Tag: Matthew Cunningham-Cook

Wall Street Is Fleecing a Bunch of Teachers

Mary Pat Campbell

Link: https://jacobin.com/2022/04/katie-muth-pennpsers-pensions-retirement-fund-teachers-sec-pennsylvania

Excerpt:

A new era in the decade-long battle by retirees and whistleblowers to halt massive transfers of wealth out of retirement funds and into Wall Street firms could be at hand, thanks to the case of Katie Muth.

Muth, a Democratic Pennsylvania state senator, is one of fifteen trustees who oversees Pennsylvania’s largest public pension fund, the Pennsylvania Public School Employees’ Retirement System (PennPSERS). Not long after her February 2021 appointment to the board, Muth began questioning the fund’s investments in areas like private equity, hedge funds, and real estate.

Over the past thirty years, public pension funds have moved $1.4 trillion of retiree savings into such high-risk, high-fee “alternative investments,” enriching finance industry moguls like Stephen Schwarzman of the Blackstone Group and Robert Mercer of Renaissance Technologies while often shortchanging retired public employees and teachers.

But Muth says that when she asked the fund’s investment staff for more information about its high-risk investments, she was rebuffed — so in June 2021, she sued the fund for basic information about its investments.

Author(s):MATTHEW CUNNINGHAM-COOK

Publication Date: 6 April 2022

Publication Site: Jacobin

Fossil Fuel Investments Are Burning California Pensioners

Mary Pat Campbell

Link: https://www.dailyposter.com/fossil-fuel-investments-are-burning-california-pensioners/

Graphic:

Excerpt:

California’s two biggest pension funds have invested a staggering $43 billion in fossil fuel companies, and their opposition to divesting from the industry — including fighting legislation that would have stopped them investing in firms involved with the controversial Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL) — has cost retirees and taxpayers billions, research shows.

The findings hammer home the fact that the divestment movement isn’t just about protecting the planet from the worst effects of climate change. With the oil, gas, and coal industries all on the decline, pension funds’ refusal to divest from fossil fuels is also endangering the retirement savings of teachers, government employees, and other rank-and-file public workers who have paid into these funds.

….

While it is common knowledge that fossil fuel stocks have underperformed the broader stock market, large bank stocks have been lackluster as well — including the banks that helped finance DAPL.

If CalPERS and CalSTRS had not opposed the original DAPL divestment legislation, they could have instead put pressure on the companies involved not to move forward with the pipeline, and such efforts might have been enough to stop the project, given the pipeline project’s turbulent history.

Author(s): MATTHEW CUNNINGHAM-COOK, ANDREW PEREZ

Publication Date: 11 Jan 2022

Publication Site: The Daily Poster

A Group of Midwestern Retirees Are Trying to Stop Wall Street’s Abuse of Retirement Funds

Mary Pat Campbell

Link:https://jacobinmag.com/2021/11/ohio-teacher-pensions-hedge-funds-private-equity-strs

Excerpt:

Due to an active group of retirees and the assistance of a former Ohio attorney general, both the Ohio state auditor and the Ohio Department of Securities have launched inquiries into the Ohio State Teachers Retirement System (STRS Ohio), a $100 billion pension that has launched billions of dollars of investments into the riskier corners of the market, namely private equity and hedge funds.

“Ohio could be the first place where the secrecy surrounding public pensions and their investments in risky, speculative, and high-fee investment vehicles could be looked at in a serious way,” said Ted Siedle, a former SEC attorney and longtime pension whistleblower.

Pointing out that pension funds across the country have routinely invoked “trade secrets” exemptions to deny the public information about investment performance and fees, Siedle said the actions taken by the state auditor and securities commissioner “could be the beginning of the end” of such secrecy — not just in Ohio, but nationwide.

Author(s): MATTHEW CUNNINGHAM-COOK

Publication Date: 30 Nov 2021

Publication Site: Jacobin magazine