Comments on: CalPERS Devastates Itself & Will Charge Taxpayer

By: peter mcnamee

peter mcnamee — Fri, 09 Jan 2009 01:33:35 +0000

To admin – I agree. The good news is that the “spotlight of exposure” will be focused on CalPERS Board and its executive team’s performance. My guess is, what can be done, will be done to tighten up risk management. Fortunately, CalPERS is well diversified and its real estate holding are a relatively small part of its overall investments.

By: admin

admin — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 21:49:19 +0000

fair enough – but Calpers still lost control and jespordized their constituants for greed.

By: peter mcnamee

peter mcnamee — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 21:41:57 +0000

Don’t know how many of the previous comments are from CalPERS pensioners, but I am one. Criticisms of CalPERS investment failings are fair and to be encouraged. People – pensioners and tax payers – should hold the Governing board accountable for the successes and failures of the retirement fund. These are big losses and they should have been avoided, but looking at the longer term CalPERS still reported a 5 year ROI of 4.4% (period ending 10/08). We are in a depression (in my opinion) and losses of 50% or more in wealth are not uncommon. CalPERS has a long history of out performing its earning requirements and the buildup and drawdown time for the fund is really 30 years. I suspect that while some increase in employer payments will be levied in the short term (five years), they will be offset by reductions in employer contribution requirements when the economy turns more robust. As a pensioner and a tax payer, while I agree CalPERS needs to improve its investment management, I am much more worried about the economic threat possed by corrupt wall street investors and lenders as well as the criminal incompetence of federal fiscal and monitary policy administrators by a significant measure.

By: Jorge

Jorge — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 19:39:48 +0000

“[Modifications] make the home owner a trapped, underwater, over-leveraged renter for years, if not life.”

….Those trapped people will get little sympathy from the general public, since no one put a gun to their head and told them to buy at the peak. Call me bitter, but I’ll take the zombie economy if it means people will maybe learn economics the hard way. Mr. Mortgage has altruistic reasons for his position which are very respectable, and his intentions are for what is best for the economy in the “big picture”, but as for me, I am too worried about the future faith in US Contract Law should cram-downs become the norm and make a mockery of it.

By: fedwatcher

fedwatcher — Sat, 20 Dec 2008 00:03:03 +0000

Like a gambling addict, CalPERS kept doubling down betting on black, but red kept comming up.
California was also taken to the cleaners by Enron.

They failed to see that the casino was built on the loses of the players.

They had no business playing at developer in other states.

With California munis yielding over 5%, they could have bought local.

By: C.C.

C.C. — Wed, 17 Dec 2008 22:07:49 +0000

Richard Estes: NAILED IT

Bert: 100% correct.

And this is why it is vitally important to keep all debt at a minimum and maximize your cash while you can. There will be very few defenses for the average wage-earner/salaried/small businessman to protect his wealth in the future.

Next up will be your retirement account. And don’t buy the B.S. that it’s ‘not on the table for discussion’ or, they won’t try to finagle a way to commandeer those accounts as a means to shore up balance sheets for unfunded liabilities in the face of this current maelstrom of government debt. Ideas are always ‘floated’ first to gain a reaction and see what the level of resistance will be. Followed later by incremental steps (mission creep) to achieve the goal.

I’m still waiting for my creamed corn…

Peace-

C.C.

By: James

James — Wed, 17 Dec 2008 20:45:27 +0000

Thank you Democrats in California for ruining the state. This has been a one-party monopoly and they transferred money from the productive citizens to the leeches and state bureaucrats.

By: Truth doctor

Truth doctor — Wed, 17 Dec 2008 20:04:31 +0000

Javagold: government (in 99% of its forms) *IS* a ponzi scheme. Once you realize that, all these “big spending, big government” plans you see really come into perspective.

pardon me, I need to throw up

By: Richard Estes

Richard Estes — Wed, 17 Dec 2008 19:26:05 +0000

This is a tragedy, driven by the avariciousness of the CALPERS fund managers, who couldn’t resist the allure of playing in the same exciting arenas as hedge fund managers and brokerage houses, and the seduction of outsized returns financed with other people’s money with seemingly low risk. But there is a deeper problem: the fact that the US, and even the global economy, is not generating the investment returns to fund existing obligations and fulfill investor expectations that have become absurd. Hence, money managers assume more and more risk in the hope that they can somehow evade the icebergs and bring home sufficient returns to please their fund participants. Or, even worse, they just resort to outright fraud, like Madoff. One suspects that he is going to be the first among many exposed during this downturn.

By: Javagold

Javagold — Wed, 17 Dec 2008 18:50:05 +0000

and to think they want to crucify Bernard Madoff for his Ponzi Scheme against his Jew friends, this is so much more a bigger Ponzi scheme against EVERYONE