Illinois Skeptic Realizes Pension Crisis Is Real

[Valin]

Via Meadia:

 

Walter Russell Mead

6/28/12

 

State and local pensions in the US are currently in the middle of their gravest yet, but many people — deceived in many cases by union leaders and politicians trying to keep the scam operating for just a little while longer — continue to deny that there is even a crisis. Alarmingly, this includes a number of pension managers, who continue to insist that nothing is wrong despite repeated, obvious warnings to the contrary.

 

For a time, one of the most outspoken skeptics—possibly the most outspoken—was Dick Ingram, director of the Teachers’ Retirement System of the State of Illinois. As the Wall Street Journal reports, Ingram made a habit of lambasting critics who worried that pensions were in trouble and claiming that the pension he was charged with managing was in no danger whatsoever.

 

But now that Ingram has studied that data more closely, even he is finally sounding the alarm. The Illinois teachers’ fund is in dire trouble, and the plan’s problems will become more apparent as the fund moves forward with plans to reduce its expected rate of return from 8.5 percent (one of the highest in the nation) to a still very optimistic and aggressive 7.95 percent. The Journal follows Ingram’s change of heart:

 

(Snip)