Let the Old Folks Die But Let's Take Care of Wall Street

I've recently written about the City's new attack on the health care of city retirees. It is almost certain that some retirees will die because of the City's actions and complicity of the retirees' former labor unions. All this so that the City can save $460M a year. Talk about blood money.

But every year the City and the unions are more than happy to squander money on Wall Street.

Below are copies of the income statements from 2002 and 2022 for the City's five pension funds. That spans a 21 year period in which the penion funds have gone crazy with throwing money at Wall Street.

In 2002 the pension funds spent $102M on investment fees. In 2022 they spent $1.509B. That amount is over 14 times more than what they spent 2002. Just in case you think that is because the assets of the five funds have increased 14 times - no. They increased less than 3 times their value in 2002, $93.5B versus $263.2B.

I defy anyone to put forward an honest reason for this craziness. Not for nothing - the pension funds lost almost $32B in FY-2022

The NYCERS Trustees Are Out of Touch

At the April 17, 2023 NYCERS Board of Trustees meeting, a NYCERS employee gave an update on the status of the Legacy Replacement Project (LRP). You can find the start of the presnation at the 53rd minute of video of the meeting. It runs for four minutes and ends with no questions from the brain dead trsutees.

I defy anyone to explain in plain English what the employee said. Maybe it's that the project is 15 months behind schedule. The four minute ramble is the most incoherent pile garbage I have ever heard.

The LRP

The LRP was started in 2015. Since FY-2016 NYCERS has spent over $50M on consultants and over $30M on software.

The City - Cutting Health Benefits for City Retirees on Medicare

While the City is turning a blind eye to runaway software projects at NYCERS, it is cutting the health benefits for city retirees on Medicare.

Climate Change and Private Equity

Someone needs to tell the Comptroller and the trustees that when it comes to private equity/limited partnerships, they have absolutely no control over what the PE general manager does with the money that the pension fund invests with the PE fund. You want to take action about climate change - get out of limited partnerships. They are for the dumb-dumbs in the room.