Alexandria, U.S.A. — On July 18, State Budget Solutions (SBS), a nonprofit organization advocating for fundamental reform of state finances, released a groundbreaking report on the true scope of the state and local public pension crisis. The SBS analysis found that the average public employee pension plan is only 41 percent funded while total unfunded liabilities as of 2011 are at least $4.6 trillion.

“State Budget Solutions’ pension study shows that our country is trillions of dollars in debt, and this is a hole that will overtake local and state governments if immediate action is not taken,” said Bob Williams, President of State Budget Solutions. “There is no option for status quo or incremental adjustments. Drastic reforms, innovations and political courage are needed to put our states and municipalities back on the path to fiscal survival.”

Recent reports have claimed that pensions were only underfunded by $885 billion as of 2010. That number was calculated with accounting guidelines of the Governmental Accounting Standards Board (GASB). However, GASB ignores accounting standards used by economists requiring that assumed return on pension fund investments be based on the fact that pension benefits are guaranteed. Public pension funds calculate future debt based on politicians’ guesses about how much investments will earn and grow. Current GASB pension accounting standard follow that practice, and new standards set to go into effect by 2015 modify it.

Taxpayers must make up any difference between pension fund investment performance and promised benefits. However, governments do not have to include pension debt in their budgets.

State Budget Solutions’ report uses fair market value and risk-free investment returns to determine that the actual unfunded liabilities are $4.6 trillion. That more accurately reflects the value of promised benefits taxpayers must fund whether investments perform or not.

“Failing to understand the scope of the pension crisis sets taxpayers up for a bigger catastrophe in the future. Without government action, states, counties, cities and towns all over America will go bankrupt. That means essential public services must be cut, dedicated government workers laid off, disrupting or eliminating public health, safety and education,” said Williams. “It is vital to reform public pensions now. Real reform must be based on actual numbers instead of the optimistic outlook presented by using unrealistic assumptions.”

The calculations were done by Andrew G. Biggs, a former principal deputy commissioner of the Social Security Administration, associate director of the National Economic Council and director of research at the Congressional Institute. He has a doctorate from the London School of Economics and now is a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute.

Image Courtesy of   chesbayprogram

The article Public Pension Debt Worst Than Previous Predictions appeared first on The Toonari Post - News, Powered by the People!.

Instead of coming back on December 21, 2012 – the infamous apocalyptic date – the newly discovered asteroid 2012 DA14 is not expected to return around February 15, 2013. For now, humanity can breathe easy.

A group of amateur astronomers working at Observatorio Astronómico de La Sagra (La Sagra Sky Survey), located in the Andalusia Mountains of southeast Spain, discovered the asteroid a month ago, on February 22. The group accidently spotted it in an area of the sky where asteroids are not generally seen, and was only able to detect it when it flew by the Earth at a range of seven times the distance from the Earth to the Moon. 2012 DA14 was difficult to notice because of its small size; it has a diameter of around 50 meters (150 feet).

Come February 15, 2013, 2012 DA14 fly past 24,000 km (15,000 miles) away, much closer than most of our commercial satellites orbit the Earth. One would be able to view it with binoculars, but at that distance, the asteroid would not even skim the atmosphere, let alone hit the Earth.

Phil Plait, former Hubble Space Telescope member and astronomy teacher, assures in his blog Bad Astronomy, “In astronomical terms, [that distance] is pretty close, but in real human terms it’s a clean miss.”

The asteroid’s orbit is inclined in comparison to the Earth’s and lasts for 366.24 days, which is extremely close to that of the Earth, being only one day longer. Due to the nature of its orbit, 2012 DA14 will most likely not ever cause an impact – no matter what other sources assert.

Earlier this month, La Sagra joined the European Space Agency’s (ESA) Space Situation Awareness (SSA) program, which searches for hazards in or that will enter Earth’s orbit and cause harm or pose a risk to life, such as (as stated on their website) “remnant man-made space objects, in-orbit explosions and release events, potential impacts of Near Earth Objects, the effects of space weather phenomena on space- and ground-based infrastructure.” Together, La Sagra and SSA will search for asteroids and miscellaneous space objects that may pose as a threat to the Earth.

In addition to keeping track of the smaller asteroid, when 2012 DA14 approaches again, astronomers will jump at the opportunity to study it and measure the gravitational effects of the Earth and Moon that affect it. After 2013, the asteroid is not expected to return until 2020

According to ESA, the SSA program is developing a system of telescopes that will be able to detect any asteroids around the size of 2012 DA14 – just in case.

“I can’t say this strongly enough: asteroid 2012 DA14 is not an impact threat for February 2013,” Plait continues to write. “However, we definitely need to keep our eyes on this guy to see if it poses a threat at some future date.”

The article 2012 Asteroid to Return Next Year appeared first on The Toonari Post - News, Powered by the People!.