Pension funds in California are managed by public employees. Real agencies. Real people.
The public pension system has evolved into a complex and arcane bureaucracy over the decades as it was influenced by public sector employee unions, which are some of the best-funded political lobbying organizations in the nation:
Government exists to provide services to the public.
Government agencies hire employees to provide the service.
Pensions are simply a component of compensation for these employees.
Like any government activity, policy should seek to provide the service at the least cost.
Much of the complexity of the public sector pension systems simply does not need to exist. The bureaucracy is complex, by design, to allow the true cost of pension benefits to be hidden from the public and to allow politicians to defer costs.
The pension system is a useful tool for budget shenanigans.
And it is all totally unnecessary.
It is entirely possible to provide all government services without the overhead of the complex public pension system.
The solution is simple: End defined-benefit pension programs for government employees. Compensate public employees fairly and provide them with defined-contribution retirement benefits, just like the majority of the population and workforce.[/quote]
Once again, you’re proving how totally ignorant and uninformed you are. Nothing new here. Wall Street firms (and other outside money management firms) are absolutely managing public pension money, and they’ve been doing so for quite awhile.
Just a couple of examples of what happens when Wall Street corrupts public pension funds:
What once was the boring business of in-house investment managers buying very safe Treasuries and highly-rated municipal bonds, with a smattering of very highly-rated corporate bonds, has become an insidiously corrupt casino where “pay to play” is an expected part of the investment dance. It is unacceptable.
