From a New York Times story yesterday by reporter Steven Yaccino: A vote by retirees to approve the city’s plans would help close a $3.5 billion shortfall in the pension system, and it would result in as much as a 4.5 percent cut to most pension checks. If the plan is rejected and the outside […]

By Mary Pat Campbell | No, not my law — Donald T. Campbell’s law: “The more any quantitative social indicator (or even some qualitative indicator) is used for social decision-making, the more subject it will be to corruption pressures and the more apt it will be to distort and corrupt the social processes it is […]

By Mary Pat Campbell | CalPERS, the large California public pension plan, has filed an amicus brief in the case of Detroit’s bankruptcy. CalPERS does not like the Detroit pension plans being treated like unsecured creditors in a bankruptcy proceeding, and cites the constitutional (state constitutional, that is) protections for pensions. Thing is, there’s law, […]

How much would you have to save to match a government pension? Yesterday the Manhattan Institute launched an impressive new online public pension calculator that allows users to more clearly compare the difference in retirement benefits between public and private sector workers. It also allows Americans in all 50 states to compare their state’s retirement […]