[lbo-talk] More Times fearmongering

[Max Sawicky]

I would say no.  Ironically enough, the Federal budget documents
routinely include -- or used to include, I haven't looked at them in a
couple of years -- a good explanation why the public sector is not
like a corporation, hence a balance sheet exercise doesn't make sense.

The genesis of this is the Social Security Act, which mandated a 75
year, PV comparison of in-go and out-go.  In more recent years the
trustees' report includes an infinite horizon calculation as well.

On Tue, Mar 30, 2010 at 3:35 PM, Doug Henwood <dhenwood at panix.com> wrote:


> The whole strategy of doing a present value analysis of pension obligations
> makes no sense to me, except as a scaremongering tactic. Governments are for
> these purposes immortal, and have tremendous power to tax, and all that
> matters is their ability to cover next year's obligations with next year's
> revenues, ad infinitum. Is there any rational economic reason for this sort
> of analysis except to promote an austerity program?
>
> Doug
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