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Re:The Pension Hole for U.S. Cities and States Is the Size o... by omegaworks on Monday July 30, 2018 @05:18PM (#17648133)
>The choice is raising taxes, reducing spending elsewhere, or demanding workers give up the pensions they were promised.

Why is there a fourth option for banks and not for pensions? Why is Quantitative Easing left out of this discussion?

Re:The Pension Hole for U.S. Cities and States Is the Size o... by betterunix2 on Monday July 30, 2018 @06:14PM (#17648637)
QE is not something municipal governments can do, so it is irrelevant to this discussion. Since you brought it up, it is worth mentioning that QE actually contributed to the pension shortfall because pension funds suffer when interest rates are low.
Re:The Pension Hole for U.S. Cities and States Is the Size o... by pathseeker on Monday July 30, 2018 @05:43PM (#17648360)
Quantitative easing was not for banks. Also, the bailouts to which you refer were not free money, they were loans with low interest rates that have been paid back.

The pensions don't have enough money so easy access to debt does nothing to help them solve that problem.

Re:The Pension Hole for U.S. Cities and States Is the Size o... by omegaworks on Monday July 30, 2018 @07:33PM (#17649207)
>the bailouts to which you refer were not free money, they were loans with low interest rates that have been paid back.

Any loan at an interest rate lower than the rate of return that can be earned by investing that money is essentially free money.