General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region Forums4 Things You Need to Know About the Plot to Sell Off Your Pensions to Wall Street
http://www.alternet.org/4-things-you-need-know-about-plot-sell-your-pensions-wall-street***SNIP
1. A sinister pall of secrecy: The report documents a sinister pall of secrecy about the pension funds new investments in hedge funds a pall orchestrated by state officials and aided by key investment services providers. Siedle reports that the overwhelming majority of the information requested for this review (has) been withheld in apparent violation of state law. As Rolling Stones Matt Taibbi and I noted in our recent San Francisco Chronicle report, such secrecy is now the norm in states, as reformers have changed the law to prevent retirees from even seeing how much of their money is being handed over to hedge fund billionaires.
2. A transfer of retirement income to Wall Street, potentially costing taxpayers big money: The report documents a staggering, almost 700 percent planned increase in (pension) investment expenses from $11 million to an estimated $70 millionfees paid to Wall Street hedge fund and other alternative managers who control the so-called alternative investments in hedge funds. In total, Siedle estimates that the projected cost to (the pension fund) of the Treasurers $2 billion alternative investments gamble over the next 20 years amounts to in excess of $3 billion. Thats more than the total savings of the retirement benefit cuts, meaning those cuts arent saving taxpayers money they are being used to finance a new Wall Street handout.
3. Profiting at the expense of the state: Raimondo came to the Treasurers office from a financial firm backed by billionaire hedge funder Paul Tudor Jones. According to the report, A significant portion of (her) wealth and income relates to shares she owns in two illiquid, opaque venture capital partnerships she formerly managed at that firm one of which she convinced the state (pension fund) to invest in. Siedle notes that during Raimondos time in office running the states pension system, the fees Rhode Island is paying to the fund she has an ownership stake in are significantly higher than the venture capital industry. As the report concludes, all of this means that the Treasurer may literally be profiting at the expense of the state.
4. Worse returns that damage the pension fund even further: If all this graft was delivering better returns to the states pension system, it might be written off as merely a necessary cost of doing business and protecting taxpayers. But as Siedle documents, at the very moment Raimondo has handed over more retiree money to her hedge fund pals, The investment performance of the Fund has lagged behind its peers, earning a mere 11.07 percent versus 12.43 percent for the median public-sector pension. In total, the New York Times notes that for all of Raimondos insistence that giving Wall Street more taxpayer cash will generate better returns, neither set of hedge funds she has put state money into beat the returns of simply investing the cash in a simple S&P index fund one that doesnt incur massive fees paid to the financial industry that bankrolls Raimondos election campaigns.
leeroysphitz
(10,462 posts)TomClash
(11,344 posts)Hard to get too worked up about pension fund fees when you don't have a pension.
Fumesucker
(45,851 posts)Rex
(65,616 posts)Not the working class!
Live and Learn
(12,769 posts)And they won't be happy till they have everyone investing in it.
Scuba
(53,475 posts)Cosmocat
(14,566 posts)Too much information to pay attention to and folks will remain more than willing to smile and gobble down more of the republican bullshit ...
Flatulo
(5,005 posts)Cosmocat
(14,566 posts)I am in a SUPER negative move with the people in this country with politics right now.
Alex Wagner, who is awesome, is doing a bit on the farm bill/food stamps thing these house republican's are getting their dickhead on with. UPPING their pork in the farm bill while making really big cuts to foodtstamps and crowing how people now will have to get a job that does not exist.
AND, public opinion will be squarely in their corner with this shit. One of these jackasses was babbling how "unchristian" food stamps are and will only get cheers for that comment. THAT is how far gone this country is.
They WILL get away with funneling these funds to scavenger wall streets types who WILL make a lot of money and screw people out of the pensions and they WILL blame it on unions and the masses WILL shallowly accept this and not think twice while blaming the working man for causing the problem.
We are at an all time low in this country, with republicans never being held to account for their disasters, our country in a big mess mostly because of extreme neo-liberal economic thinking and the same trickle down bullshit that got us to this point still remains the accepted standard for advancing our economy.
No matter how fricken wrong and bad they are, they still drive the policy in this country.
Flatulo
(5,005 posts)It won't stop all this shit cold, but it will begin to turn things around and hopefully limit the damage.
I run myself and hold a position ...
I support good people when I have a chance.
It just is super disturbing that we have a democratic president and senate and are a pubic hair from having SS cut every winter ...
They are getting meaner and more ruthless and determined, Ds are getting more passive.
raouldukelives
(5,178 posts)We have depleted all other commodities. We are now consuming ourselves. Maybe that is the truth behind the zombie craze. The poor & working class are almost swallowed, the middle class is looking juicier by the minute.
glinda
(14,807 posts)it finally hits us in the face we outnumber them a gizillion to one.