Article Image

IPFS News Link • Federal Reserve

Former Fed Advisor: State Pensions Time Bomb Spells Disaster For The US

• http://www.zerohedge.com, Tyler Durden

With few people taking part in what little recovery the US has had, and given how stretched pensions are, checks are going to have to be written from Washington sooner than you think, DiMartino Booth told Real Vision TV in an interview. "The Baby Boomers are no longer an actuarial theory," she said. "They're a reality. The checks are being written."

A Bulldozer Couldn't Fill the State Pensions Gap

The $1.3 trillion pensions deficit just takes into account state and municipal obligations, and with promised returns of 8% and funds compounding at 3% for decades it will take nothing short of an economic miracle to recover.  "The average state pension in the last fiscal year returned something south of 1%. You cannot fill that gap with a bulldozer, impossible," DiMartino Booth said. "Anyone who knows their compounding tables knows you don't make that up. You don't get that back unless you get some miracle."

The last time we saw significant market weakness, the baby boomers pretty much accepted that they would be retiring at 70 instead of 65, she added. "Well, guess what? They're turning 71. And the physiological decision to stay in the workforce won't work for much longer. And that means that these pensions are going to come under tremendous amounts of pressure.


PirateBox.info