Accounting Gimmickry
Will America’s Private Sector Continue to Shrink? A Look at Government Compensation
In my previous blog looking at America’s Private Sector for October, 2010, I stated that I thought over the long-term the private sector share of personal income would continue to fall. This post will begin to explore why I think that is the case. Be warned that this journey involves delving into the intricacies of [...]
Jobs . . . Now You See Them, Now You Don’t
Not being involved in the financial markets, I don’t usually pay much mind to new monthly jobs data. I know monthly numbers are extremely noisy and will be significantly revised in the future. However, lots of people do and, consequently, it influences the psychology of the markets. So one would think that such a closely [...]
Explaining How Pension Assumptions are Bogus
Josh Rauh and Robert Novy-Marx have an excellent blog explaining the wrong-headed logic behind how state and local pensions are valued. Under current standards, state and local governments value pension liabilities using the expected return on pension fund assets. Arguing that diversified investment portfolios have an 8% expected return, governments typically use a discount rate [...]
When Will State Pensions Systems Go Broke?
Joshua Rauh recently released a study that made bold predictions about when the asset pool of a state’s pension system would run dry. Illinois topped the list with a “Year Run Out” estimate of 2018–just eight short years away. Really? Well, apparently so. I recently came across this article in Bloomberg BusinessWeek that states: Illinois’s [...]
Wealth Alchemy in Motion
Current Global Public Debt . . . brought to you by The Economist magazine (follow link for interactive graphic). Hat Tip The Big Picture.
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