Month: May 2021

States, cities to receive first chunk of $350 billion in aid this week from COVID stimulus passed in March

Mary Pat Campbell

Link: https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2021/05/10/local-governments-receive-billions-covid-stimulus-plan-may-11/5019387001/

Excerpt:

State, city and county governments this week will receive their first infusion of direct aid from $350 billion in emergency funds approved in the American Rescue Plan, two months after President Joe Biden signed the COVID-19 relief package into law. 

The Biden administration launched an online portal Monday that will allow local and state governments to access their share of funds from the Treasury Department. The amount allocated for each state and municipality was determined by unemployment data.

Most will receive money in two tranches – one this year, the second in 12 months – but states that have seen their unemployment rates increase by 2% or more since February will receive funds in a single payment. Payments will begin within days. Money must be spent by the end of 2024.

…..

The Treasury Department also provided long-awaited guidelines on how funds can be used. State governments and territories are prohibited from using funds to offset tax cuts that were enacted after March 3, limitations that have already prompted the Republican attorney general from Ohio to sue the Biden administration. In addition, recipients cannot use funds to make a deposit to a pension fund or pad reserves.

Author(s): Joey Garrison

Publication Date: 10 May 2021

Publication Site: USA Today

Con of the Week: Greensill Capital

Mary Pat Campbell

Link: https://taibbi.substack.com/p/con-of-the-week-greensill-capital

Excerpt:

In finance there regularly appears a character who stands on a soapbox and claims to have re-discovered the natural laws of the universe. Go ahead, jump: with 10 shares of Invest-O, you won’t come down! Alan Greenspan’s declaration in the middle of the first tech bubble that we might be in the middle of a “once-or twice-in-a-century phenomenon that will carry productivity trends to a new higher track” helped birth the “new paradigm” theory, which denounced caution before investing in companies without revenues or plans as anachronistic timidity.

Greensill prophesied a revolution in his erstwhile dull trade. He hammered the theme that “AI” and “Big Data” were bringing about a “tectonic shift,” described by one writer as “the biggest revolution in history.” 

Author(s): Matt Taibbi

Publication Date: 19 May 2021

Publication Site: TK News

TK Newsletter: Introducing “Racket of the Week”

Mary Pat Campbell

Link: https://taibbi.substack.com/p/tk-newsletter-introducing-racket

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Excerpt:

In 2007, before the crash, Goldman, Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein even inadvertently paid tribute to one of the most ancient scams — the pig in the poke — when he ordered subordinates to start selling off the mortgage-backed “cats and dogs” on his company’s books. This detail, which came out in a Senate investigation of Goldman’s “Big Short,” let the “cat out of the bag” about the real value of mortgage-backed securities.

In 2021, we’re seeing a surge in con-like corruption cases once again, many involving old-school ripoffs. An economy puffed up by the steroid enhancement of Fed support has led to a great flowering of such creative grifts. Some are not terribly accessible to non-financial audiences at first glance, so to make it a bit easier to keep track of new cases coming in, I’m creating a new feature, “Racket of the Week.”

We had a cartoonist draw up icons for a key system, which will help explain how and if the story covered contains elements of common street rackets.

Author(s): Matt Taibbi

Publication Date: 7 May 2021

Publication Site: TK News

Mortality Nuggets: Global Excess Deaths, Memento Mori, and Mortality News Round-up

Mary Pat Campbell

Link: https://marypatcampbell.substack.com/p/mortality-nuggets-global-excess-deaths

Video:

Excerpt:

In particular, it is pretty clear to me that specifically in the U.S., the non-COVID excess mortality has been very high. I do not think that’s under-counted COVID deaths. I think it’s due to other causes. We’ve already seen that car accident deaths were up, even though total miles driven was down by a lot.

So yay for their statistics in grabbing the excess deaths, but boo for assuming all those excess deaths were COVID.

Now, results of COVID and COVID policies, sure, I’d go with that. But do you want to start digging into the stats of suicides, drug overdoses, “accidental” deaths, and more? How about deaths of neglect? I bet that is involved in a bunch of non-COVID elderly deaths.

Author(s): Mary Pat Campbell

Publication Date: 18 May 2021

Publication Site: STUMP at substack

Municipal Pension Funding Increased in Recent Years, but Challenges Remain

Mary Pat Campbell

Link: https://www.pewtrusts.org/en/research-and-analysis/fact-sheets/2021/05/municipal-pension-funding-increased-in-recent-years-but-challenges-remain

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Excerpt:

The first metric is net amortization, which measures whether total contributions to a public retirement system are sufficient to reduce unfunded liabilities if all actuarial assumptions—primarily investment expectations— are met for that year. Plans with positive net amortization are expected to retire pension debt over time and therefore improve their funded status. 

Pew reviewed the three-year average for net amortization. This figure provides a more complete picture of contribution adequacy given the impact of volatile investment performance and demographic experience on plan assets. In total, the 33 cities in Pew’s analysis achieved positive amortization (104% of the benchmark) from 2015 to 2017. However, individually, more than half of the cities had negative amortization. Notably, Chicago and Dallas contributed less than 50% of the benchmark. In contrast, New Orleans contributed 174%, or $132 million, which was well over the city’s benchmark over the time period. For cities that are poorly funded, net amortization can indicate that they are on a path toward sustainably funding their pension plans. For example, New Orleans and Philadelphia have both increased their contributions significantly in recent years to achieve positive net amortization and decrease unfunded liabilities. On the other hand, better funded cities that fell short of the benchmark may face growing pension debt absent a policy change or adjustment.

Author(s): David Draine

Publication Date: 18 May 2021

Publication Site: Pew Charitable Trusts

7 Investigates: Federal Pension Problems

Mary Pat Campbell
7 Investigates: Federal Pension Problems

Excerpt:

The average pension is processed in two to three months.

So why wasn’t Karen getting her checks?

The government agency that processes pensions for federal workers, the Office of Personnel Management, tells 7-Investigates it has a backlog of more than 25,000 and that “the COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted normal operations.”

An agency spokesperson says that’s because the work is “paper-based,” and need to be shared with different agencies.

Anna-Marie Tabor, director of the Pension Action Center at UMass Boston, says that’s surprising to hear.

“It’s a big problem especially during the pandemic when people can’t just go into the office and pull out a box of documents. These records really should be converted to electronic documents so that they can be accessed in 2021, especially in case of a pandemic,” says Tabor.

Author(s):

Publication Date: 18 May 2021

Publication Site: 7 News Boston

Readers React: Blame Pa. legislators for public pension mess

Mary Pat Campbell

Link: https://www.mcall.com/opinion/readers-react/mc-opi-let-schreiber-public-sector-pension-benefits-20210518-e5cwxkfscrdupc5v6vebixqxhe-story.html

Excerpt:

Between roughly 1997 and 2009, legislators decided to pay less of the employer contribution amount than statisticians deemed necessary. In kitchen table terms, those legislators chose not to pay their bills.

Now that creditors are demanding those bills be paid, critics are claiming the payouts are undeserved, and too generous.

It’s really a shame so many seem to feel it’s OK to not pay bills from the past because the interest is too high. I bet few business owners would accept nonpayment because customers chose to not pay when billed and now claim payments are too high.

Author(s): Thomas Schreiber

Publication Date: 18 May 2021

Publication Site: The Morning Call

Trump has been receiving presidential pension since January: report

Mary Pat Campbell

Link: https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/554197-trump-has-been-receiving-presidential-pension-since-january-report

Excerpt:

Former President Trump has been receiving a presidential pension since he left office in January, Business Insider reported Tuesday 

A spokesperson for the General Services Administration confirmed to Insider that Trump has been paid $65,000 in presidential pension payments through May 14. 

Former presidents are entitled to receive pensions after their terms under the Former Presidents Act, which Congress passed in 1958 largely in response to former President Truman’s financial troubles after leaving office in 1953.

Author(s): OLAFIMIHAN OSHIN

Publication Date: 18 May 2021

Publication Site: The Hill

Georgia House panel moves forward on bills to increase legislator pensions

Mary Pat Campbell

Link: https://www.ajc.com/politics/georgia-house-panel-moves-forward-on-bills-to-increase-legislator-pensions/YHVHOATJARA5FIGIM7KA2KTYLI/

Excerpt:

The state House Retirement Committee on Tuesday moved ahead on bills that could increase the pensions of part-time lawmakers up to 67% and at least triple what House Speaker David Ralston could receive.

The panel voted to do actuarial studies on three bills — all filed in the final days of the 2021 session. The studies — which essentially determine the cost of the bills — have to be completed before the committee can formally act on legislation during the 2022 session, which begins in January.

…..

Part of the reason lawmakers can look at raising their pensions is that the 54-year-old Legislature Retirement System — which provides benefits to retired legislators — currently has far more money in it than is required to pay current and future benefits. That’s in contrast to the much larger teacher and state employee pension systems, which are funded in the 70%-to-80% range.

The legislative system, like those for other employees, has been funded partially by payroll deductions and partially by the state. But in recent years it’s been in such good shape that officials said taxpayers didn’t have to add anything to the fund.

Author(s): James Salzer, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Publication Date: 18 May 2021

Publication Site: The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Public pensions won’t earn as much from investments in the future. Here’s why that matters

Mary Pat Campbell

Link: https://www.marketwatch.com/story/public-pension-systems-dont-think-theyll-earn-as-much-from-investments-heres-why-that-matters-11620674757

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Excerpt:

State pension systems dropped the rate of return they assume for their investment portfolios again, continuing a two-decade long trend that public-finance experts say is necessary, even as it presents some challenges for the entities that participate in such plans.

The median assumed return in 2021 is 7.20%, according to a report published early in May by the National Association of State Retirement Administrators, down roughly 1 percentage point since 2000, as the investment managers charged with managing trillions of dollars for municipal retirees have adapted to a more challenging market environment.

Author(s): Andrea Riquier

Publication Date: 11 May 2021

Publication Site: Marketwatch

India’s Covid crisis hits Covax vaccine-sharing scheme

Mary Pat Campbell

Link: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-57135368

Graphic:

Excerpt:

Unicef is calling on the G7 countries – Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the UK and the US, as well as the EU, to donate their surplus supplies urgently.

Some countries have ordered enough to vaccinate their population many times over, including the UK, US and Canada.

In February British Prime Minister Boris Johnson promised to donate most of the UK’s surplus supply to poorer countries but he has so far given no specific timescale. It is a similar story for the US. So far France is the only G7 country to donate doses in view of the crisis in India.

Author(s): Tulip Mazumdar

Publication Date: 16 May 2021

Publication Site: BBC News

Four(plus) Ways to Visualize Geographic Time Data

Mary Pat Campbell

Link: https://policyviz.com/2021/05/11/fourplus-ways-to-visualize-geographic-time-data/

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Excerpt:

The last visualization I tried was to really embrace the idea of time in the data. Instead of a map or bar chart or something else, I placed the state abbreviations around two clock faces. I know it sounds weird, but take a look at the final version.

I think this is a fun visualization, and it communicates more precisely the exact average starting times than the previous graphs. The two clocks could be combined to one, but I worry it’s not quite as clear, so I tried using the different colors to differentiate the two hours.

Author(s): Jon Schwabish

Publication Date: 11 May 2021

Publication Site: PolicyViz