The CEO of the largest union in America (the SEIU), Andy Stern, was appointed to the President’s deficit reduction commission. As if that were not strange enough, we learn today that his union is $85 million in debt … and is … laying off workers.
Update: The state of California’s pension is now $500 billion underfunded. My estimate of the total amount of unfunded pensions nationwide is well over $1 trillion. Who do you think will fund those retirees?
Santa Clause? Maybe our new healthcare system?
And two more on union shenanigans from today’s WSJ.
http://bit.ly/chpu0s
http://bit.ly/96xudt
This is change you can belive in being appalling.
Michael And the inestimable Speedmaster got old Andy right.
Think of how much interest accrues on a $500 billion dollar loan. Roughly a billion dollars a day, assuming you can borrow at 7%, give or take a few billion, assuming anyone wants to lend you that much at that rate. It took me a while to do my calculations by hand, since my 1990 cheap calculator cannot handle scientific notation.
Please check my math, but if there are 100 million people in California who have any money left over, that’s an additional $100 dollars a day they have to fork over, assuming they pay it off immediately. If they do not, the interest accrues, and their lenders demand even higher rates when they default.
Mind you, this $500 billion is just what CALPERS is in the hole for, and does not count the IOU’s of the cities and municipalities. These are unpaid current invoices for such things as concrete and asphalt. On top of this, the state is asking that its residents pay higher utility bills to “create” subsidized green jobs.
This is progressive fascism in action. California will make the trains run on time between LA and Las Vegas, two of Andy Stern’s residences.
Anybody in the mood to invest in California bonds? They are yummy.