With special thanks to one of our favorite sources, Jim Willie at Golden Jackass, here is a roundup of some of articles that indicate the growing challenges faced by pension funds.
Ever wonder why your state and local pension funds are investing in large banks and housing bubbles through Wall Street while they insist that investing through local firms or directly in regional businesses and local communities is a poor investment?
Better yet, check out how much they paid in fees last year to the likes of AIG, Goldman Sachs, Bear Sterns, and Lehman Brothers.
You will be shocked.
Kentucky pension plans’ funding gaps grow
Pension obligations pose risks for GM
Paying for retiree health care — at last
New Jersey’s Pension Funding is problem too large to ignore
Public pensions are weighing on taxpayers
Global pensions lose $5 trln in 2008 – study
Hidden Pension Fiasco May Foment Another $1 Trillion Bailout
State Pension Funds $865 Billion Loss Means New Hires Get Less
US Companies Face $109 Billion Pension Tab in 2009
Down by $80 Billion, CalPERS Charts New Course for Investment Mix
Virginia’s Pension Fund Loses $13 Billion
Tough Choices for Colorado’s State Workers After $13 Billion Pension Fund Loss
Detroit’s Public Employee Pensions Lost More Than $2 Billion
72% of New York City Firefighters Who Retired Since 2004 Are Collecting Disability Pensions
Washington State’s Taxpayers Owe $5.9 Billion to Oldest Public Employee Pension Plans
New Mexico’s Public Pension Funds Need Increased Contributions After $5Billion in Losses
Tennessee’s Public Employee Pension System Lost $5 Billion in Past Six Months
US Corporate Pension Plans Lost $445 Billion in 2008
Pennsylvania Pension Funds Inform State Lawmakers of $28 Billion in Losses
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Jim Willie’s April 2005 article “PETRO-DOLLAR & PROTECTION RACKET” may explain why Russia considers Georgia so important. I never even considered Iran’s role (or their bourse) in this scenario, not to mention the Caspian Sea region.
Excerpt from http://www.gold-eagle.com/editorials_05/willie040505.html
“The CIA and other agencies warn that China is selling far more than scud missiles to Iran, which fears an invasion by the USA. Perhaps the most important factor of all which pertains to Iran is the decision made independently by at least three multi-national energy firms (including Agip of Italy and Elf Aquitaine of France) to construct an oil pipeline south from the Caspian republics through Iran. A pipeline through Georgia or Chechnya might not come to completion, due to smaller measured oil deposits in the surrounding Caspian region. If the key oil pipelines are to routed through Iran, then Iran rises in strategic importance almost beyond what words can describe. Look for stories by the obedient lapdog US press & media on Iran’s nuclear threat, which might be about as accurate as Iraqi warnings weapons of mass destruction.”
earlier in that article Jim Willie writes:
“Behind the scenes is anger by Russia for the construction of numerous small bases for the US Military in former Soviet Republics like Uzbekistan and Kazakstan. Their erection might have helped to drain world cement supplies last year. We seem in Putin’s eyes to be encircling Russia, who might retaliate by knocking the Petro-Dollar system off its foundation pillars. The new Shanghai Cooperative Group represents a potential supply network which will have member nations of China, India, Russia, former Soviet Republics, and Iran as its core. New nations are being actively courted, such as Venezuela and Brazil. Energy (crude oil & natural gas), industrial metals, and more are to be bought and sold by this new network, outside OPEC and its gaggle of disunity and diverse puppet strings held by Washington DC. In my view the “COOP” is likely to have been organized to be a direct assault on the Petro-Dollar, if not a consciously designed network to blockade the USA from the supply chain.”
…
I read some of the papers from Harvard’s Caspian Studies Program a few years ago. (JOHN DEUTCH IS ON THEIR BOARD OF DIRECTORS!). The region goes from being rumored to having several mega fields possible to “oh no! there’s no oil at all, and all the major oil companies have already pulled out!” Very funny. Maybe Big (Anglo) Oil pulled out because Russia+Iran cooperation in the region would damage the western oil monopoly, not to mention the world reserve currency?