...But it is going to last a long time for the rest of us. My last two postings listed several reasons why I believe the recession is going to be permanent for the non-rich. (See February 16 and February 21). Today I want to highlight another problem which will hinder the US from returning to the employment position which prevailed prior to the Bush years: Government pension committments. According to researchers at the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University, state and city governments are committed to paying pensions in the amount of $3.574T for which no funds have been provided. In addition, estimates of unfunded Federal pensions are $600B, for a total of $4.174T. (The number doesn't look so big untill it is written out: $4,174,000,000,000). The New York Post estimates that current payments for all governmental pensions amount to $81,500 per year per household. That money comes out of our taxes and it does not include any provision for chipping away a
My alarm clock goes off every morning at eight, except for the few times when I have a breakfast date. Usually I wake up about an hour before that, or at least I partly wake up. It is important that I remain in a “not quite awake but not quite asleep” state, because I consider that time as the germination period for whatever seeds happen to have blown into my head.