[quote=briansd1][quote=CA renter]
unions want Wall Street to pay for the damage they created. They all want *Wall Street (and associated parties)* to pay for it, not you.
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How exactly did Wall Street create state and local government budget problems?
If an individual spent all his bubble earnings, is that caused by Wall Street too?
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The problems with respect to the pensions are due to **investment losses,** not spending problems. These investment losses exist for many reasons, but one of the primary reasons is because Wall Street sold these “toxic loans” to the pension funds. The pension funds (that I’m aware of) had fairly large positions in real estate and in MBSs, CDOs, etc. Anyone with two brain cells should have known the losses on these investments would be tremendous. Unfortunately, the large pension funds had begun farming out a lot of their fund management duties to private equity and hedge funds, so they had no idea what they were getting into. They were forced to do this because of the long period of low rates forced upon them by the Fed (and there was some apparent corruption at the top, as well).
