Working Life

It’s hard enough to amass enough money to retire. It’s even harder when the people charged with investing the money in an IRA charge really ridiculous fees, and you can’t trust the trustees to do the right thing.

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I’m all for change happening through action in the streets. But, it doesn’t hurt to send a little tremor into the world of the elites in other ways. And that’s exactly what the California Public Employees’ Retirement System (CALPERS) has just done.

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“With the economy weak and borrowing cheap, it is daft that America’s public infrastructure spending is at a 20-year low, even as the country’s roads, bridges and dams are rated D+ by the American Society of Civil Engineers.” A new free-trade lover-turned-liberal superhero? Left-wing irrelevant magazine? Progressive think-tank looking for foundation money? Nope…straight from the mouths of The Economist.

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Here’s a riddle: what large entity has the theoretical access to deploy a few trillion dollars, quickly, if given the chance? If you answered the Chinese or US governments, thank you for playing and please try again another time. The answer: labor unions.

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   On the face of it, it’s a good thing when the labor movement leverages the trillions of dollars–yes, that’s TRILLIONS–that sit in pension funds. It’s been a topic of debate for a long time. The question is: what do we get? Here is the example, via The Wall Street Journal: New York Gov. Andrew […]

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   Pardon me while I yawn. The measly fine that Citigroup is paying to settle civil complaints charging that the bank defrauded investors is really something else: it’s a stay-out-of-jail, keep-your-reputation card for Robert Rubin and a lot of other senior Citi officials, past and present. Instead, this deal–as was true with the miniscule fines […]

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