Permanent fund takes hit in plunge

JUNEAU EMPIRE ^ | March 1, 2007 | PAT FORGEY

[skeptoid]

The day after the Alaska Permanent Fund lost $630 million - in what may have been the largest one-day loss in the fund's history - members of its board met in Juneau to discuss taking even more risk with fund investments. Done right, the alternative investments to the usual bonds and company stocks could actually reduce losses like Tuesday's, fund managers say.

"This area is in great contrast to conventional stocks and bonds," said Allan Bufferd, advisor to the board.

The Alaska Permanent Fund, created by voters in 1976 to save oil profits for the state's future, has grown steadily. It was at nearly $38 billion Monday, before U.S. and global stock markets fell precipitously.

[skeptoid]

Board meeting: The Alaska Permanent Fund Corp. Board of Trustees are, from left,
Bill Moran, Bill Hudson, Emil Notti, Pat Galvin, Steve Frank, Carl Brady and Michael Burns.
The trustees met Wednesday at the Alaska Permanent Fund Corp. building in Juneau.

[SevenofNine]

OH KATHY you may get less money this year thanks to stock market meltdown earlier this week

[skeptoid]

PHOTO CREDIT
Brian Wallace / Juneau Empire

[Stayfree]

The Juneau Empire is just another dinasour about to expire, when it thinks its control over access to news available elsewhere is worthy of "membership".

Newspapers (and their liberal opinions) are beyond archaic...as fishwrap, they were long ago replaced by plastic bags & tinfoil, now they are too expensive to use for lighting fires in my wood stoves...save the trees, tell the liberals who run them to get a real job that produces something of higher value than liberal lies about global warming...what a joke...except that liberals are far more dangerous than their subject matter.

[ASOC]

Nah, its averaged over the last 5 years, we'll make out like bandits, and with income tax over half of anything handed out, Uncle Sugar is the biggest winner.

630M/37000M = .017% not much of a hit.

[Alter Kaker]

630M/37000M = .017% not much of a hit.

Your math is off by a factor of 100. The fund actually took a 1.7% hit.

[ASOC]

Thanks, I used my Windows calculator .017....and a lot of other numbers.

[conservative in nyc]

The Fund took a 1.7% hit on a day when the Dow was down 3.3% and some international markets fell by 9%. I'd say it's fairly conservatively managed as it is. The article doesn't highlight the Fund's gains over the past year, which I suspect more than offset any of Monday's losses.

[Eska]

PFD drives those greedy repub & dem politicals nutty. All that money they could steal. They all can't wait till they get their hands on it. THey try all kinds of schemes to accomplish this but haven't been lucky enough yet.

I'm sure they will someday, but we sure are having alot of fun keeping it away from them so far. No joke, our politicians in Alaska are even more crooked than the ones back east; REPUBLICANS included. Less people, more money.

Bottomline is that it is always better to let public spend the money than let politicals to spend it for the public.

[skeptoid]

I have similar thoughts. But the J. E. is THE newspaper of the Capitol City. They sometimes have exclusive or breaking content. So I visit them on-line.
I'll register, if need be, but I have yet to pay for on-line news. I guess if the publisher thinks he comes out ahead by charging for his on-line publication, all I can do is pay .....or stay away.