August 9, 2013
The two Democratic candidates (click here) for city comptroller squared off yesterday in one of the wildest political debates this town has seen in some time. Amid the exchange of insults, one thing became clear: Eliot Spitzer has no comprehension of what a comptroller actually does.
The one-time Client 9 said he would use the city’s $126 billion in pension funds as a massive economic stimulus, similar to the $831 billion spending program Congress passed back in 2009.
After all, said Spitzer, that one worked so well that it should have been twice the size. We’ll leave aside that argument. The real issue is whether a man asking us to elect him watchdog of public funds ought to be looking at those funds as a vehicle for his own economic and political agendas....
I was worried about the Post Office and the lousy stunt Bush's Republicans pulled in 2006, but, now Michael Bloomberg might have to pay back to NYC all those billions he has.
Wow.
Republicans have real problems with these things. They can't keep pension funds intact, they borrow monies from Social Security and they can't fund the government. It is not looking good.
New York State Pension Value Rises to Record High $160.4 Billion (click here)
By Freeman Klopott - May 13, 2013 11:01 AM ET
The value of the New York state pension fund rose to a record $160.4 billion in year ending March 31, recovering after the financial crisis wiped out almost one-third of its assets, Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli said.
The New York State Common Retirement Fund, which provides benefits to almost 1 million state and local workers and their beneficiaries, had an estimated 10.4 percent rate of return in fiscal 2013, DiNapoli said in a statement. That’s about the same gain posted by the Standard & Poor’s 500 stock index over the same period. The fund was valued at $154.5 billion in 2007, before the start of the longest recession since the Great Depression.
“The New York State Common Retirement Fund has reached a milestone,” DiNapoli said in a statement. “It remains well positioned for growth as the financial markets continue to gain strength.”...
This is more than just a snippet.
