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Trump economy: Boring in San Diego?
Over more years than I care to admit, we have had presidential elections with candidates who proclaimed they were looking out for the little guy/gal. Generally they didn't win. The first one who comes to mind was McGovern in 1972. Then we had some flavor of that with Carter in 1976. The next time it seemed to rear up was in 1992 with Perot. I can remember how many people, even including some government employees, saying they voted for him because he was the only candidate who was going to serve the ordinary people. A vote for him was a vote thrown away. That year Billy-boy was also selling "chainge" (my attempt to mimic his Arkansas twang.) Next time was in 2008 and Bam was selling "hope and change." I suppose that there was some change as far as the Affordable Health Act goes, but plenty of people didn't like what it did. Now we have Trump, and the undercurrent in his voters was a desire for change. Over and over the voters want change, and either they get it in a way they didn't hope for, or they didn't get change at all. Will it be any different this time? Don't hold your breath.— December 31, 2016 10:13 a.m.
Tax consultant caught filing false returns
No mention of what happens to the clients? They weren't innocent participants; they got the benefit of the taxes that were evaded. Whose idea was this, we should wonder. I'd say that the clients enlisted her assistance rather than the other way around.— December 31, 2016 9:44 a.m.
Cops justified in shooting Marine 37 times
It seems that all cops in this state at least are told to keep firing until they are out of ammo. Once the firing starts, it seldom stops in time for the target to survive. On rare occasion a cop will fire a single round that downs the target and ends the threat. The usual doctrine is that if there is justification to start firing, they can keep firing until the threat is "eliminated." That means the suspect has stopped several rounds, any one of which could/should have been lethal. Have a crowd of cops firing, and the result is like this one was.— December 27, 2016 10:10 p.m.
Union leader denies sexual harassment charges
In case the reference to Mickey "The Bat" wasn't clear to everyone, it went back to the supermarket strike about fifteen years ago. At some point, a striker who was on picket duty, or some sympathizer of same, attacked a temporary worker (called a scab) with a baseball bat. Instead of Mick condemning the violent attack, he excused it. Rick Roberts of KFMB-AM fame at the time made hay of the incident and dubbed old Mickey as Mickey "The Bat" Kasparian. It is amazing how, as the number of unionized supermarket and other retail jobs in the county declines, the membership of the UFCW Union local keeps reelecting old Mick. In any other field of endeavor, he'd be seen as a failure. Will this suit bring him down? I doubt that. Too many of the members of the union have no notion of who he is or what he does. (Hint: he does little.) And so he keeps getting voted back in 'cause his is the only familiar name on the ballot.— December 27, 2016 8:02 p.m.
City's pension liability zooms up by $937 million
Ponzi, I recall a short-lived DB plan in one company which was of that "catch-up" kind. It was a great way to stash away large sums of money during fat times, but when things got tight it ended up being jettisoned and replaced--if you can call it that--with a 401(k). Isn't it ironic that the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) has had just the opposite effect from that claimed by its proponents? It was intended, we were told, to reform abuses in existing plans and insure proper funding, hence secure the income stream for retirees. But all it seems to have accomplished is to get employers to abandon the DB approach all together. And there are still scads of plans hanging around out there that are woefully underfunded. The best examples of those are many of the legacy air lines' plans.— December 26, 2016 9:33 a.m.
City's pension liability zooms up by $937 million
There is nothing inherently wrong with defined benefit plans. But when they are established, they have to be on sound actuarial footing, and then they cannot be "messed with." Unfortunately, when making growth estimates, the managers err on the high side especially when returns have an abnormal spike, which happens from time to time in a bull market. In the public sector, keeping the plans fully financed requires discipline, putting large sums of money into the trusts when it seems it isn't needed. It is needed; just wait until the next downturn. Across the state and nation we have all levels of government making promises of lovely retirement incomes that cannot be paid for at the current levels of funding and current levels of contribution. If the real cost of the plans were honestly faced and paid in each year, there would be little to pay for current operations. The streets would be worse than they already are, cops would be stretched thin as would fire and emergency medical care personnel. The list of shortfalls goes on. With the public DB plans always subject to weak-willed political consensus they will never be properly funded. So, the only real answer is to go to a defined contribution plan. As to the sort of things that will have to occur, they are already happening. The State Teachers Retirement System is now collecting more from both the teachers and from the school districts, for newer hires, than previously. The formula was 8% from the teacher and 8% from the district, supplemented by some state funds every year. For that, a teacher could look forward to a comfortable retirement after thirty years of service. Now the teacher contributes 10%, and the district even more, just to provide the same schedule of benefits as before. And even that formula is criticized as inadequate. School districts are screaming bloody murder because they have to find more money each year to pay the share of STRS for each teacher. The bottom line will be fewer teachers. It's happening already, here and there, in public employment.— December 24, 2016 9:11 a.m.
Councilwoman Cole's cop committee picks panned
There is far more wrong with the SDPD than the matter of racial profiling. As to whether these councilpersons are the wrong group, I can't claim to know. But since Kev-boy seems totally happy with the department and its current chief, if any reforms are to be made, the push will need to come from the council. And that department needs a huge shake-op, not more money and higher pay scales. It has suffered from decades of failures of leadership and political chiefs.— December 23, 2016 8:21 a.m.
City's pension liability zooms up by $937 million
The biggest Ponzi scheme of all is Social Security. If we had a high rate of population growth, and an economy where all young people worked from age 18 onward, it might be able to cover the outgo. In general SS has been on a pay-as-you-go system for most of its existence. The funds paid in by workers were not retained and invested, but were paid out in benefits to those drawing checks. If you call putting some temporary surpluses in the Treasury and holding its IOU's "investing", that is ludicrous. The Treasury has run huge deficits, and any SS surplus just went to covering the larger shortfall. When SS is asking for those excess funds back from the Treasury, it has only two ways to do that, from taxes or from borrowing.— December 22, 2016 3:06 p.m.
City's pension liability zooms up by $937 million
And then will he move on to doing ops at water main leaks, sewer system stoppages, leaking library roofs, and tacky neighborhood parks?— December 22, 2016 8:44 a.m.
City's pension liability zooms up by $937 million
Surprised? Not in the least.— December 21, 2016 7:40 p.m.