-dandy online bond calculator. That $826 decline in value is more than the total interest you stand to collect over the Treasury note's lifetime. You can take your loss directly by selling your security, or you can take it indirectly by collecting $76 of annual interest for 9 years rather than the $176 that holders of market-rate securities would be getting.I'd love to be able to quote Fed people to give you the Fed's side of all of this. Alas, none of the people I've talked with or approached, some of whom I've known for years, are willing to be quoted by name.Privately, various Fedniks past and present readily agree that there are serious downsides to what the Fed has been doing since then-chair Ben Bernanke (who declined, through a spokeswoman, to talk with me) first cut rates to near zero in 2008 and successfully ended the stock market meltdown and financial panic.These Fedniks are also familiar with the risks that ultralow rates pose to the retirement system and the impact these rates have on economic inequality by sharply raising the values of financial assets, which are owned disproportionately by high-net-worth people, while doing relatively little for the less well off.But they won't talk about it publicly.Still, the issue needs to be recognized. If we don't do something to offset the damage to our retirement system, today's problems could end up looking like a rounding error compared to what the future holds.</div>=fossil free ca<h2 style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 51px; text-align: center; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><div style="text-align: left;">CalPERS Receives 0's and 1's</div><div style="text-align: left;">(out of 10) in Coal Policy</div></h2>Reclaim Finance released the <a rel="nofollow" target="blank" href="https://fossilfreeca.us17.list-manage.com/track/click?u=efbe9655614904b2e0dcd425e&id=b2e3eb0d49&e=b925a6f94d">Coal Policy Tool</a> on Tuesday rating global financial institutions' coal policy. CalPERS ranked among the worst in the world despite their claims to be sustainable.Check out our blog article on the <a rel="nofollow" target="blank" href="https://fossilfreeca.us17.list-manage.com/track/click?u=efbe9655614904b2e0dcd425e&id=4f9d891553&e=b925a6f94d" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">US Finance S</a><a rel="nofollow" target="blank" href="https://fossilfreeca.us17.list-manage.com/track/click?u=efbe9655614904b2e0dcd425e&id=3f8dcc956e&e=b925a6f94d" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">ector Lagging on Coal Policy</a>--Monday, we will be releasing a scathing report highlighting CalPERS' ongoing investments in coal. The report uncovers CalPERS's continued investments in coal and coal-related stocks despite the SB185 law regulating their investment in thermal coal. <a rel="nofollow" target="blank" href="https://fossilfreeca.us17.list-manage.com/track/click?u=efbe9655614904b2e0dcd425e&id=e7bb88b995&e=b925a6f94d" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Keep Reading</a>makers and takers?<div style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large">Coronavirus and right-wing media:</div><div style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large">hugh-hewitt-mitchmcconnell-interview-states-bankruptcy-04-22-2020.jpg</div><div style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large">Led by Hugh Hewitt, right-wing media cheer for states to file “bankruptcy” from coronavirus as a chance to cut public pensions</div><div style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large">04/24/20 5:36 PM EDT</div><div></div><div>"panic in the boardrooms" of europe (developing critieria for green invest? de-valuing FF portfolio;</div><div>
</div><div>EU 14% inflection pt b/c of 20% mandate, synergy, cost fell, china came in ... now feed-in tariffs no longer even needed [old shrink vs new grow;] electricity replaced gaslight when only 3%</div><div>
</div><div>vol mandate; fed green bank but must have 50% target (pension will invest in grn banks/bonds]; ike hwy to finish 2nd ind revo (coupled w/ war atomic evac route] // grren grid.</div><div>
</div><div>$41 trillion in worker pension,(biggest pool of $)  need scale places to put ingreen energy (wind) now cheaper than nat'l gas, thus massive stranded assetslocal power grid resilient b/c it's local, not dependent on larger system.3rd industrial revo non-hier; must be glob-LOCAL; feed-in tariffs let local ppl go to bank and get loan b/c knew could repaymerkel how do future when plugged into coal and nuke?<div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">china big green grid investment 12 wks after mtg w/ <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeremy_Rifkin" data:image="data:image" svg="svg" xml="xml" csvg="Csvg" height="%2213%22" width="%2213%22" version="%221.1%22" cg="Cg" transform="%22translate%28-36.467808%2C-258.39005%29%22%3E" cpath="Cpath" d="%22m40.55%2C263.9c0-0.6213%2C0.6213-0.6213%2C0.6213-0.6213%2C1.864%2C0.6213%2C3.107%2C1.864%2C3.728%2C3.728%2C0%2C0%2C0%2C0.6213-0.6213%2C0.6213-1.243-1.864-1.864-2.485-3.728-3.728z%22/%3E" c="C" g="g" e="E" rgb="rgb" padding-right="padding-right" px="px" font-size="font-size" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;" xmlns="%22http://www.w3.org/2000/svg%22" xmlns:cc="%22http://creativecommons.org/ns%23%22" xmlns:data="data" xmlns:dc="%22http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/%22%3E" xmlns:rdf="%22http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns%23%22">Jeremy Rifkin</a> wrote <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://www.amazon.com/Green-New-Deal-Civilization-Collapse/dp/1250253209" data:image="data:image" svg="svg" xml="xml" csvg="Csvg" height="%2213%22" width="%2213%22" version="%221.1%22" cg="Cg" transform="%22translate%28-36.467808%2C-258.39005%29%22%3E" cpath="Cpath" d="%22m40.55%2C263.9c0-0.6213%2C0.6213-0.6213%2C0.6213-0.6213%2C1.864%2C0.6213%2C3.107%2C1.864%2C3.728%2C3.728%2C0%2C0%2C0%2C0.6213-0.6213%2C0.6213-1.243-1.864-1.864-2.485-3.728-3.728z%22/%3E" c="C" g="g" e="E" rgb="rgb" padding-right="padding-right" px="px" font-size="font-size" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;" xmlns="%22http://www.w3.org/2000/svg%22" xmlns:cc="%22http://creativecommons.org/ns%23%22" xmlns:data="data" xmlns:dc="%22http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/%22%3E" xmlns:rdf="%22http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns%23%22">The Green New Deal: Why the Fossil Fuel Civilization Will Collapse by 2028, and the Bold Economic Plan to Save Life on Earth </a><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://kpfa.org/episode/letters-and-politics-september-17-2019/" data:image="data:image" svg="svg" xml="xml" csvg="Csvg" height="%2213%22" width="%2213%22" version="%221.1%22" cg="Cg" transform="%22translate%28-36.467808%2C-258.39005%29%22%3E" cpath="Cpath" d="%22m40.55%2C263.9c0-0.6213%2C0.6213-0.6213%2C0.6213-0.6213%2C1.864%2C0.6213%2C3.107%2C1.864%2C3.728%2C3.728%2C0%2C0%2C0%2C0.6213-0.6213%2C0.6213-1.243-1.864-1.864-2.485-3.728-3.728z%22/%3E" c="C" g="g" e="E" rgb="rgb" padding-right="padding-right" px="px" font-size="font-size" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;" xmlns="%22http://www.w3.org/2000/svg%22" xmlns:cc="%22http://creativecommons.org/ns%23%22" xmlns:data="data" xmlns:dc="%22http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/%22%3E" xmlns:rdf="%22http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns%23%22">audio interview 9/19</a>.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">rifkin</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div></div>vw commmit 80b$ to ev, last gas 2026, 2028 22 mil ev, 1/4 of total (but note germany now 40% solar N WIND, target 100% 2040?<div>=</div><div><a href="https://www.democracynow.org/2019/8/16/vann_newkirk_great_land_robbery">https://www.democracynow.org/2019/8/16/vann_newkirk_great_land_robbery</a></div><div>
</div><div>O<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); color: rgb(25, 31, 36); font-family: Roboto, " helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" letter-spacing="letter-spacing">ver the 20th century, black people in the U.S. were dispossessed of 12 million acres of land. Half of that loss — 6 million acres — occurred over just two decades, from 1950 to 1969, a period largely associated with the civil rights struggle. This mass land dispossession, which affected 98% of black agricultural land owners, is part of the pattern of institutional racism and discrimination that has contributed to the racial wealth gap in the United States. Many of the driving forces behind this land theft were legal and originated in federal policies, as documented by Vann Newkirk, staff writer at The Atlantic. His latest piece for the magazine is the September cover story: “The Great Land Robbery: The shameful story of how 1 million black families have been ripped from their farms.”</div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); color: rgb(25, 31, 36); font-family: Roboto, " helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" letter-spacing="letter-spacing"></div> =CalSTRS, the largest public teachers’ pension fund in the country, currently invests over $6 billionin the fossil fuel industry—an investment that is both immoral and financially under-performing. Divesting this fund from fossil fuels will improve teachers’ retirement income, and send a huge message to global financial markets that fossil fuel investments are no longer acceptable. Reinvesting those funds in the clean energy economy will give our kids’ futures a fighting chance.So this year #YourTeacherHasHomework.  We want teachers to tell CalSTRS to divest from fossil fuels; and we want teachers to tell their union chapter to pass a <a href="https://docs.google.com/document/d/1n-tX54D2kquPImxXcSt_yT_FFrUahgxHftFElM7U-RU/edit?usp=sharing" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;">resolution</a> for CalSTRS to divest.What You Can Do to Help<ul style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 10px; background-color: rgba(229, 229, 229, 0.5);"><li style="box-sizing: border-box;">Contact your teachers’ union and ask it to endorse a <a href="https://docs.google.com/document/d/1n-tX54D2kquPImxXcSt_yT_FFrUahgxHftFElM7U-RU/edit?usp=sharing" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;">resolution</a> to divest CalSTRS.</li><li style="box-sizing: border-box;">Add your voice to the thousands who have already urged CalSTRS to divest: <a href="https://fossilfreeca.org/petition" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;">Sign our petition</a></li><li style="box-sizing: border-box;">Want to gather petition signatures?  <a href="https://fossilfreeca.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/NEW_Petition2018-8.pdf" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;">Download Blank Petition</a></li><li style="box-sizing: border-box;">Want to contact the Board directly? Send a personal message to the CalSTRS Board at <a href="mailto:board@calstrs.com" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;">board@calstrs.com</a></li></ul><a href="https://fossilfreeca.org/campaigns/#CalSTRS">https://fossilfreeca.org/campaigns/#CalSTRS</a><blockquote style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">May 8th, Fossil Free California teamed up with students from Youth vs. Apocalypse and Earth Guardians to bring our message straight to CalSTRS—divest from fossil fuels! More than 20 students skipped school that day to tell the CalSTRS Investment Committee to stop investing in the destruction of their future.</blockquote>CalSTRS was so taken aback that they attempted to censor the youths' testimony by refusing to record it on their video live-stream. That didn't stop the word from getting out, however, as several radio stations covered the event, including KPFA: <a rel="nofollow" target="blank" href="https://u1584542.ct.sendgrid.net/mpss/c/9gA/ni0YAA/t.2rv/iapUcntDRCGCnIyZkaI0LA/h1/9GJXOhJWbx9C2cbJgrP6rCEdVdz0ACjVqhyZEpGdO7fX1Hn4XqkPEitOHVsQ2UXnCQwooRRNrPeG3991NEGb5GJVFHiwJBnDjh8CiDdXgpD8zfHZEFqQYPkxTPIOBOoQfqNv-2Fh7V99TGiTqyeFUYcVOf4wn-2B46x0nTyWRyb-2Bp-2FzW8nB6Lx3IuBcyEU6ELmQv11w1Wk85pOHGgJiKz3912uTBmHd4rwJ690IgNdNFRRpKLWPs0uoHoPlabR2DJz9OyVziNeysd8MMuoxormn8-2FDklCilhws-2FDMA-2BG3eKHPmYWTD-2F2FpC5PSc0uSs0Lik-2F9VtPL3CnL-2FsAWmRhR6-2BvsSppY7b8oF-2BzgySv7KALhU5mMnZy498ZyhDPC7RbgC4K">listen here</a>.
Inspired by this success, the students have promised to return to CalSTRS' meetings in July and September, and FFCA has hired a part-time organizer to make sure that many more students join us at these next meeting919 supertyphoon 28 coal plants, 28 more coming, CA PP $ kpfa=<a href="https://insideclimatenews.org/news/06022018/marathon-oil-shareholder-resolution-human-rights-dakota-access-environment-social-risk-disclosure">https://insideclimatenews.org/news/06022018/marathon-oil-shareholder-resolution-human-rights-dakota-access-environment-social-risk-disclosure</a>
<div class="panel-pane pane-node-content" style="box-sizing: inherit;"><div class="pane-content" style="box-sizing: inherit;"><article id="node-48885" class="node node-article node-promoted node-content-48885 full clearfix" about="/news/06022018/marathon-oil-shareholder-resolution-human-rights-dakota-access-environment-social-risk-disclosure" typeof="sioc:Item foaf:Document" role="article" style="box-sizing: inherit;"><div class="content" style="box-sizing: inherit;"><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden" style="box-sizing: inherit;"><div class="field-items" style="box-sizing: inherit;"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded" style="box-sizing: inherit;">The clash between the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe and backers of the <a href="https://insideclimatenews.org/tags/dakota-access-pipeline" target="blank" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; background-color: transparent;">Dakota Access pipeline</a> unfolded in news clips of violence, intolerance and humiliation. Demonstrators against the pipeline were met with snarling guard dogs, armed security officers and fire hoses that drenched them during freezing weather.  For a block of shareholders in Marathon Petroleum Corp., an Ohio-based company that bought a minority interest in the Dakota Access pipeline just as <a href="https://insideclimatenews.org/news/24112016/police-dakota-access-protesters-aclu-amnesty-international-standing-rock" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; background-color: transparent;">tensions hit a flashpoint</a> in 2016, it was an unsettling scene that played out on social media and network news.<a href="https://insideclimatenews.org/tags/dakota-access-pipeline" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold;">What happened</a> in full view of the world on the remote plains of North Dakota has prompted a shareholder resolution calling on <a href="http://www.marathonpetroleum.com/" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold;">Marathon</a> to explain how it identifies and addresses environmental and social risks—including potential violations of the rights of indigenous peoples—when making business decisions related to acquisitions."The construction and operation of energy infrastructure in North America requires respect for rigorous standards of environmental review and the human rights of Indigenous Peoples," <a href="https://tools.ceres.org/resources/tools/resolutions/report-on-environmental-and-human-rights-due-diligence-process/@@s3_view" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold;">the resolution</a> says.The shareholders argue that Marathon, which contributed $500 million in partnership with Enbridge to buy a $2 billion stake in the Bakken pipeline system that included Dakota Access, must consider environmental and human rights issues when assessing risks associated with purchases. They cite the <a href="https://www.un.org/development/desa/indigenouspeoples/declaration-on-the-rights-of-indigenous-peoples.html" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold;">United Nations' Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples</a> as a measure of the expectations for considering the rights of indigenous people to "free, prior and informed consent prior to the approval of any projects affecting their traditional territory.""When such risks are not adequately considered, decisions can be made that lead to reputational, regulatory and financial loss," says the resolution, which will be considered during the company's <a href="https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/marathon-petroleum-corp-announces-2018-annual-meeting-of-shareholders-300589278.html" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold;">annual meeting</a> in Findlay, Ohio, on April 25.The shareholders say the value of their investments could be jeopardized by the negative image created by future confrontations that could result in damage to the company's reputation.So, they are asking Marathon to prepare a report that describes the review process used to identify and address environmental and social risks in reviewing potential acquisitions. They want the company to consider a number of points, including how environmental and social risks are identified and assessed; which international standards are used to define the company's human rights; and how this information is calculated into business decisions.Jamal Kheiry, communications manager for Marathon, said the company had no comment. The company's position will be spelled out later in its proxy statement that addresses business to be conducted at the meeting.<h3 style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 0.5em; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.333;">Human Rights Risks Are Investment Risks</h3>The resolution by Marathon shareholders is one of more than two dozen resolutions on environmental matters filed with oil and gas companies. Those resolutions, which address concerns such as reducing methane emissions and curbing global warming, could be considered during annual meetings usually scheduled throughout the spring.Marathon shareholders <a href="https://tools.ceres.org/resources/tools/resolutions/report-on-environmental-social-due-diligence-for-acquisitions/@@s3_view" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold;">filed a similar resolution last year</a> that met resistance from the company but still earned approval by 35 percent of the company's stockholders who voted.The New York State Comptroller's Office, which manages public employee pension funds that are major shareholders, was the lead sponsor of both resolutions.Although the office declined to discuss the resolution in detail, Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli said a year ago that investors had a right to know how Marathon considered the rights of indigenous peoples."Given the nationwide protests and controversy that surrounded the Dakota Access Pipeline, we assume Marathon would have undertaken robust due diligence before getting involved with that project," DiNapoli said in <a href="https://www.osc.state.ny.us/press/releases/mar17/032717.htm" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; background-color: transparent;">a 2017 statement</a>. "Risks to the environment and to human rights create risks for our pension fund's investments and should be addressed as part of a sustainable business plan."<h3 style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 0.5em; padding: 0px; font-weight: normal; line-height: 1.333;">Why Marathon Says It Opposed the Resolution </h3>The company, in its proxy statement last year, said it "respects the human, cultural and legal rights of individuals and communities" but still urged shareholders to reject the resolution.Preparing the kind of reports sought through the resolution would require a highly customized study of projects under consideration, <a href="http://www.marathonpetroleum.com/content/documents/investor_center/proxy_statements/2017MPCProxyStatement.pdf" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold;">the company's 2017 proxy statement said. </a>"Providing a report of the nature the proponent seeks would require (Marathon) to present an incomplete and potentially misleading picture of prospective strategic transactions," it said.Marathon's Board of Directors argued that the company's community engagement program provided a forum and allowed adequate opportunity for any group to make its positions known.The resolution resonated with shareholders, though, said Jonas Kron, a senior vice president for <a href="http://www.trilliuminvest.com/" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; background-color: transparent;">Trillium Asset Management</a>, a Boston-based company that focuses on socially responsible investing and that filed the resolution.Similar resolutions addressing environmental and social justice issues with oil and gas companies typically generate around 20 percent approval, he said. "This vote shows the intensity of the issue with shareholders," he said. "I would hope they would be more responsive to such a significant plurality, and take steps to reexamine the way they consider indigenous people issues and maybe don't get involved with these types of projects."A year ago, Marathon sought permission from the Securities Exchange Commission to suppress the resolution. The commission, which regulates publicly traded companies like Marathon, rejected the company's request.This year, Marathon has not tried to block the resolution and is in discussions with DiNapoli's office. "Should Marathon decide to endorse its provisions as company policy, the comptroller will ask that the proposal be withdrawn from consideration at the annual meeting," Patrick Doherty, the comptroller's director of corporate governance, <a href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/4366641-NY-Comptroller-Marathon-Petroleum-Corp.html" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; background-color: transparent;">wrote to Marathon</a>.<h3 style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 0.5em; padding: 0px; font-weight: normal; line-height: 1.333;">'People Are at Stake'</h3>Shareholders in Marathon's partner, Enbridge Inc., a Canadian pipeline company that owns more than 10,000 miles of pipelines in Canada and the United States, filed a <a href="https://www.wespath.org/assets/1/7/16-11-21_enbridge_resolution_final_iccr_3.pdf" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold;">similar resolution last year</a> that was also sparked by the faceoff at Standing Rock."To put it very bluntly, the protest, the movement, if you will, could most likely have been prevented," Chad Harrison, a Standing Rock councilman, said during the Enbridge shareholders meeting last year.The solution would have been for the company to engage the people affected by the pipeline, he said. "People are at stake," Harrison said, according to <a href="http://www.enbridge.com/_{/media/Enb/Documents/Investor%20Relations/2017/2017_ENB_AGM_Transcript.pdf}" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; background-color: transparent;">a transcript</a>. "People on the ground, people where pipelines are built."Although Enbridge opposed the resolution and it was defeated, the company nevertheless vowed to update its policy on indigenous peoples and expand its disclosures about how it addresses human rights."One thing that shouldn't be in doubt is the fact that we recognize and respect the legal and constitutional rights of indigenous peoples, and the vital relationship they have with traditional lands and resources," Enbridge President and CEO Al Monaco <a href="http://www.enbridge.com/media-center/media-statements/al-monaco-statement-on-shareholder-resolution" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; background-color: transparent;">said in a statement</a> following the shareholders meeting.The Dakota Access pipeline is part of Marathon's 8,300 mile pipeline system. It begins in the Bakken oil fields of North Dakota and runs nearly 1,200 miles to Illinois, where it connects to other pipelines that carry oil to refineries as far south as Texas. Along the way, it crosses hundreds of streams, rivers and other waterways, including the Missouri River a half-mile upstream from the Standing Rock reservation.The people of Standing Rock rely on the river for drinking water, irrigation and fishing.A prolonged protest involving people from more than 100 tribal nations, along with veterans and supporters from across the country, began in 2016 during construction of the pipeline. Along with their fear of polluted water, the tribe decried the desecration of sacred sites and the loss of tribal sovereignty; issues that highlighted the tribe <a href="https://insideclimatenews.org/news/08092016/standing-rock-sioux-tribe-energy-transfer-dakota-access-pipeline-oil-environmental-justice" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; background-color: transparent;">long-standing struggle for social justice.</a>Oil began flowing through the $3.78 billion pipeline last year. It was designed to carry 470,000 barrels of oil a day.Jodi Gillette of Standing Rock, a former adviser to President Barack Obama on Native American affairs, reminded Marathon shareholders last year of the tribe's <a href="https://www.standingrock.org/content/history" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; background-color: transparent;">rich heritage</a>. While she said she believes the company can change, she said this of Marathon executives: "They are the ones who will have to look their grandchildren in the eye and say they are the ones who continue the abuse of the indigenous people of America even when they had the chance to change."</div></div></div></div></article></div></div><div></div><div><a href="https://insideclimatenews.org/news/01022018/new-york-pension-fund-doubles-climate-investment-investors-risk-summit">
</a><a href="https://insideclimatenews.org/news/01022018/new-york-pension-fund-doubles-climate-investment-investors-risk-summit">https://insideclimatenews.org/news/01022018/new-york-pension-fund-doubles-climate-investment-investors-risk-summit</a></div><div>
</div><div><div class="content" style="box-sizing: inherit;"><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden" style="box-sizing: inherit;"><div class="field-items" style="box-sizing: inherit;"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded" style="box-sizing: inherit;">America's third-largest public pension fund is ramping up its climate-savvy investments, New York State Comptroller Thomas P. DiNapoli announced to global finance leaders on Wednesday.The fund, a huge and influential investor, plans to <a href="https://www.osc.state.ny.us/press/releases/jan18/013118.htm" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold;">double its stake to $4 billion</a> in a portfolio of companies that disclose and seek to lower their emissions of global warming pollution."We've particularly been concerned about how we can address the issue of climate risk and benefit our portfolio," DiNapoli said, speaking at the Investor Summit on Climate Risk, where money managers called for investors to face up to the risks of <a href="https://insideclimatenews.org/topics/climate-change" style="box-sizing: inherit; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold;">climate change</a> and to accelerate action to fight global warming.As the summit was underway at the United Nations on Wednesday, the UK Government's Met Office published an ominous new five-year <a href="https://www.metoffice.gov.uk/news/releases/2018/decadal-forecast-2018" style="box-sizing: inherit; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold;">forecast</a> that adds urgency to the investors' climate concerns: Annual global temperatures could reach 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels within the next five years, the Met Office warned. The aim of the <a href="https://insideclimatenews.org/tags/paris-climate-agreement" style="box-sizing: inherit; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold;">Paris climate agreement</a> is to prevent warming from getting much beyond that level.  The $2 billion in additional investment DiNapoli announced will go into a low-emissions index fund that New York's Common Retirement Fund created in 2016. While the low-emissions index fund—which has had an annualized investment <a href="https://www.osc.state.ny.us/press/releases/jan18/013118.htm" style="box-sizing: inherit; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold;">return</a> of 16.5 percent—represents just a fraction of the pension fund's more than $200 billion in assets, DiNapoli said he hopes to continue to grow the low-carbon portfolio.The special climate fund is based on a traditional index fund made up of leading corporations, except that it weights its investments by considering whether the companies disclose their carbon footprints and act to reduce them.<h3 style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 0.5em; padding: 0px; font-weight: normal; line-height: 1.333;">Shareholders Push for Risk Disclosure</h3><div>...</div></div></div></div></div></div><div><header class="entry-header post" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 0.46em; padding: 0.69em 2.3em 0.7659em; border: 0px; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 24px; vertical-align: baseline; position: relative; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;"><h2 class="entry-title" itemprop="name headline" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 0.28em; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: normal; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 5.5rem; vertical-align: baseline; text-shadow: rgb(238, 238, 238) 0px 1px 0px;">Discover The Network Out To Crush Our Public Workers</h2><time class="blog-date date updated" datetime="2012-08-13T11:49:12+00:00" itemprop="datePublished" title="August 13, 2012" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 6px 0px 0px 2px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 2.52rem; vertical-align: baseline; display: block; text-transform: uppercase;">AUGUST 13, 2012</time><div class="post-format-icon author_link" data-author-page="https://ourfuture.org/author/davejohnson" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; position: absolute; top: 15px; width: 60px; height: 60px; cursor: pointer; left: -60px; background-size: 64%; background-position: center center !important; background-repeat: no-repeat !important;">");"></div><div itemprop="author" itemscope="" itemtype="http://schema.org/Person" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;"><div class="author-thing author_link" data-author-page="https://plus.google.com/u/0/106299990318494374095" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;"><a href="http://ourfuture.org/" title="Visit Dave Johnson’s website" rel="author external" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none; outline: 0px;">Dave Johnson</a></div></div></header><div class="entry-content" itemprop="articleBody" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; border: 0px; font-stretch: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; padding: 1em 0.65em 0.3em !important;"><p style="line-height: 33.2357px; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 16px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; border-image-source: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-width: initial; border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;">It is difficult to read, watch or listen to the news without hearing that public employees are paid too much and get “lucrative” pensions and this is “bankrupting” your state, county or city. Public officials are “in bed” with “union bosses” and state and local government; taxpayer dollars are wasted to pay for people who don’t do much work but live the good life. “Reports” and “studies” confirm this.<p style="line-height: 33.2357px; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 16px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; border-image-source: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-width: initial; border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;">People hear the same story over and over and over and over, seemingly coming from everywhere: public employees have it good, with extravagant pay and “lavish” or “plush” pensions, while taxpayers are taking it in the shorts. Public-employee pensions are “bankrupting” the state/county/city. “Unfunded liabilities” are “out of control” and it is time to do something about it before it is too late.<p style="line-height: 33.2357px; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 16px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; border-image-source: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-width: initial; border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;">This is part of a broad, nationwide attack on public employees and their unions, and through them, on government and democracy itself.<p style="line-height: 33.2357px; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 16px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; border-image-source: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-width: initial; border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;">A few weeks ago I wrote about the nature of this constant attack in a post, <a href="http://www.ourfuture.org/blog-entry/2010125230/conservatives-claim-unions-caused-ny-snow-jam" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none; outline: 0px;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;">Conservatives Claim Unions Caused NY Snow Jam</a>.<p style="line-height: 33.2357px; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 16px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; border-image-source: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-width: initial; border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;">After the record-breaking snowstorm in New York in late-December, the media ran with a story claiming that the reason the snow was not cleared was because of a slowdown by unions. My post showed the progression of the story from one conservative outlet to another, until it reached the mass media. I wrote,<blockquote style="line-height: inherit; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 3px 20px 0px 19px; border-width: 0px 0px 0px 1px; border-left-style: solid; border-left-color: rgb(221, 221, 221); font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; quotes: none;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 16px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 31.6643px; vertical-align: baseline;">The right’s propaganda machine begins with a simple narrative, repeats it endlessly, and then ties current events to the narrative to drive the point home. The corporate/conservative right are currently working a narrative that public employees and their unions are the reason for state and local budget problems. This is repeated endlessly, and every current event that hits the news is then used to support the claim. This is how an untruth becomes “conventional wisdom.”<p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 16px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 31.6643px; vertical-align: baseline;">. . . The story claims the unions did this to protest budget cuts. Of course the obvious cause of the snow mess was that <span style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;">budget cuts caused the problem because there were not enough people employed to clear the snow.<p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 16px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 31.6643px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">“Noise Machine”<p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 16px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 31.6643px; vertical-align: baseline;">The way the right’s “noise machine” works is that a story gets started somewhere and is amplified by the right-wing media machine that includes FOX, Limbaugh and scores more talk-radio hosts, blogs, newspapers and magazines. And in this case, of course the story is being spread by … FOX, Limbaugh and scores more talk-radio hosts, blogs, newspapers and magazines. The idea is to create enough “noise” that the mainstream press picks up the story.</blockquote><p style="line-height: 33.2357px; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 16px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; border-image-source: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-width: initial; border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">It Was A Hoax<p style="line-height: 33.2357px; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 16px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; border-image-source: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-width: initial; border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;">In fact, the recent “union snow slowdown” turned out to be a hoax. But it fit an ongoing narrative, so it was used to help drive the anti-public-employee-union point.And it was repeated endlessly, everywhere. Laura Flanders, writing at The Nation, <a href="http://www.thenation.com/blog/158110/setting-story-straight-snow-slowdown" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none; outline: 0px;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;">Setting the Story Straight on Snow ‘Slowdown’</a>,<blockquote style="line-height: inherit; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 3px 20px 0px 19px; border-width: 0px 0px 0px 1px; border-left-style: solid; border-left-color: rgb(221, 221, 221); font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; quotes: none;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 16px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 31.6643px; vertical-align: baseline;">The freshman councilman, who has Tea Party support, now says that workers “were subtly informed there was no need to rush” while clearing snow, rather than explicitly told to slow it down.</blockquote><p style="line-height: 33.2357px; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 16px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; border-image-source: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-width: initial; border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">A Distraction From The Real Problems<p style="line-height: 33.2357px; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 16px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; border-image-source: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-width: initial; border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;">These state pension reform campaigns across the country come at a time when so many states are in a terrible budget squeeze and are looking for solutions. This storyline diverts public attention from the real culprits. Of course, the obvious solution is to ask the wealthy to pay their fair share, and to cut back on tax breaks, subsidies and “incentive programs” for corporations. The campaign attempts to distract voters from the obvious and lead them to different conclusions, including:<p style="line-height: 33.2357px; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 16px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; border-image-source: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-width: initial; border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;">1) Don’t raise state taxes, cut public employee pensions instead. 2) Public employee unions are strangling us and keeping the budget high.<p style="line-height: 33.2357px; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 16px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; border-image-source: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-width: initial; border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;">The story also diverts the public from asking where all that pension money went. Right when people should be blaming the financial industry and the financial crisis they caused for state pension shortfalls, up come these studies and PR tactics blaming public employee pensions and unions.<p style="line-height: 33.2357px; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 16px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; border-image-source: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-width: initial; border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;">The fact that this is happening in several states, from organizations linked in many ways, with similar language, similar tactics, quoting the same “studies”, from organizations with similar boards, etc. suggests this is a coordinated strategy, designed to have the appearance of popular uprising.<p style="line-height: 33.2357px; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 16px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; border-image-source: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-width: initial; border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">In One State<p style="line-height: 33.2357px; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 16px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; border-image-source: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-width: initial; border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;">This is a brief look at one small part of a state “pension reform” campaign that is occurring in California.<p style="line-height: 33.2357px; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 16px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; border-image-source: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-width: initial; border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;">Here is the smallest of examples of the daily barrage of the anti-public-employee campaign: two letters to editor on one day in <a href="http://www.mercurynews.com/opinion/ci_17295492?nclick_check=1" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none; outline: 0px;">a recent San Jose Mercury News</a><blockquote style="line-height: inherit; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 3px 20px 0px 19px; border-width: 0px 0px 0px 1px; border-left-style: solid; border-left-color: rgb(221, 221, 221); font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; quotes: none;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 16px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 31.6643px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Pension overhaul must be part of any tax deal<p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 16px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 31.6643px; vertical-align: baseline;">Labor groups such as Service Employees International Union and the California Labor Federation are threatening lawmakers who refuse to support a ballot initiative to raise or extend certain taxes with a negative ad campaign. They further warn that if new and higher taxes are not approved, K-12 education programs will face further cuts. I find it interesting how they move the focus of the debate from the real problem, public sector pension programs. These pension programs, not our present tax structure, are robbing our children of educational funds. All Californians, whether Democrat, Republican or independent, would be foolish to vote for any increase or new tax until public sector pensions are replaced with contributory 401(k) plans for new employees.<p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 16px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 31.6643px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Big pensions help California? Really?<p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 16px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 31.6643px; vertical-align: baseline;">[A person’s] claim that “California public retirees put back $2 into the economy for every $1 they receive in pensions” should come as welcome news to taxpayers fuming over the state’s hundreds of billions of dollars of unfunded pension liabilities (Letters, Feb. 3). Beyond showing immense gratitude for this bountiful effect on our economy, taxpayers need to go further, and mandate that all public retirees be given a minimum pension of, say, $1 million annually. All this extra money sloshing around our economy will solve our woes in short order, and will have the added benefit of eliminating the need for public employees to “pension spike” their final year of employment.</blockquote><p style="line-height: 33.2357px; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 16px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; border-image-source: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-width: initial; border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;">Most newspapers around the country likely have similar letters on almost any given day.<p style="line-height: 33.2357px; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 16px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; border-image-source: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-width: initial; border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;">A bigger example of the campaign, closer to its source, came in a January 18, 2011 LA times op-ed, <a href="http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-fritz-pension-reform-20110118,0,7987400.story" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none; outline: 0px;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;">Pension reform or else</a>, that talks of “retirement scandals” in which a fire chief gets a $200,000 pension, and tuition increases that will go to cover “pension debt.” It also scares readers about huge pension obligations, attempting to make people think that public employees enjoy lucrative pensions while the rest of us receive very little.<p style="line-height: 33.2357px; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 16px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; border-image-source: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-width: initial; border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;">A tip-off that helps us understand the agenda underlying this op-ed comes when the author declares: “Although the public employee union bosses will fight to retain them, financially unsustainable pension benefits must end.” <span style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; border-image-source: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-width: initial; border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;">Whenever you hear someone refer to “union bosses” you know something is going on under the surface. From the op-ed,<blockquote style="line-height: inherit; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 3px 20px 0px 19px; border-width: 0px 0px 0px 1px; border-left-style: solid; border-left-color: rgb(221, 221, 221); font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; quotes: none;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 16px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 31.6643px; vertical-align: baseline;">Taxpayers are often shocked to learn that they are paying 100% of the cost of pension and retiree healthcare benefits for many public employees. When employees must contribute their own money toward their retirement, they generally opt for benefits they can afford, and if workers are given the opportunity to opt out of retiree healthcare benefits, many will continue to work until they are covered by Medicare. Delaying retirement just five years would, on average, cut pension costs in half.</blockquote><p style="line-height: 33.2357px; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 16px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; border-image-source: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-width: initial; border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;">The author is identified as “Marcia Fritz … a certified public accountant and president of the California Foundation for Fiscal Responsibility, a nonprofit organization dedicated to advancing pension reform in the state.” While Fritz’s organization is named “California Foundation for Fiscal Responsibility” (CFFR) their website is actually named <a href="http://www.californiapensionreform.com/" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none; outline: 0px;">California Pension Reform</a>.<p style="line-height: 33.2357px; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 16px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; border-image-source: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-width: initial; border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;">CFFR’s <a href="http://www.californiapensionreform.com/about/board/" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none; outline: 0px;">Board of Directors</a>, includes Jack Dean, Vice President.<p style="line-height: 33.2357px; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 16px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; border-image-source: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-width: initial; border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Following Threads<p style="line-height: 33.2357px; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 16px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; border-image-source: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-width: initial; border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;">Jack Dean’s name is on this page as a link. If you click the link it takes you to the website of an organization named <a href="http://www.pensiontsunami.com/" style="font-weight: inherit; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; border-image-source: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-width: initial; border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none; outline: 0px;">Pension Tsunami</a>, “a project of the California Public Policy Center.” From the website,<blockquote style="line-height: inherit; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 3px 20px 0px 19px; border-width: 0px 0px 0px 1px; border-left-style: solid; border-left-color: rgb(221, 221, 221); font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; quotes: none;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 16px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 31.6643px; vertical-align: baseline;">The oncoming wave of pension debt is even bigger than it seems. The purpose of this website is to provide an overview of the multiple pension crises that are about to drown America’s taxpayers. Our primary focus is on California, but we also track other states, corporate pensions, social security and international trends. PensionTsunami.com is a project of the California Public Policy Center.</blockquote><p style="line-height: 33.2357px; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 16px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; border-image-source: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-width: initial; border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Who Is CPPC?<p style="line-height: 33.2357px; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 16px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; border-image-source: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-width: initial; border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;">So just what is this <a href="http://californiapublicpolicycenter.org/" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none; outline: 0px;">California Public Policy Center</a>? From their website:<blockquote style="line-height: inherit; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 3px 20px 0px 19px; border-width: 0px 0px 0px 1px; border-left-style: solid; border-left-color: rgb(221, 221, 221); font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; quotes: none;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 16px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 31.6643px; vertical-align: baseline;">The mission of the California Public Policy Center is to promote the gathering of reliable and accurate information about the impact unions have on the local, state, and national level, to inform the public about such impact, and to carry on other charitable and educational activities associated with this goal, as allowed by law.</blockquote><p style="line-height: 33.2357px; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 16px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; border-image-source: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-width: initial; border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;">Ah,<span style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;"> it’s about unions, not pensions. Aside from Pension Tsunami, CPPC also administers:<a href="http://unionwatch.org/" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none; outline: 0px;">UNIONWATCH</a><blockquote style="line-height: inherit; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 3px 20px 0px 19px; border-width: 0px 0px 0px 1px; border-left-style: solid; border-left-color: rgb(221, 221, 221); font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; quotes: none;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 16px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 31.6643px; vertical-align: baseline;">UnionWatch was established in 2010 as a project of the California Public Policy Center to conduct research and provide information resources to voters, members of the press, educators and policymakers on the impact of unions on government budgets, government accountability, the economy and the democratic process. While UnionWatch endeavors to report and analyze national and international impacts of unions, the emphasis is on the impact of public sector unions, especially in California.</blockquote><p style="line-height: 33.2357px; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 16px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; border-image-source: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-width: initial; border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;">Interestingly, the site declares that “UnionWatch is a Nonpartisan Effort.” We’ll see.<p style="line-height: 33.2357px; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 16px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; border-image-source: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-width: initial; border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;">The CPPC Board of Directors includes Mark W. Bucher, Esq., who also founded the Education Alliance,<blockquote style="line-height: inherit; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 3px 20px 0px 19px; border-width: 0px 0px 0px 1px; border-left-style: solid; border-left-color: rgb(221, 221, 221); font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; quotes: none;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 16px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 31.6643px; vertical-align: baseline;">a group dedicated to assisting school board candidates who are independent of education unions, as well as authoring, qualifying, and chairing the 1998 Proposition 226, which would have required unions to receive permission to use their members’ dues for political purposes.<p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 16px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 31.6643px; vertical-align: baseline;">Bucher also oversaw the qualification of the 2000 Proposition 38, a school choice initiative, and currently serves as the treasurer of the Orange County Republican Party and the Orange County Lincoln Club.</blockquote><p style="line-height: 33.2357px; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 16px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; border-image-source: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-width: initial; border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;">A bit of time on The Google also finds that Bucher is on the Board of <a href="http://www.familyactionpac.com/about/leadership/leadership.htm" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; border-image-source: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-width: initial; border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none; outline: 0px;">Family Action Pac</a> which launched an anti-union ballot initiative: Here is the summary, which provides a pretty good description of what this initiative will accomplish, if passed:<blockquote style="line-height: inherit; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 3px 20px 0px 19px; border-width: 0px 0px 0px 1px; border-left-style: solid; border-left-color: rgb(221, 221, 221); font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; quotes: none;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 16px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 31.6643px; vertical-align: baseline;">Makes Illegal the Use of Public Employee Wage Deductions for Political Activities.<p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 16px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 31.6643px; vertical-align: baseline;">Amends the California Constitution to make it illegal to deduct from wages or earnings of a public employee any amount that will be used for political activities as defined. Prohibits any membership organization that receives public employee wage deductions from using those funds for any political activities …</blockquote><p style="line-height: 33.2357px; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 16px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; border-image-source: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-width: initial; border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;">Also on the Board is Robert W. Loewen, President of the Republican Lincoln Club of Orange County author/editor of <span style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; border-image-source: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-width: initial; border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;">“The Confederate and Neo-Confederate Reader”.<p style="line-height: 33.2357px; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 16px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; border-image-source: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-width: initial; border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;">Anti-union, vouchers, Republican Party and neo-confederates. And just three guys. Where does pension reform fit in this mix? <span style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;">Pension Tsunami and UnionWatch — <a href="http://www.californiapublicpolicycenter.org/projects/" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none; outline: 0px;">according to</a> the website <span style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;">this is all the California Public Policy Center does. Not a lot of “public policy” going on at this “public policy center.” Interesting.<p style="line-height: 33.2357px; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 16px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; border-image-source: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-width: initial; border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;">Exploring further, one group of links at the Pension Tsunami website is a list of “think tanks” they want readers to visit:<blockquote style="line-height: inherit; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 3px 20px 0px 19px; border-width: 0px 0px 0px 1px; border-left-style: solid; border-left-color: rgb(221, 221, 221); font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; quotes: none;"><p style="font-weight: inherit; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 16px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; border-image-source: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-width: initial; border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 31.6643px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;">PensionTsumani: THINK TANKS<p style="font-weight: inherit; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 16px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; border-image-source: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-width: initial; border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 31.6643px; vertical-align: baseline;"><a href="http://www.bipps.org/" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none; outline: 0px;">Bluegrass Institute for Public Policy Solutions</a><p style="font-weight: inherit; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 16px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; border-image-source: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-width: initial; border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 31.6643px; vertical-align: baseline;"><a href="http://www.calvertinstitute.org/" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none; outline: 0px;">Calvert Institute</a><p style="font-weight: inherit; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 16px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; border-image-source: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-width: initial; border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 31.6643px; vertical-align: baseline;"><a href="http://www.cato.org/" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none; outline: 0px;">Cato Institute</a><p style="font-weight: inherit; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 16px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; border-image-source: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-width: initial; border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 31.6643px; vertical-align: baseline;"><a href="http://claremont.org/" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none; outline: 0px;">Claremont Institute</a><p style="font-weight: inherit; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 16px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; border-image-source: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-width: initial; border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 31.6643px; vertical-align: baseline;"><a href="http://www.commonwealthfoundation.org/" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none; outline: 0px;">Commonwealth Foundation (PA)</a><p style="font-weight: inherit; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 16px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; border-image-source: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-width: initial; border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 31.6643px; vertical-align: baseline;"><a href="http://www.empirecenter.org/" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none; outline: 0px;">Empire Center for New York State Policy</a><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 16px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; border-image-source: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-width: initial; border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 31.6643px; vertical-align: baseline;"><a href="http://www.heartland.org/" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; border-image-source: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-width: initial; border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none; outline: 0px;">Heartland Institute</a><p style="font-weight: inherit; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 16px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; border-image-source: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-width: initial; border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 31.6643px; vertical-align: baseline;"><a href="http://illinoispolicy.org/" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none; outline: 0px;">Illinois Policy Institute</a><p style="font-weight: inherit; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 16px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; border-image-source: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-width: initial; border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 31.6643px; vertical-align: baseline;"><a href="http://www.independent.org/" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none; outline: 0px;">Independent Institute</a><p style="font-weight: inherit; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 16px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; border-image-source: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-width: initial; border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 31.6643px; vertical-align: baseline;"><a href="http://www.mises.org/" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none; outline: 0px;">Ludwig von Mises Institute</a><p style="font-weight: inherit; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 16px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; border-image-source: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-width: initial; border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 31.6643px; vertical-align: baseline;"><a href="http://www.manhattaninstitute.org/" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none; outline: 0px;">Manhattan Institute</a><p style="font-weight: inherit; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 16px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; border-image-source: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-width: initial; border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 31.6643px; vertical-align: baseline;"><a href="http://www.ncpa.org/" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none; outline: 0px;">National Center for Policy Analysis</a><p style="font-weight: inherit; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 16px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; border-image-source: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-width: initial; border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 31.6643px; vertical-align: baseline;"><a href="http://pacificresearch.org/" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none; outline: 0px;">Pacific Research Institute</a><p style="font-weight: inherit; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 16px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; border-image-source: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-width: initial; border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 31.6643px; vertical-align: baseline;"><a href="http://www.pensions-institute.org/" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none; outline: 0px;">Pensions Institute [UK]</a><p style="font-weight: inherit; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 16px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; border-image-source: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-width: initial; border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 31.6643px; vertical-align: baseline;"><a href="http://www.pewtrusts.org/news_room_detail.aspx?id=32368" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none; outline: 0px;">Pew Charitable Trusts</a><p style="font-weight: inherit; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 16px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; border-image-source: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-width: initial; border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 31.6643px; vertical-align: baseline;"><a href="http://www.reason.org/" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none; outline: 0px;">Reason Foundation</a><p style="font-weight: inherit; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 16px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; border-image-source: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-width: initial; border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 31.6643px; vertical-align: baseline;"><a href="http://retirementreform.ncpa.org/" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none; outline: 0px;">RetirementReform.org</a><p style="font-weight: inherit; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 16px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; border-image-source: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-width: initial; border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 31.6643px; vertical-align: baseline;"><a href="http://www.riograndefoundation.org/" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none; outline: 0px;">Rio Grande Foundation</a><p style="font-weight: inherit; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 16px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; border-image-source: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-width: initial; border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 31.6643px; vertical-align: baseline;"><a href="http://rfs.rockinst.org/" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none; outline: 0px;">Rockefeller Fiscal Studies</a><p style="font-weight: inherit; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 16px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; border-image-source: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-width: initial; border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 31.6643px; vertical-align: baseline;"><a href="http://sesfoundation.org/" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none; outline: 0px;">Sierra Environmental Studies Foundation</a><p style="font-weight: inherit; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 16px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; border-image-source: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-width: initial; border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 31.6643px; vertical-align: baseline;"><a href="http://www.thefreeenterprisenation.org/" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none; outline: 0px;">The Free Enterprise Nation</a><p style="font-weight: inherit; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 16px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; border-image-source: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-width: initial; border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 31.6643px; vertical-align: baseline;"><a href="http://www.yankeeinstitute.org/" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none; outline: 0px;">Yankee Institute</a></blockquote><p style="line-height: 33.2357px; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 16px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; border-image-source: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-width: initial; border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Exploring The Links<p style="line-height: 33.2357px; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 16px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; border-image-source: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-width: initial; border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;">It is worth exploring some of these related “Public Policy Institutes.” Let’s pull some threads and see what we find.<p style="line-height: 33.2357px; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 16px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; border-image-source: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-width: initial; border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;">The <a href="http://www.bipps.org/" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none; outline: 0px;">Bluegrass Institute for Public Policy Solutions</a>, in Kentucky, describes itself as a “free-market think tank.”<p style="line-height: 33.2357px; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 16px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; border-image-source: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-width: initial; border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;">The Bluegrass Institute runs <a href="http://www.freedomkentucky.org/index.php?title=Main_Page" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none; outline: 0px;">Freedom Kentucky</a> which has a section on <a href="http://www.freedomkentucky.org/index.php?title=Kentucky_Retirement_Systems" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none; outline: 0px;">Public Pensions</a> where you can find into “related to pension reform, Pension Reform Legislation, the teachers retirement system, and much more…”<p style="line-height: 33.2357px; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 16px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; border-image-source: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-width: initial; border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;">The <a href="http://www.calvertinstitute.org/" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none; outline: 0px;">Calvert Institute</a> (for Public Policy) is in Maryland, <a href="http://www.calvertinstitute.org/main/whycalvert.php" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none; outline: 0px;">describing itself</a> as a, “public policy research institution committed to generating new ideas based on the principles of free enterprise, limited government and personal responsibility.”<p style="line-height: 33.2357px; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 16px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; border-image-source: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-width: initial; border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;">Just a few things from their website:<ul style="line-height: inherit; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 20px 15px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; border-image-source: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-width: initial; border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none outside;"><li style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 12px 3em; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 2.75rem; vertical-align: baseline; list-style-type: disc;">G. Liebmann, “Pensions Dig Us Deeper into Debt”, Baltimore Examiner, 2008-09-28</li><li style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 12px 3em; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 2.75rem; vertical-align: baseline; list-style-type: disc;">Editorial, Pair of Think Tanks Issue Warning on Pensions, Baltimore Sun, 2008-10-30</li><li style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 12px 3em; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 2.75rem; vertical-align: baseline; list-style-type: disc;">J. Malarkey, Market Worsens Public Pension Crunch, Baltimore Examiner, 2008-10-31</li><li style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 12px 3em; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 2.75rem; vertical-align: baseline; list-style-type: disc;">Hit and Run Politics: Baltimore City and Maryland State Pensions: A Short History, George W. Liebmann 2010-09-30</li></ul><p style="line-height: 33.2357px; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 16px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; border-image-source: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-width: initial; border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; border-image-source: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-width: initial; border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;">The <a href="http://www.cato.org/" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; border-image-source: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-width: initial; border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none; outline: 0px;">Cato Institute</a>, “dedicated to the principles of individual liberty, limited government, free markets and peace,” warns regularly about <a href="http://www.cato-at-liberty.org/the-increasing-burden-of-government-employees-on-taxpayers/" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; border-image-source: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-width: initial; border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none; outline: 0px;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;">The Increasing Burden of Government Employees on Taxpayers</a> and <a href="http://www.cato.org/pubs/journal/cj30n1/cj30n1-5.pdf" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; border-image-source: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-width: initial; border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none; outline: 0px;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;">Public Sector Unions and the Rising Costs of Employee Compensation</a>.<p style="line-height: 33.2357px; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 16px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; border-image-source: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-width: initial; border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; border-image-source: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-width: initial; border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;">The <a href="http://claremont.org/" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none; outline: 0px;">Claremont Institute</a> says public employees are <a href="http://claremont.org/publications/crb/id.1776/article_detail.asp" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; border-image-source: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-width: initial; border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none; outline: 0px;">Neither Civil Nor Servants</a>,<blockquote style="line-height: inherit; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 3px 20px 0px 19px; border-width: 0px 0px 0px 1px; border-left-style: solid; border-left-color: rgb(221, 221, 221); font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; quotes: none;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 16px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 31.6643px; vertical-align: baseline;">Will a deep recession, mounting fiscal crises, and new revelations of gross abuse finally lead citizens to say “Enough!” to unionized public employees who have amassed power and benefits at the expense of the common good?</blockquote><p style="line-height: 33.2357px; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 16px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; border-image-source: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-width: initial; border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; border-image-source: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-width: initial; border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;">The <a href="http://www.commonwealthfoundation.org/" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; border-image-source: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-width: initial; border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none; outline: 0px;">Commonwealth Foundation</a>, in Pennsylvania. Their website says they work to, “demonstrate the societal benefits of individual liberty, free enterprise, and limited, accountable government so that key decision makers in Pennsylvania embrace them.”<p style="line-height: 33.2357px; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 16px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; border-image-source: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-width: initial; border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;">The Commonwealth Foundation discusses <a href="http://www.commonwealthfoundation.org/research/detail/union-pension-bailout-generational-theft" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none; outline: 0px;">Union Pension Bailout & Generational Theft</a> and warns that “Pennsylvania’s largest public pension plans … are severely underfunded.”<p style="line-height: 33.2357px; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 16px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; border-image-source: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-width: initial; border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;">Commonwealth Foundation Directors:<p style="line-height: 33.2357px; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 16px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; border-image-source: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-width: initial; border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;">Board Chair Michael W. Gleba. Treasurer of The <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Scaife_Foundations" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none; outline: 0px;">Carthage Foundation</a> (Scaife) Executive Vice President of The Sarah Scaife Foundation Board Member, <a href="http://www.alleghenyinstitute.org/" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none; outline: 0px;">Allegheny Institute</a> for Public Policy<p style="line-height: 33.2357px; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 16px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; border-image-source: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-width: initial; border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;">Mr. Matthew J. Brouillette (President & CEO): On an advisory committee for the New York City-based <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Koch_Family_Foundations" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none; outline: 0px;">Atlantic Legal Foundation</a>.<p style="line-height: 33.2357px; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 16px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; border-image-source: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-width: initial; border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;"><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=T.William_Boxx" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none; outline: 0px;">T. William Boxx</a> is the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of the <a href="http://old.mediatransparency.org/funderrecipientpersonconnections.php?funderID=12" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none; outline: 0px;">Phillip M. McKenna Foundation</a>.<p style="line-height: 33.2357px; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 16px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; border-image-source: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-width: initial; border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;">Frederick W. Anton III, Pma Capital Corp<p style="line-height: 33.2357px; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 16px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; border-image-source: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-width: initial; border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;">Glen Meakem | Conservative Talk Show Host<p style="line-height: 33.2357px; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 16px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; border-image-source: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-width: initial; border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;">Staff: Charles F. Mitchell is Vice President and COO of the Commonwealth Foundation for Public Policy Alternatives. … Previously, he was a program officer at the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education and an intern at the <span style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;">Heritage Foundation. Charles is a graduate of the<span style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;">Charles G. Koch Charitable Foundation’s Associate Program, the Mackinac Center’s Leadership Conference, and the Claremont Institute’s Publius Fellows Program.<p style="line-height: 33.2357px; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 16px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; border-image-source: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-width: initial; border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;">The <a href="http://www.empirecenter.org/" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none; outline: 0px;">Empire Center for New York State Policy</a> is a project of the Manhattan Institute for Policy Research. The Empire Center warns that “<a href="http://www.empirecenter.org/Special-Reports/2010/12/pensionexplosion120710.cfm" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none; outline: 0px;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;">New York’s Exploding Pension Costs</a>” are “threatening to divert scarce resources from other essential public services in the midst of a fiscal crisis.”<p style="line-height: 33.2357px; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 16px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; border-image-source: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-width: initial; border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;">Empire’s parent, the <a href="http://www.manhattan-institute.org/" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none; outline: 0px;">Manhattan Institute for Policy Research</a> is “shaping American political culture and developing ideas that foster economic choice and individual responsibility.” If you visit Manhattan Institute you will learn <a href="http://www.manhattan-institute.org/html/miarticle.htm?id=6868" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none; outline: 0px;">How Public Unions Took Taxpayers Hostage</a>, that<a href="http://www.manhattan-institute.org/html/miarticle.htm?id=5968" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none; outline: 0px;">Public Workers Feel No Pain In Recession</a>, <a href="http://www.manhattan-institute.org/html/miarticle.htm?id=6126" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none; outline: 0px;">N.Y. Public Workers Thrived Amid Misery</a>, <a href="http://www.manhattan-institute.org/html/miarticle.htm?id=6511" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none; outline: 0px;">Obama Puts Public Sector Employees Ahead of Private Sector</a>, <a href="http://www.manhattan-institute.org/html/miarticle.htm?id=6568" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none; outline: 0px;">A Cautionary Tale About California’s Budget-Busting Public-Sector Unions</a> and much, much more!<p style="line-height: 33.2357px; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 16px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; border-image-source: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-width: initial; border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;">Chairman of the Board Paul E. Singer, founder and CEO of <span style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;">hedge fund Elliott Management Corporation.<p style="line-height: 33.2357px; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 16px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; border-image-source: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-width: initial; border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;">Vice Chairman Michael J. Fedak. On National Council of <a href="http://www.aei.org/home" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none; outline: 0px;">The American Enterprise Institute</a>(which asks <a href="http://www.aei.org/audio/100673" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none; outline: 0px;">Public-Pension Deficits: How Big? Can They Ever Be Paid?</a>)<p style="line-height: 33.2357px; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 16px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; border-image-source: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-width: initial; border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;">Roger Hertog, chairman of the board of <span style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;">Alliance Captial Management Corporation (valued at about $100 billion)<p style="line-height: 33.2357px; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 16px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; border-image-source: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-width: initial; border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;">Charles H. Brunie, also a Trustee of the <a href="http://www.hudson.org/" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none; outline: 0px;">Hudson Institute</a>, an “organization dedicated to innovative research and analysis that promotes global security, prosperity, and freedom.” (Note: The Hudson Institute warns about <a href="https://www.hudson.org/bookstore/itemdetail.cfm?item=3101" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none; outline: 0px;">Union Pensions at Risk</a> as well as <a href="http://www.hudson.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=publication_details&id=6899" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none; outline: 0px;">Decrying the Union Pension Bailout Bill</a>.)<p style="line-height: 33.2357px; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 16px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; border-image-source: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-width: initial; border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;">Charles H. Brunie started <span style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;">Oppenheimer Capital in 1969<p style="line-height: 33.2357px; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 16px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; border-image-source: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-width: initial; border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;">The rest of the board is largely hedge fund, capital management, securities, etc…<p style="line-height: 33.2357px; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 16px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; border-image-source: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-width: initial; border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;">The <a href="http://www.heartland.org/" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none; outline: 0px;">Heartland Institute</a>, “free-market solutions to social and economic problems,” offers a handy guide to <a href="http://www.heartland.org/article/27578/No_126_The_State_Public_Pension_Crisis_A_50State_Report_Card.html" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none; outline: 0px;">The State Public Pension Crisis: A 50-State Report Card</a>.<p style="line-height: 33.2357px; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 16px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; border-image-source: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-width: initial; border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;">The <a href="http://illinoispolicy.org/" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none; outline: 0px;">Illinois Policy Institute</a> is “dedicated to supporting free market principles and liberty-based public policy initiatives for a better Illinois.“ The IPI <a href="http://illinoispolicy.org/news/article.asp?ArticleSource=2678" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none; outline: 0px;">warns us that</a> “Illinois faces a staggering $83 billion in unfunded public pension liabilities” and their blog wants to know “<a href="http://www.illinoispolicy.org/blog/blog.asp?ArticleSource=3036" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none; outline: 0px;">Will You Bail Out Pensions?</a>“<p style="line-height: 33.2357px; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 16px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; border-image-source: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-width: initial; border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;">Board:<p style="line-height: 33.2357px; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 16px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; border-image-source: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-width: initial; border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;">Bill Becker co-founded The Maine Heritage Policy Center, an “organization whose mission is to formulate and promote conservative public policies based on the principles of free enterprise; limited, constitutional government; individual freedom; and traditional American values–all for the purpose of providing public policy solutions that benefit the people of Maine.” (Note: the <a href="http://www.mainepolicy.org/" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none; outline: 0px;">Maine Heritage Policy Center</a> warns us about “<a href="http://www.mainepolicy.org/2011/02/the-cost-of-doing-nothing/" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none; outline: 0px;">The Cost of Doing Nothing: Maine’s Pension Payments are Crowding Out Other Spending</a>.”<p style="line-height: 33.2357px; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 16px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; border-image-source: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-width: initial; border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;">Steve Brown of Code Hennessy & Simmons (“CHS”), a Chicago-based <span style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;">private equity firm.<p style="line-height: 33.2357px; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 16px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; border-image-source: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-width: initial; border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;"> Terry T. Campo served as National Chairman of the Young Republicans from 1989 to 1991.<p style="line-height: 33.2357px; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 16px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; border-image-source: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-width: initial; border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;">John Tillman, CEO serves on the boards of the Sam Adams Alliance and Sam Adams Foundation. Prior to his time with Sam Adams, he served as president and director of Americans for Limited Government. (ALG Urges Congress to Reject $100 Billion Handout to Public Employee Unions.)<p style="line-height: 33.2357px; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 16px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; border-image-source: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-width: initial; border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;">Dick Weiss is a Core Equity senior portfolio manager at <span style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;">Wells Capital Management.<p style="line-height: 33.2357px; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 16px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; border-image-source: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-width: initial; border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;"><a href="http://www.thefreeenterprisenation.org/" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none; outline: 0px;">The Free Enterprise Nation</a> too a <span style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;">Pension road trip: From Montana to Prichard, Alabama<p style="line-height: 33.2357px; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 16px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; border-image-source: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-width: initial; border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;">The <a href="http://www.yankeeinstitute.org/" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none; outline: 0px;">Yankee Institute</a> is a “free market think tank” in Connecticut with a financial-services-industry-heavy board that warns that the <a href="http://www.yankeeinstitute.org/2010/06/100k-pension-club-includes-299-state-retirees/" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none; outline: 0px;">$100K Pensions Club Includes 299 State Retirees</a>. (FYI it is largely university chancellors, deans, professors, med school instructors.)<p style="line-height: 33.2357px; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 16px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; border-image-source: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-width: initial; border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;">“Government workers receive compensation and benefit packages that are much more generous than those available to private sector workers,” said Fergus Cullen, Executive Director of the Yankee Institute for Public Policy.<p style="line-height: 33.2357px; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 16px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; border-image-source: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-width: initial; border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;" /><ul style="line-height: 2.31rem;"><li><span style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" font-style="font-style" inherit="inherit" font-variant="font-variant" line-height="line-height" box-sizing="box-sizing" border-box="border-box" margin="margin" px="px" padding="padding" border="border" border-image-source="border-image-source" initial="initial" border-image-slice="border-image-slice" border-image-width="border-image-width" border-image-outset="border-image-outset" border-image-repeat="border-image-repeat" font-stretch="font-stretch" vertical-align="vertical-align" baseline="baseline">The <a href="http://pacificresearch.org/" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; border-image-source: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-width: initial; border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none; outline: 0px;">Pacific Research Institute</a><span style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" font-style="font-style" inherit="inherit" font-variant="font-variant" line-height="line-height" px="px" font-weight="font-weight"> has a mission to “champion freedom, opportunity, and personal responsibility for all individuals by advancing free-market policy solutions.”</li></ul><p style="line-height: 33.2357px; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 16px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; border-image-source: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-width: initial; border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;">The Director of PRI’s Journalism Center wrote a book called, “<span style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;">Plunder: How Public Employee Unions are Raiding Treasuries, Controlling our Lives and Bankrupting the Nation.”<p style="line-height: 33.2357px; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 16px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; border-image-source: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-width: initial; border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; border-image-source: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-width: initial; border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;">The <a href="http://www.reason.org/" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none; outline: 0px;">Reason Foundation</a> writes about <a href="http://reason.org/news/show/public-employees-vs-the-public-will" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; border-image-source: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-width: initial; border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none; outline: 0px;">Public Employees vs. the Public Will</a> and warns <a href="http://reason.org/blog/show/public-employee-unions-are-sin" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; border-image-source: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-width: initial; border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none; outline: 0px;">Public Employee Unions Are Sinking California</a>.<p style="line-height: 33.2357px; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 16px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; border-image-source: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-width: initial; border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;"><a href="http://retirementreform.org/" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none; outline: 0px;">RetirementReform.org</a> Clicks through to <a href="http://www.ncpa.org/" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none; outline: 0px;">National Center for Pollicy Analysis</a> page on Common Sense Retirement Policy which advocates “reform” for Social Security. But never fear, NCPA elsewhere warns about “<a href="http://www.ncpa.org/pub/st329" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none; outline: 0px;">Unfunded Liabilities of State and Local Government Employee Retirement Benefit Plans</a>” and says <a href="http://www.ncpa.org/sub/dpd/index.php?Article_ID=19406" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none; outline: 0px;">PUBLIC EMPLOYEE PENSIONS ARE A TICKING TIME BOMB</a><p style="line-height: 33.2357px; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 16px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; border-image-source: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-width: initial; border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;"><a href="http://www.ncpa.org/about/ncpa_board_of_directors" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none; outline: 0px;">NCPA’s Board</a> includes a number of people from the financial industry, private equity, holding companies, etc.<p style="line-height: 33.2357px; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 16px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; border-image-source: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-width: initial; border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;">The <a href="http://www.riograndefoundation.org/" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none; outline: 0px;">Rio Grande Foundation</a> “is a research institute dedicated to increasing liberty and prosperity for all of New Mexico’s citizens. We do this by informing New Mexicans of the importance of individual freedom, limited government, and economic opportunity.” They warn, <a href="http://www.riograndefoundation.org/content/new-mexicos-government-pension-problem-3rd-worst-nation" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none; outline: 0px;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;">New Mexico’s Government Pension Problem: 3rd Worst in the Nation</a>. <p style="line-height: 33.2357px; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 16px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; border-image-source: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-width: initial; border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Cookie-Cutter Think Tanks<p style="line-height: 33.2357px; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 16px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; border-image-source: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-width: initial; border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;">This is all from pulling the threads <span style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;">just a little bit that come from <span style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;">just one op-ed on pension reform. I didn’t go into the funding of these organizations or look at what else they are doing, other associations, etc. These are <span style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;">just a few of the network of conservative “institutes,” etc. around the country. <span style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;">Just a very few. (<a href="http://www.policyexperts.org/organizations/organizations_results.cfm?Organization=&Head=&rdoSearchType=COUNTRY&AllPriorityIssues=&Country=154&State=ALL&Org=StateResOrg&Tax=ALL&Search=Verify%3E&Submit=Submit" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none; outline: 0px;">Here is a list of 185 organizations purporting to be conservative state think tanks</a>, a list of <a href="http://www.policyexperts.org/organizations/organizations_results.cfm?Organization=&Head=&rdoSearchType=COUNTRY&AllPriorityIssues=&Country=154&State=ALL&Org=NatOrgStateNet&Tax=ALL&Search=Verify%3E&Submit=Submit" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none; outline: 0px;">40 conservative national organizations with state network</a>s and a list of <a href="http://www.policyexperts.org/organizations/organizations_results.cfm?Organization=&Head=&rdoSearchType=COUNTRY&AllPriorityIssues=&Country=154&State=ALL&Org=NatResOrg&Tax=ALL&Search=Verify%3E&Submit=Submit" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none; outline: 0px;">306 organizations purporting to be conservative national think tanks</a> and <a href="http://www.policyexperts.org/organizations/organizations_results.cfm?Organization=&Head=&rdoSearchType=COUNTRY&AllPriorityIssues=&Country=154&State=ALL&Org=FamilyOrg&Tax=ALL&Search=Verify%3E&Submit=Submit" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none; outline: 0px;">65 conservative “family policy” organizations</a>. There are other lists with other criteria.)<p style="line-height: 33.2357px; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 16px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; border-image-source: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-width: initial; border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;">As you follow these threads you discove<span style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;">r layer upon layer of corporate/conservative front groups, masking their activities and funders with more layers of front groups. They all have similar mission statements, have similar people on their Boards with similar backgrounds, cover the same issues the same way, and even use remarkably similar language. They seem to be not just connected but <a href="http://www.commonwealinstitute.org/archive/appendix-2-an-example-of-interconnectedness" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none; outline: 0px;">interconnected</a>. The <a href="http://www.commonwealinstitute.org/archive/tort-reform-organizations-and-the-far-right#t1" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none; outline: 0px;">sheer number of these similar “think tanks”</a>make it appear that there must be a machine somewhere that stamps these things from a template. <a href="http://mediamattersaction.org/transparency/" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none; outline: 0px;">That machine is named “Scaife/Coors/Koch</a>…” (<a href="http://www.truth-out.org/joshua-holland-how-right-wing-billionaires-and-business-propaganda-got-us-economic-mess-century63462" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none; outline: 0px;">Please read also</a> and <a href="http://www.commonwealinstitute.org/archive/information-about-the-right" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none; outline: 0px;">spend some time here</a>.)<p style="line-height: 33.2357px; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 16px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; border-image-source: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-width: initial; border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;">These corporate/conservative organizations are very good at manipulating the media and public opinion — it is their purpose. Their “experts” are well paid and always available to talk to reporters, appear on TV and radio shows and write articles and opinion pieces for newspapers, blogs and for their network of similar organizations. Their “reports’ and “studies” reach the conclusions that fit the strategy, and are crafted to sound just right. And there are<span style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;">so many of them! The result is development of “conventional wisdom” about what is going on in our society. This is why that conventional wisdom more and more reflects the corporate/conservative line. <span style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;">And right now the corporate conservative line is that we should think that public employees and their unions are responsible for state and local budget shortfalls.<p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 16px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; border-image-source: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-width: initial; border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; font-stretch: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; border-image-source: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-width: initial; border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; font-stretch: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 33.2357px;"><a href="https://ourfuture.org/20120813/discover-the-network-out-to-crush-our-public-workers">https://ourfuture.org/20120813/discover-the-network-out-to-crush-our-public-workers</a></div></div><div></div> =DIVEST now a legal strategy?<div class="field field-name-field-image field-type-image field-label-hidden" style="font-size: small; box-sizing: inherit; line-height: 22.5px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><div class="field-items" style="box-sizing: inherit;"><div class="field-item even" style="box-sizing: inherit;"><figure id="file-267353" class="file file-image file-image-jpeg with-caption" style="box-sizing: inherit; max-width: 100%; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em;"><div class="content" style="box-sizing: inherit;"><figcaption class="field field-name-field-image-caption field-type-text-long field-label-hidden" style="box-sizing: inherit; padding: 2em; color: rgb(74, 74, 74); line-height: 1.6; border-right-width: 1px; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-left-width: 1px; border-style: none solid solid; border-right-color: rgb(231, 231, 231); border-bottom-color: rgb(231, 231, 231); border-left-color: rgb(231, 231, 231);"><div class="field-items" style="box-sizing: inherit;">Bevis Longstreth, a former SEC commissioner, says his new proposal to state attorneys general for an "interpretive release" and guidance on climate-related risk could open the floodgates of divestment from coal, oil and gas companies</div></figcaption></div></figure></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden" style="font-size: small; box-sizing: inherit; line-height: 22.5px;"><div class="field-items" style="box-sizing: inherit;"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded" style="box-sizing: inherit;">The money managers of university and non-profit endowments owe a debt of gratitude to a lawyer named Bevis Longstreth. He's hardly a household name, but <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Modern-Investment-Management-Prudent-Rule/dp/0195041968?ie=UTF8&Version=1&entries=0" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(131, 190, 68); outline: none; box-sizing: inherit;">an obscure book</a> he published 30 years ago provoked a modernization of the legal definition of prudent investing that changed their lives for the better.His work opened the door for trustees of non-profits to make investments that are now at the heart of modern portfolio management. Previously they were out of bounds because they were considered too risky."Imagine all the pension funds in this country, and all the institutions like Yale and others, they are all deeply invested in hedge funds," Longstreth said. "When I wrote that book it would have been impossible for them to invest in a hedge fund."Now Longstreth, 82, is out to rock the world of non-profit money managers again. This time he doesn't have a book, <a href="http://insideclimatenews.org/sites/default/files/documents/UPMIFAInterpretationBevisLongstrethPDF.pdf" target="blank" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(131, 190, 68); outline: none; box-sizing: inherit;">but merely a six-page argument</a>.His proposal calls for a legal reinterpretation of what constitutes prudent management of institutional funds now that the investment landscape is filled with new risks for fossil fuel investors.With the world heading toward zero carbon emissions after the signing of the Paris agreement, Longstreth thinks it's time for some fresh guidance.To that end, he's working channels to convince various attorneys general to spell out those risks in an "interpretive release," and offer guidance on how to handle them. He thinks the attorneys general of New York, Massachusetts and California will be most receptive to his proposal.If the guidance is published, Longstreth says, it could open floodgates of divestment from coal, oil and gas companies. That's because, as he explains in the extensive interview below, it can't be ignored.Every state in the union (except Pennsylvania and the territory of Puerto Rico) has its own version of the uniform law governing investments by trustees, known by the acronym <a href="http://www.uniformlaws.org/ActSummary.aspx?title=Prudent%20Management%20of%20Institutional%20Funds%20Act" target="blank" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(131, 190, 68); outline: none; box-sizing: inherit; background-color: transparent;">UPMIFA</a>. And each attorney general has power to issue guidance on how to exercise prudence under that uniform law.The question remains whether any attorney general would offer guidance singling out a particular asset class.Though retired from legal practice and now a three-time novelist, Longstreth brings considerable experience to his latest legal rethink. He was twice appointed by President Ronald Reagan to serve as commissioner of the Securities and Exchange Commission. For decades he was a securities lawyer and partner at <a href="http://www.debevoise.com/bevislongstreth" target="blank" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(131, 190, 68); outline: none; box-sizing: inherit; background-color: transparent;">Debevoise & Plimpton</a>, a prominent international firm.He wears wire-rimmed glasses, carries degrees from Princeton (B.S. 1956) and Harvard (LL.B 1961), and has a careful manner of choosing words precisely.We spoke with Longstreth about his career, his latest legal effort, and how it could provoke change.ICN: Your career included being a commissioner of the SEC. How were you chosen and how would you characterize your tenure?Longstreth:  I served in the SEC from 1981-1984. I was appointed by President Reagan to a shortened term to fill out somebody who had retired, and then Reagan reappointed me to occupy a Democratic seat on the commission. I think for President Reagan I was not an obvious choice, given my political background, but I was chosen because Jim Baker [Reagan's former chief of staff] wanted me there.</div></div></div>http://insideclimatenews.org/news/07062016/retired-lawyer-boris-longstreth-floodgates-divestment-fossil-fuels-climate-change-investments
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      <h1 id="page-title" class="title"><font size="5" face="Times New Roman">Judge OKs slashing of union coal miners' health benefits as part of bankruptcy solution</font></h1>    </div>

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    <a href="http://ncronline.org/authors/brian-roewe">Brian Roewe</a>  </span>

May. 30, 2013

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    </font><p><font size="5" face="Times New Roman">A St. Louis judge has ruled that Patriot Coal Corp. can rework

its union contract as well as slash health benefits to retired union

workers as part of its path out of bankruptcy.

U.S. Bankruptcy Court Chief Judge Kathy A. Surratt-States of

Missouri's Eastern District ruled Wednesday afternoon that Patriot can

reject its past collective bargaining agreements, which includes "cradle

to grave" benefits for nearly 23,000 miners and their dependents.

[See "<a href="http://ncronline.org/news/peace-justice/wva-prayer-rally-calls-justice-coal-miners-health-care-limbo" target="_blank">W.Va. prayer rally calls for justice for coal miners in health care limbo</a>" for NCR's previous coverage of the Patriot Coal bankruptcy case.]

The decision comes as a blow to members of the United Mine Workers of

America, who alleged Patriot's formation was an attempt to escape full

payment of the benefits -- $1.6 billion in long-term health and

retirement obligations -- by the two companies previously responsible

for coverage, Peabody Energy and Arch Coal.

In a press release, UMWA president Cecil Roberts said the decision is

"wrong, unfair and fails to fully recognize the coming wave of human

suffering that will be experienced by thousands of people throughout the

coalfields."...
<h1 class="wsj-article-headline" itemprop="headline">Bankruptcy Judge Allows Patriot Coal to Scrap Union Contracts</h1>

    <font size="4"><span>By</span></font>
          <div class="author mobile-scrim hasMenu" data-scrim="{" type="type" author="author" header="header" kris="Kris" maher="Maher" subhead="subhead" the="The" wall="Wall" street="Street" journal="Journal" list="list" link="link" icon="icon" bio="bio" url="url" http="http" topics.wsj.com="topics.wsj.com" person="person" a="A" biography="Biography" text="text" twitter="twitter" twitter.com="twitter.com" kris_maher="Kris_Maher" google="Google" https="https" plus.google.com="plus.google.com" u="u" posts="posts" email="email" mailto:kris.maher="mailto:Kris.Maher" wsj.com="wsj.com" kris.maher="Kris.Maher" itemscope="" itemprop="author" itemtype="http://schema.org/Person" xmlns:mailto="mailto">
              <font size="4"><span class="name" itemprop="name">Kris Maher</span> and 
              
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          <div class="author  hasMenu" data-scrim="{" type="type" author="author" header="header" jacqueline="Jacqueline" palank="Palank" subhead="subhead" the="The" wall="Wall" street="Street" journal="Journal" list="list" itemscope="" itemprop="author" itemtype="http://schema.org/Person">
              <font size="4"><span itemprop="name">Jacqueline Palank</span></font>
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Updated May 29, 2013 6:25 p.m. ET

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Patriot Coal Corp. won approval from a bankruptcy-court judge

Wednesday to slash the pay and benefits of thousands of miners, retirees

and dependents.
<a href="http://ecowatch.com/2016/03/31/big-coal-bailout-2016/">http://ecowatch.com/2016/03/31/big-coal-bailout-2016/</a>

<a href="http://ecowatch.com/2016/01/26/nyc-pension-oil-gas-holdings/">http://ecowatch.com/2016/01/26/nyc-pension-oil-gas-holdings/</a>
 =<a href="http://insideclimatenews.org/news/03092015/california-bill-divest-largest-pension-funds-coal-fossil-fuel">http://insideclimatenews.org/news/03092015/california-bill-divest-largest-pension-funds-coal-fossil-fuel</a>california is one governor's signature away from becoming the first state to mandate its major public pension funds to at least partially divest from fossil fuel holdings, which could have ripple effects across the nation.<div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded">The California Assembly voted 47 to 30 on Wednesday to mandate the state's two largest pension funds divest from coal assets. It now heads to Gov. Jerry Brown's office for approval. The Senate voted in favor of the measure in June.Even though the legislation—<a href="http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=201520160SB185" style="text-decoration: none; outline: none;">Senate Bill 185</a>—awaits the governor's signature, Brown has been a strong advocate of climate action and has helped steer the state toward being a leader in renewable energy, so divestment proponents are already celebrating. RL Miller, chair of the California Democratic Party's environmental caucus, was "very happy" and "giddy" after the vote."This is the beginning of an avalanche," said Miller, <a href="http://insideclimatenews.org/news/22052015/california-democrats-approve-sweeping-fossil-fuel-divestment-resolution" style="text-decoration: none; outline: none;">who has helped build support</a>for fossil fuel divestment within the California Democratic Party for several years.The website 350.org, a green group that has supported divestment efforts across the country, lays out the primary argument for divestment as: "If it is wrong to wreck the climate, then it is wrong to profit from that wreckage." Fully divesting involves selling off stocks and bonds tied to oil, natural gas and coal companies, and the process can take months to years.Targeted in this bill is the <a href="https://www.calpers.ca.gov/" style="text-decoration: none; outline: none;">California Public Employees' Retirement System</a>(CalPERS) and  <a href="http://www.calstrs.com/" style="text-decoration: none; outline: none;">California State Teachers' Retirement System (</a>CalSTRS), which combined represent more than 2.4 million retirees. They are the country's two largest pension funds, worth nearly $500 billion. Less than one percent of those funds are invested in coal assets.The legislation forbids them to make new investments or renew existing investments in coal companies, and mandates they sell their holdings in these companies by July 2017. Prior to divesting, the groups can first encourage the companies to transition to clean energy generation.</div></div></div> =<a href="http://www.globalpossibilities.org/california-lost-5-billion-in-public-pension-funds-due-to-fossil-fuel-investments-last-year/">http://www.globalpossibilities.org/california-lost-5-billion-in-public-pension-funds-due-to-fossil-fuel-investments-last-year/</a>
UC reaches $168-million settlement with Enron directors in securities fraud caseThe University of California, lead plaintiff for investors in the Enron securities litigation, will move next week for preliminary court approval of a settlement with certain of Enron’s former directors in which the investor class will receive $168 million, consisting of $155 million in insurance proceeds and more than $13 million in personal contributions of insider trading proceeds by the directors.The agreement was reached on October 6, 2004, with the assistance of mediator Eric Green of Resolutions LLC. Pursuant to the agreement, the $200-million remaining balance of Enron’s directors and officers insurance policy has been paid into the registry of the court and the personal contributions of the directors, totaling over $13 million, have been deposited in trust with class counsel, Lerach Coughlin Stoia Geller Rudman & Robbins LLP.Over the last three months, the plaintiffs, the settling defendants, the insurers and certain of the non-settling insured defendants, have negotiated a complex agreement that provides a framework for court approval by setting aside $13 million of the insurance proceeds for the continuing defense of certain of the non-settling insured defendants in exchange for their agreement not to oppose the settlement. Of the remaining $187 million of insurance proceeds, 83%, or $155 million, goes to the plaintiff class of defrauded Enron securities purchasers. The balance, $32 million, goes to the Enron bankruptcy estate to be distributed to Enron’s creditors. The combination of insurance and insider trading proceeds will provide $168 million for the class. The settlement exhausts all the remaining Directors & Officers liability insurance.There is no settlement with defendants Ken Lay, Jeff Skilling, Andrew Fastow, Richard Causey or Rick Buy. The settlement resolves the litigation against those Enron directors who faced liability under the strict liability provisions of Section 11 of the Securities Act of 1933, not the fraud provisions of Section 10(b) of the Securities Act of 1934.Two major pension funds have asked Bank of America to allow shareholders to vote on the board’s decision to hand the chairman’s title to CEO Brian Moynihan, creating a potential showdown over the issue at next spring’s annual meeting.The California State Teachers’ Retirement System and New York City Comptroller Scott Stringer sent a letter Tuesday to the Charlotte bank asking for a vote on the <a href="http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2014/10/01/5213487/moynihan-named-chairman-of-bank.html#.VF1WgPnF9O1" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: rgb(13, 118, 186); text-decoration: none; background: transparent;">bylaw change that directors made last month</a> to allow Moynihan to hold both titles, said CalSTRS spokesman Ricardo Duran.The move rolled back a proposal approved by shareholders in 2009 that led the bank to strip former CEO Ken Lewis of the chairman’s title. The bank had an independent chairman – which advocates say provides a better check on management – until the recent bylaw change.“By unilaterally revoking the independent chair bylaw proposed and approved by shareowners, the bank’s board not only weakened its own independence, it also violated a fundamental investor expectation of responsive board conduct,” Stringer’s office said in a statement Friday.“The board should treat this bylaw amendment like many others and put it up for shareowner approval, a message my office, in collaboration with CalSTRS, has delivered.”Bank of America spokesman Lawrence Di Rita declined to comment.Shareholders voted to split the CEO and chairman roles at a time when shareholders were frustrated over the bank’s handling of its Merrill Lynch purchase. After the vote, Lewis gave up the chairman role and retired by the end of that year.On Oct. 1, Bank of America’s board amended the bank’s bylaws to remove the requirement that its chairman be independent. The board also named Jack Bovender Jr., a Bank of America director since August 2012, the board’s lead independent director.Moynihan became CEO and a member of the bank’s board of directors in 2010. He replaced director Chad Holliday as chairman.Stringer’s office has the ability to file a shareholder proposal on combining the roles, Eric Sumberg, spokesman for the comptroller’s office, said in an email. But, he asked, “why file an advisory proposal for an independent chair when a binding proposal has already passed?”The deadline for submitting shareholder proposals for the bank’s shareholder meeting is Nov. 27.<div style="box-sizing: border-box; width: 1px; height: 1px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: left; text-transform: none; overflow: hidden;"> Read more here: http://www.charlotteobserver.com/news/business/banking/article9229583.html#storylink=cpy</div>=http://www.opensecrets.org/news/2015/05/major-financial-players-lobby-around-obamas-investment-rules<h1 class="entry-title" style="margin: 0px; padding: 10px 0px; color: rgb(68, 68, 68); line-height: 38px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Major Financial Players Lobby Around Obama’s Investment Rules</h1><div class="entry-content" style="margin: 5px 0px; word-wrap: break-word; color: rgb(33, 43, 74); line-height: 24px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><div itemscope="" itemtype="http://schema.org/Article" itemref="comments" style="margin: 5px 0px;"><div itemprop="articleBody" style="margin: 5px 0px;">In the months since President Obama announced his support for new retirement investment rules that would stop advisers from pushing high-fee plans on small-fry American investors, several major financial organizations have lobbied hard on a bill that would undermine the commander in chief’s agenda, according to recently released lobbying records for the first quarter of the year.The White House put its weight behind the rules change in February, but it wasn’t until early last month that the Department of Labor <a href="http://www.dol.gov/opa/media/press/ebsa/EBSA20150655.htm" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(17, 123, 184); outline: none; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">announced</a> the start of the official public comment period. In the meantime, a bill — supported by Republicans in the House and listed in lobbying reports of major financial players like <a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/orgs/summary.php?id=D000000172" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(17, 123, 184); outline: none; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">MetLife</a> and <a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/orgs/summary.php?id=D000019743" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(17, 123, 184); outline: none; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">Wells Fargo</a> — <a href="http://wagner.house.gov/media-center/press-releases/rep-wagner-statement-on-the-introduction-of-the-retail-investor" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(17, 123, 184); outline: none; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">was introduced</a> that would bar Labor from doing anything on the rules front until the Securities and Exchange Commission takes a crack at regulation in this area first.At the heart of the debate is whether or not current standards and definitions in the 41-year-old <a href="http://www.dol.gov/dol/topic/health-plans/erisa.htm" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(17, 123, 184); outline: none; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">Employee Retirement Income Security Act</a> adequately address a retirement investment landscape that has changed drastically in four decades. According to the <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2015/02/23/what-you-need-know-about-retirement-conflicts-interest-three-big-sentences" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(17, 123, 184); outline: none; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">White House</a>, current rules lead to conflicts of interest for the advisers trusted to help consumers sock money away for their golden years.Currently, investment advisers only need to show people “suitable” investment options, defined as ones that match clients’ <a href="http://www.bloomberg.com/politics/articles/2015-02-23/obama-to-lead-push-to-toughen-broker-rules-for-retirement-funds" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(17, 123, 184); outline: none; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">needs and their risk tolerance</a> — not necessarily ones that will maximize their clients’ long-term earnings. That leaves the advisers with the opportunity to recommend high-fee plans that reward their firms and give them back-door benefits while taking away from the client.A White House <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2015/02/23/fact-sheet-middle-class-economics-strengthening-retirement-security-crac" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(17, 123, 184); outline: none; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">fact sheet</a> shows how small investment drops can turn into chasms. On average, conflicts of interest lead to a one percent smaller annual return for retirement investors — a slice that translates to $17 billion a year cut out of middle and working class family retirement accounts.Opponents to the president’s rules say that those fees are what make the system work: Higher fees for smaller accounts are the incentive to draw investment advisers to the small individual market and away from big corporate accounts that have much bigger payouts.At any rate, Rep. <a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/politicians/summary.php?cid=N00033106&cycle=2014" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(17, 123, 184); outline: none; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">Ann Wagner</a> (R-Mo.), who introduced the bill to slow down the rules, is certainly a fan favorite for big finance money.In the 2014 cycle, the top two donor bases for Wagner’s campaign committee and leadership PAC were the securities and investment industry (Wall Street) followed by the insurance industry. These two combined put together more than half a million dollars for Wagner, which is a little more than one-fifth of what she raised for the cycle.Some of her top donors reported lobbying on the bill, too. <a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/orgs/summary.php?id=D000000343" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(17, 123, 184); outline: none; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">Northwestern Mutual</a> was her second biggest donor, and Wells Fargo was 17th. Northwestern gave her $59,100 and lobbyists employed by the life insurance company kicked in an additional $1,300. Wells Fargo gave $19,500.Other financial players with huge lobbying tabs — and campaign contribution shadows — also mentioned the bill in their first quarter reports. Among them were<a href="http://www.opensecrets.org/orgs/summary.php?id=D000000414" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(17, 123, 184); outline: none; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">Charles Schwab</a>, the <a href="http://www.opensecrets.org/orgs/summary.php?id=D000000152" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(17, 123, 184); outline: none; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">American Council of Life Insurers</a>, the <a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/pacs/lookup2.php?strID=C00333104" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(17, 123, 184); outline: none; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">American Society of Pension Professionals & Actuaries</a>, and <a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/orgs/summary.php?id=D000022084" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(17, 123, 184); outline: none; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">Lincoln National</a>. All together, those companies — along with the many others that lobbied the bill — spend millions of dollars lobbying the federal government every year and quarter on a variety of issues.That only Republicans have so far signed on to Wagner’s legislation makes sense considering the organizations lobbying the bill. In the last two cycles, Republicans were preferred by the <a href="http://www.opensecrets.org/industries/totals.php?cycle=2014&ind=F" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(17, 123, 184); outline: none; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">financial sector</a>, taking in 62 percent of its contributions to candidates and party committees in the 2014 cycle and 70 percent of the small amount given so far in the 2016 cycle.Compared to that D.C. presence, the collection of groups on the other side of the bill was small (then again, <a href="http://www.opensecrets.org/industries/" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(17, 123, 184); outline: none; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">everything</a> is small compared to Wall Street and finance in the D.C. money game). Two that did list the bill in the first quarter were the <a href="http://www.opensecrets.org/orgs/summary.php?id=D000000088" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(17, 123, 184); outline: none; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">AFL-CIO</a>— the association of labor unions that admittedly spends a lot of money in Washington — and the <a href="http://www.opensecrets.org/lobby/clientsum.php?id=F2239&year=2015" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(17, 123, 184); outline: none; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">Pension Rights Center</a>. The AFL spent $640,000 in the first three months of 2015; in each of the last two years it has laid out more than $5 million. The Pension Rights Center spent $15,000 in the most recent quarter and in both of the last two years spent $120,000.</div></div></div><footer class="entry-meta" style="line-height: 15px; color: rgb(170, 170, 170); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
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=<div class="text section" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: rgb(63, 66, 69); line-height: 18px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Managers of the nation’s largest public-employee pension fund, the California Public Employees’ Retirement System (CalPERS), are closing out their investments with hedge funds. Taxpayers everywhere should applaud the move — and then ask their state and local politicians when they will do the same as CalPERS.The hedge fund industry has <a href="http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2014/09/23/hedge-funds-are-still-finding-love-just-not-at-calpers/?php=true&type=blogs&php=true&type=blogs&_r=1&" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: none; color: rgb(38, 119, 185);">shrugged</a>, noting that it manages more than $2.3 trillion in assets while the CalPERS hedge fund investments amounted to about $4 billion. But that reaction misses the point entirely. The move is really about public workers and taxpayers, not the industry.The reason to applaud the CalPERS withdrawal is not that all hedge funds are bad investments, though they can be. Overall, the roughly 5,000 hedge funds have <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/21/business/slamming-a-door-on-hedge-funds.html" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: none; color: rgb(38, 119, 185);">underperformed the market</a> in the last decade while charging very high fees; the base charge can be 40 times the cost of index fund management, whose aim is to earn the average market return.Rather it’s because hedge funds are not suited to the risk-averse investing that public workers and taxpayers should expect.</div><div class="subHeading section" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: rgb(63, 66, 69); line-height: 18px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><h2 class="subHeading-title" style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 28px; margin: 9px 0px 0.84210526em; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); text-rendering: auto; font-weight: 400 !important;">Risky investing</h2></div><div class="text section" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: rgb(63, 66, 69); line-height: 18px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">In finance the term “hedge” means to reduce risk, generally by acquiring an opposing position to one’s investments in advance in case the market goes in the opposite direction. Hedges are often created using derivative bets called puts and calls that reduce the risk of catastrophe but also eat into gains.Hedge funds operate in many different styles. Some engage in high frequency trading, buying and selling stocks in much less than the blink of an eye to capture little anomalies in securities prices that only computer software can detect. Others buy commodities such as aluminum and oil and hold them until prices rise.However, no formal legal definition exists of the term “hedge fund,” which today often means risky investing. And these investment pools operate largely outside the regulatory framework of mutual funds.Most people invest their own money, but hedge funds juice their returns by borrowing. Mortgages typically require 20 percent down, creating an initial leverage of $4 of debt to $1 of equity. The hedge fund industry likes to talk about a ratio of $30 borrowed for each dollar of cash equity, which represents a lot of risk, but the ratios can go a lot higher. Records in the 2003 federal trial over taxes in the Long Term Capital Management case, which I covered, showed that firm partners borrowed part of their stakes, leveraging their positions at up to $300 to $1. The firm did spectacularly well, thanks to board members Myron Scholes and Robert C. Merton — Nobel laureates for their research on derivatives — until the 1997 Asian financial crisis and problems with Russia forced the Federal Reserve and 16 major banks to put up $3.6 billion to bail out the fund. For a decade, hedge funds overall have underperformed the market even though they charge hefty fees and add significant risk to the securities markets, as some hedge fund operators have publicly acknowledged.In our era of proliferating high-risk investment pools that call themselves hedge funds, combined with high-frequency trading and near zero-interest loans to banks, a lot of money has been allocated to underperforming investments. Some top-flight investors have decided to pull out.The combination of high speed trading and a “dash for trash puts to shame even the speculative excesses of the dot-com era,” Andrew Cunagin <a href="http://blogs.wsj.com/moneybeat/2014/09/04/hfts-circus-market-and-a-dash-for-trash-fund-manager-lets-loose/" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: none; color: rgb(38, 119, 185);">wrote in a letter telling investors he was closing</a> the hedge fund Rhinehart Capital Partners. “This is a circus market rigged by HFT [high frequency trading] and other algorithmic traders who prey on the rational behavior of warm-blooded investors. They only serve to further undermine the integrity of public markets.”He was writing not about investing as done by Warren Buffett and others with long-term strategies but about the instantaneous, speculative buying and selling of stocks on the basis of mathematical formulas, those algorithms he referred to.</div>  http://www.alternet.org/cities-and-states-paying-massive-secret-fees-wall-streetCalifornia’s report said $440 million. New Jersey’s said $600 million. In Pennsylvania, the tally is $700 million. Those Wall Street fees paid by public workers’ pension systems have kicked off an intensifying debate over whether such expenses are necessary. Now, a report from an industry-friendly source says those huge levies represent only a fraction of the true amounts being raked in by Wall Street firms from state and local governments. “Less than one‐half of the very substantial [private equity] costs incurred by U.S. pension funds are currently being disclosed,” says the report from CEM, whose website says the financial analysis firm "serve(s) over 350 blue-chip corporate and government clients worldwide." Currently, about 9 percent -- or $270 billion -- of America’s $3 trillion public pension fund assets are invested in private equity firms. With the financial industry’s standard 2 percent management fee, that quarter-trillion dollars generates roughly $5.4 billion in annual management fees for the private equity industry -- and that’s not including additional “performance” fees paid on investment returns. If CEM’s calculations are applied uniformly, it could mean taxpayers and retirees may actually be paying double -- more than $10 billion a year.  Public officials are overseeing this massive payout to Wall Street at the very moment many of those same officials are demanding big cuts to retirees' promised pension benefits.  “With billions of public worker and taxpayer dollars put at risk in the highest-cost, most opaque investment schemes ever devised by Wall Street for a decade now, investigations that hold Wall Street profiteers accountable are long, long overdue,” said former Securities and Exchange Commission attorney Ted Siedle. Private equity firms have argued that their fees are worth the expense, because they supposedly deliver returns for investors that beat low-fee index funds which track the broader stock market. But those private equity returns are typically self-reported by the firms over the life of those longer-term investments, meaning there are few ways to verify whether the returns are real. Indeed, a recent study from George Washington University argued that private equity firms are using their self-reporting authority to mislead investors into believing their returns are smoother and more consistent than they actually are. In a 2014 speech, the SEC’s top examiner, Andrew Bowden, sounded the alarm about undisclosed fees in the private equity industry, saying the agency had discovered “violations of law or material weaknesses in controls over 50 percent of the time” at firms it had evaluated. ---=accidental  leftover in "pension plan", but interesting contrast: [social sec the biggest prize for privatization, aside maybe from education?AMY GOODMAN: You write, "Deregulation is one of the greatest triumphs of America’s ruling class, but [for] middle-class workers and their families the fallout has been devastating." What about retirement and pensions?JAMES STEELE: One of the most astonishing statistics that we think we have in the book, because we were not aware of this statistic: since 1985, almost 85,000 pension plans have been killed. In the '50s, the ’60s, the ’70s, even into the early ’80s, more and more people were eligible for pensions, defined benefit plans where you got a specific benefit when you did retire. But since the mid-'80s, corporations, with the great assistance of Congress, have been shifting people out of pensions into 401(k) plans. Now, there’s nothing wrong with 401(k) plans, but originally they were viewed just as a supplement to a pension. They were not viewed as a pension. But corporations saw this would be a lot cheaper for them. It would shift the responsibility totally to the employees and the workers. But it would also not contribute enough to really take care of their retirement needs.So, what’s happened in—this is one of the greatest title shifts in the country, because we were going in a certain direction for decades, middle-class people—I mean, not everybody had a pension. We know that. But more and more did over time. But since the '80s, this has now been totally reversed. And it raises all kinds of questions about what retirement is going to be like for people. The main question is, people are going to have to work forever, and yet what are those jobs going to be? What are they going to pay? And it also puts pressure then on people coming into the workforce. How are they going to get a job if people are having to work between 65 and 75 years old? That's going to put even more pressure on the jobs that are left. DONALD BARLETT: And the other irony of this is—this is almost another Sandy Weill incident. You have the current head of AIG, who was not there during the collapse. He had nothing to do with it. He worked for another global insurance company. He was brought in after AIG collapsed, and the taxpayers bailed them out, and they still haven’t paid everything back yet. He was quoted as saying earlier this year that people are just going to have to get used to the idea of working until they are 70 or 80. Now, he made that pronouncement from his villa in Dubrovnik in Croatia.

<div class="byline economy" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><a href="http://alternet.org/" style=" color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">AlterNet</a> [1] / By <a href="http://www.alternet.org/authors/lynn-stuart-parramore" style=" color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Lynn Stuart Parramore</a> [2]</div>

<h1 property="dc:title" datatype="" class="node-title">How Corrupt Politicians Like Chris Christie Partner with Wall Street to Rip Off American Retirements</h1>

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<div class="story-date">March 18, 2014  |  </div>

Wall Street loves to celebrate its knack for innovation, and it's hard to disagree. The ingenuity financiers have mustered to scam Americans out of their retirements is truly a wonder to behold.

Working through well-funded media campaigns and strategic investments in politicians who carry out their plans, the Wizards of Wall Street have done a triple whammy on any hope we had for a decent retirement. They’ve attacked Social Security and pretended that it’s unaffordable and/or insolvent, they’ve worked to move us into fee-riddled private investment accounts, and they’ve looted our pensions.

They couldn’t have done it without friends like Gov. Chris Christie. Over in New Jersey, the big man is showing us how it’s done.

First, a little recap of how we’ve been screwed so far.

Private equity billionaire Pete Peterson is the Big Kahuna of Social Security-bashing, shoveling money toward folks like Alan Simpson and Erskine Bowles, co-chairs of Obama’s deficit commission, who have worked overtime since the financial crisis to con the American people into accepting cuts to the country’s most successful anti-poverty program under the threat that the deficit is growing —except, oops, now it’s actually shrinking!

Nonsense aside, Wall Street has gotten its way with Social Security before, such as the 1983 deal under Reagan, which, still unknown to many Americans, chopped the program and forced a higher retirement age onto young people who could not vote at the time, up two years, from 65 to 67. Ayn Rand acolyte Alan Greenspan, foe of Social Security and worshipper of Wall Street, was instrumental in getting that deal done.

Then there’s the 401(k), foisted on the American public 30 years ago as a rising tide of laissez-faire fanatics convinced policymakers to move us into do-it-yourself retirement plans. A study by the think-tank Demos revealed that the typical 401(k) steals an average of <a href="http://www.demos.org/publication/retirement-savings-drain-hidden-excessive-costs-401ks" style=" color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">nearly $155,000</a> [3] from a median-income, two-earner family over a lifetime of saving through hidden fees. The plans have also been shown to drive inequality and make ordinary people more vulnerable to economic shocks. Despite these dismal results, politicians across the country are pushing more Americans into 401(k)s. Republicans in Florida, Kansas, Illinois and elsewhere have been trying to move public workers into them, and Democrats with Wall Street ties have often joined in the effort: Former Democratic presidential candidate and U.S. senator from New Jersey Bill Bradley, who now advises an investment firm, was <a href="http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424127887324103504578376380133531500" style=" color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">part of the (failed) effort</a> [4] to force Kansas state employees into 401(k)s, calling the effort to transfer investment risk onto workers “innovation.”

The innovative folks on Wall Street have also concluded that as long as you have pensions around, you might as well loot them. Financiers have aggressively promoted the idea of moving pensions from safe investments like treasuries into “alternative investments” on which they can charge ridiculous fees and deliver subpar results.

Robert Johnson, executive director of the Institute for New Economic Thinking, has been researching the so-called pension crisis in the U.S. and has found that underfunding is not nearly as widespread as the media, stoked by anti-pension campaigners with deep pockets, has portrayed (see my <a href="http://www.alternet.org/economy/real-story-behind-detroit-pension-fight-and-what-it-means-americas-future" style=" color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">AlterNet article on his research</a> [5]). Further, he found that places where funding problems do exist are often troubled by corruption. Pay-to-play schemes and bribery are common, and barring obvious corruption, big money politics often has a deciding influence over the management and allocation of pensions. Political scientist Thomas Ferguson has <a href="http://business.time.com/2014/02/26/this-is-how-you-fix-ailing-public-pensions/" style=" color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">pointed out</a> [6] that local and state politicians are relying more and more on Wall Street and other anti-pension business interests for funding, and this creates incentives to move pensions from safe vehicles to more risky things like hedge funds and private equity.

For a perfect example of how this works, look no further than Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey.

As Lee Fang of the Nation Institute has <a href="http://www.thenation.com/article/178862/pensiongate-christie-campaign-donors-won-huge-contracts?utm_source=Sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_term=headline_nation&utm_campaign=Headline%20Nation%202014-03-17&newsletter=headline_nation" style=" color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">reported</a> [7], Governor Christie wasted little time after his election to launch a fear-mongering campaign to “reform” New Jersey’s pension system by raising the retirement age and cutting benefits. But somehow that process of reform also included bringing Wall Street into the game — despite the fact that Christie has pummeled his predecessor, John Corzine, for doing just that. After Christie’s election, the man who had helped bankroll his campaign, one Paul Singer, hedge fund manager and head of the conservative Manhattan Institute, would see his investment in Christie pay off big-time. A gold-plated bromance blossomed between the two men. As Fang writes:

“In his second year in office, Christie’s administration proposed giving Singer’s hedge fund, Elliott Associates, a contract to manage $200 million in state public pension funds. Elliott Associates won the contract in 2012. Singer again demonstrated his political loyalty to Christie in December 2013, shortly after Christie became chair of the RGA, a coveted post for GOP presidential aspirants. This time, Singer gave the group $1.25 million, making him the largest contributor that year and significantly enlarging the RGA’s war chest under Christie.”

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Singer wasn’t the only Wall Streeter to win big. Hedge fund manager Dan Loeb, another close ally of Christie, “also won big contracts to manage state retiree money under the governor.”

The foxes came racing into the henhouse, tumbling over one another to get a piece of the action, bent on maximizing returns to Wall Street and minimizing benefits for hard-working people. Lee states:

“Under Christie, the amount of retiree money in the hands of outside managers, such as private equity firms or hedge funds like Singer’s, dramatically increased, while the share going to less risky and more traditional investments like treasury notes or the S&P 500 declined.”

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That same hustle is happening in other parts of the country, and your state or city could well be next. Over in Rhode Island, State General Treasurer and Wall Street veteran Gina Raimondo, a Democrat now running for governor, has been touted as a hero of pension reform. But her reform has also focused on moving pension funds into Wall Street vehicles. The New York Times’ Gretchen Morgenson questioned Raimondo’s activities back in October 2013 in an article aptly titled “<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/20/business/how-to-pay-millions-and-lag-behind-the-market.html" style=" color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">How to Pay Millions and Lag Behind the Market</a> [8].” Morgenson described an investigation into the pension system’s recent plunge into alternative investments which highlighted the high costs, risks and poor returns:

“The investigation, by Benchmark Financial Services, a forensic firm hired by a Rhode Island council of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, concluded that the $7.7 billion Employees’ Retirement System of Rhode Island was at risk because of its increased concentration in high-cost and opaque alternative investments. The union represents workers whose pensions are invested by the state.

In less than two years, the Rhode Island pension system has ramped up its investments in hedge funds, private equity and venture capital from zero to almost $2 billion, or more than one-quarter of its assets under management. But this mix of investments hasn’t outperformed the fund’s peers, the Benchmark report said. For the year ended June 30, 2013, the fund returned 11.07 percent, versus 12.43 percent earned by the median public pension fund.”

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When I saw her at an event in the fall of 2013, I attempted to question Raimondo on the issue of subpar returns, which she denied was an issue at all until I held up the Morgenson article, at which point she and her press secretary scrambled away with my card, promising to be in touch. I never heard from them.

Before her election, Raimondo was a partner at Point Judith Capital, a venture capital firm. As Rolling Stone’s Matt Taibbi has <a href="http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/looting-the-pension-funds-20130926#ixzz2wQt3pwqq" style=" color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">reported</a> [9], Wall Street has lavished her campaigns with cash:

“Donors from Wall Street firms like Goldman Sachs, Bain Capital and JPMorgan Chase showered her with money, with more than $247,000 coming from New York contributors alone. A shadowy organization called EngageRI, a public-advocacy group of the 501(c)4 type whose donors were shielded from public scrutiny by the infamous Citizens United decision, spent $740,000 promoting Raimondo's ideas.”

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This is just the tip of the iceberg. The wolves of Wall Street are salivating for your retirement funds, and they are dressing in sheep’s clothing and talking to us about “reform” and “responsibility” in order to do it. We can’t fire them, but at least we have a chance to do something about the politicians who do their dirty work — namely, send them packing.

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<a href="http://www.alternet.org/economy/how-corrupt-politicians-chris-christie-partner-wall-street-rip-american-retirements?paging=off&current_page=1#bookmark">http://www.alternet.org/economy/how-corrupt-politicians-chris-christie-partner-wall-street-rip-american-retirements?paging=off¤t_page=1#bookmark</a>

<div>(not to be confused with Pension Plan)</div>

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<div>alternet</div>

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2) Billionaire John D. Arnold’s attack on public-employee pensions. Have you heard that the biggest problem facing our states, counties and cities is the bloated, lavish, insane level of money that goes to public-employee pensions? Of course you have, and that's partly thanks to billionaire John Arnold. Arnold got his start at Enron trading natural gas derivatives. After Enron he used his Enron money to form an energy-trading hedge fund. Now he is using his fortune to fund various philanthropic causes, <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/09/us/10-million-gift-to-help-head-start-through-shutdown.html" style=" color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">including helping to keep Head Start running</a> [9] when Republicans recently shut down the government. Unfortunately he has also dedicated part of his fortune to gutting public-employee pensions.

In a September report for the Institute for America’s Future, the <a href="http://ourfuture.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/Plot-Against-Pensions-final.pdf" style=" color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Plot Against Pensions</a> [10] (which has excerpts posted on <a href="http://www.salon.com/2013/09/26/exposed_enron_billionaires_diabolical_plot_to_loot_worker_pensions/" style=" color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Salon),</a> [11]David Sirota showed how the Pew Charitable Trusts was working in partnership with (and funded by) Arnold. The findings in Sirota’s report include:

<li>Conservative activists are manufacturing the perception of a public pension crisis in order to both slash modest retiree benefits and preserve expensive corporate subsidies and tax breaks.</li>

<li>The Pew Charitable Trusts and the Laura and John Arnold Foundation are working together in states across the country to focus the debate over pensions primarily on slashing retiree benefits rather than on raising public revenues.</li>

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Then last week, in <a href="http://pando.com/2014/02/12/the-wolf-of-sesame-street-revealing-the-secret-corruption-inside-pbss-news-division/" style=" color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">The Wolf of Sesame Street: Revealing the secret corruption inside PBS’s news division</a> [12] at PandoDaily, Sirota revealed how PBS’ WNEThad solicited Arnold to fund a two-year series of “news” shows named “The Pension Peril” that would promote cutting the pensions of public employees. In this story, Sirota wrote:

“In recent years, Arnold has been using massive contributions to <a href="http://blogs.wpri.com/2012/12/11/texas-enron-traders-fortune-helped-fund-engage-rhode-island/" style=" color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">politicians</a> [13], <a href="http://pando.com/2014/02/07/how-a-100000-check-exposes-the-politics-of-pension-theft/" style=" color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Super PACs</a> [14], <a href="http://www.sanjoseinside.com/news/entries/10_2_13_mayor_chuck_reed_state_pension_reform/" style=" color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">ballot initiative efforts</a> [15], <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/09/24/pew-trusts-pensions_n_3983654.html" style=" color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">think tanks</a> [16] and <a href="http://blogs.wpri.com/2012/12/11/texas-enron-traders-fortune-helped-fund-engage-rhode-island/" style=" color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">local front groups</a> [13] to finance a nationwide political campaign aimed at slashing public employees’ retirement benefits. His foundation which backs his efforts<a href="http://y.ourfuture.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/Plot-Against-Pensions-final.pdf" style=" color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"> employs top Republican political operatives</a> [17], <a href="http://www.arnoldfoundation.org/node/1#calabrese" style=" color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">including</a> [18] the <a href="http://www.humanevents.com/2007/05/31/conservative-spotlight-the-patriot-group/" style=" color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">former chief of staff</a> [19] to GOP House Majority Leader Dick Armey (TX). According to its own promotional materials, the Arnold Foundation is <a href="http://www.arnoldfoundation.org/sites/default/files/pdf/A9RBC84.pdf" style=" color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">pushing</a> [20]lawmakers in states across the country “to stop promising a (retirement) benefit” to public employees.”

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WNET severed the relationship. According to the <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/15/business/media/wnet-to-return-3-5-million-grant-for-pension-series.html" style=" color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">New York Times</a> [21], "WNET, the New York City public television broadcaster, said on Friday that it would return a $3.5 million grant it received to sponsor an ambitious project on public pensions in the face of charges that it solicited inappropriate underwriting for the series.”

To its credit the Times’ story gave full credit to Sirota’s reporting,

"Earlier, after <a href="http://pando.com/2014/02/12/the-wolf-of-sesame-street-revealing-the-secret-corruption-inside-pbss-news-division/" style=" color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">a critical report</a> [12] on Wednesday by David Sirota on the website PandoDaily, WNET officials said they were comfortable with the foundation’s funding. Mr. Sirota sharply criticized WNET for accepting the Arnold Foundation money because John Arnold, a former hedge fund manager, has financially backed efforts to persuade municipalities to cut public employee pension benefits."

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Note that Arnold allies <a href="http://www.mercurynews.com/pensions/ci_24864131/san-jose-mayors-california-pension-initiative-cleared-but" style=" color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">are pushing</a> [22] a ballot initiative in California to gut public-employee pensions.

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