Free Republic

PARIS—French Pres­i­dent Em­manuel Macron moved Sat­ur­day to pass his pen­sion over­haul with­out a vote in the leg­is­la­ture, seek­ing to brush aside tens of thou­sands of amend­ments filed by op­po­si­tion law­mak­ers to slow de­bate. snip The French con­sti­tu­tion al­lows the gov­ern­ment to pass leg­is­la­tion with­out the ap­proval of the As­sem­blée Na­tional, the main body of the French leg­is­la­ture. The move can only be blocked by a suc­cess­ful vote in the leg­is­la­ture on a mo­tion cen­sur­ing the gov­ern­ment. But that is un­likely to hap­pen since Mr. Macron’s party, Re­pub­lic on the Move, con­trols the leg­is­la­ture. snip Mr. Macron wants to es­tab­lish a...

WASHINGTON - The U.S. economy will grow at a “solid” rate of 2.2% this year, the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office forecast on Tuesday, but with federal budget deficits hitting $1.015 trillion. While the economy will be on good footing during this presidential election year, CBO also noted that conditions will lead to “higher inflation and interest rates after a decade in which both remained low, on average.” The inflation and interest rate rises will be noticed this year and continue through 2022 before settling down beginning in 2023, under the forecast. In its updated budget and economic outlook spanning the...

President Trump signed the SECURE Act this week (January 8, 2020) as part of the government’s spending bill and it will inevitably affect most retirement savers, for better or worse. The SECURE legislation — which stands for “Setting Every Community Up for Retirement Enhancement” — puts into place numerous provisions intended to strengthen retirement security across the country. Part of the bill addresses the grim outlook for many workers who don’t have access to workplace retirement accounts. It offers small businesses tax incentives to set up automatic enrollment in retirement plans for its workers, or allows them to join multiple...

The EU won't be able to lead by example if other countries can see what the Green Deal is actually headed toward: economic ruin, job loss, and more unwanted government intrusion. TimeÂ’s person of the year is a teenage activist famous for castigating adults across the world over their perceived inaction on climate change. Other activists tell us the world is burning down around us and weÂ’re doing nothing to stop it.Politicians and scientists are forcing policies on people and employers in moves to supposedly save the world without offering realistic, cost-effective, alternative energy sources. Of all the ills facing...

French cops launched tear gas cannisters and charged protesters as tens of thousands of workers took to Paris streets to rally against the government's plan to raise the retirement age to 64. Clashes broke out near the Nation square in eastern Paris during a demonstration, organised by trade unions, to demand that President Emmanuel Macron abandon his reforms. Witnesses said police charged a group of protesters who ignored an ultimatum to disperse and were throwing Molotov cocktails.

French commuters faced a 360-mile traffic jam today as the fifth day of nationwide strikes caused delays into Paris. Traffic was held up getting into the French capital on Paris' ring road, the Peripherique, which was up from 90 miles on an average day. The Parisian metro had only two out of it 16 lines fully operating and the SNCF national railway company warned against severe disruptions in the suburbs of Paris.

The Eiffel Tower shut down, France’s high-speed trains stood still and tens of thousands of people marched through Paris and other cities Thursday in a massive and sometimes chaotic outpouring of anger at the government’s plan to overhaul the retirement system. Small groups of masked activists smashed store windows, set fires and hurled flares on the sidelines of the otherwise peaceful Paris march, prompting volleys of tear gas from police in body armor. Unions launched the open-ended, nationwide strikes Thursday over President Emmanuel Macron’s centerpiece reform in the biggest challenge to the centrist leader since the yellow vest movement against...

Nearly 80,000 Californians collected six-figure taxpayer-funded pensions in 2018, as retirement costs leave half the state's cities at "high risk" of serious financial distress, according to an analysis. Transparent California, a free-market think tank, found that 6 percent of retired government workers collected more than $100,000 in 2018, an 85 percent jump since 2013. Those payouts represented 20 percent of the $51.7 billion in total pension payments. Taxpayers spent a record-high $40 billion to cover the costs of public sector retirees in 2018, the report also found. The median household income in California is $75,277. The six-figure payouts propel thousands...

When San Francisco Fire Chief Joanne Hayes-White retired after 15 years leading the department, she joined the ranks of a growing financial elite — the 139 former city workers collecting pensions of more than $200,000 a year. Most are former police and firefighter brass, and some are making more in retirement than they did when working. And it’s not only in San Francisco. Hayes-White is receiving a pension of $311,560 a year, with cost of living increases of 2% or more each year. “To put these high pensions into perspective, a guaranteed $200,000 annual pension for 25 years would require...

East St. Louis is short $9.5 million between a budget deficit and back payments owed to its fire and police pensions. As a result, city leaders are closing a firehouse and laying off nine firefighters. Nine firefighters have been asked to hand in their gear and their fire station will temporarily close as East St. Louis, Illinois, faces a $5.5 million budget deficit and interception of nearly $4 million in state funding for debts owed to its police and fire pensions. Unfortunately, with 100% of the City’s state revenues being redirected to the police and fire pensions, we are faced...

Will people have to postpone - or cancel - retirement? Why is Pelosi not being asked this question?

Rahm Emanuel raised taxes to get city worker pension funds on a ‘path to solvency.’ The shortfall still ballooned by $7 billion. ... A record-high property tax increase. A new tax on water and sewer service. A higher 911 emergency fee on telephone lines... Emanuel’s series of tax hikes was painful, but he promised the extra money was part of a plan to get the woefully underfunded city worker pension funds on a “path to solvency.”.. in the four years since .. The pension funds are actually worse off. When Emanuel pushed through the tax hikes, the city worker retirement...

Forty U.S. states do not have enough money to pay all their bills primarily due to significant unfunded pensions or Other-Post-Employment Benefits (OPEB). Truth in Accounting (TIA), a nonpartisan, not-for-profit has been monitoring the financial health of states for a decade in order to educate taxpayers about the financial health of their states today released its tenth annual Financial State of the States.

he money is going to pensions and health care.” The comments underscore the persistent fiscal pressure on New Jersey, a high-tax state contending with massive debts to employee pension funds after years of failing to set aside enough to cover the $212 billion of benefits that have been promised.

The nation is more than a decade past the Great Recession, and most places are seeing a strong economic recovery and improved living standards. Not in Chicago, and not in Illinois. August statistics from the National Association of Realtors noted the city and state’s real estate market has severely underperformed, a trend forecasted to continue in the third quarter of this year. While the Midwest and the nation as a whole saw a very minor dip in home sales and surging Midwest home prices, Chicago missed the wave. Home sales in the Windy City experienced a 13.3% plunge, and the...

About 1.3 million Americans could have their retirement funds at risk if Congress can't come up with the money to pay the benefits people were promised. That is because a number of multiemployer pension plans are on the brink of running out of money. This week, Congress took a stab at solving the problem with the markup of the Rehabilitation for Multiemployer Pensions Act. Though it garnered far less attention than the testimony of Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell, who was on Capitol Hill talking about interest rates and the economy, it was no less important. Retirees' financial futures hang...

U.S. public pension liability is equivalent to $18,300 for every resident. Public pensions can’t afford not to invest in companies that generate impressive growth and profits. If you are a public employee or a retiree, you should be very concerned because new data shows public pension funds that let leftist policies drive their investment decisions, a.k.a. socially responsible investing, have been consistently underperforming their private peers and the general stock markets.Socially responsible investing (SRI), meaning only investing in companies with “ethical” practices, is not an entirely new concept. Public pension funds have been leading in this since the 1970s. For...

Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot on Wednesday said there’s “no question” residents will need to pay more in taxes or fees to plug a looming city budget shortfall estimated at more than $700 million. Lightfoot made the comment, without elaborating on specifics, after her second City Council meeting, when she was asked about a campaign promise to find budget cuts before seeking a property tax increase. ... There’s no question we’re going to have to come to the taxpayers and ask for additional revenue ... Lightfoot took office last month facing a gaping budget hole in the next fiscal year ......

Without pension reform, progressive income tax amendment guarantees tax hikes on Illinois’ middle class. ( Full title). The current progressive income tax proposal would fail to pay down the state's unfunded liability while damaging Illinois' economy. On May 20, Democrats in the Illinois House Revenue & Finance Committee approved Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s prized progressive tax constitutional amendment. While the Senate had previously passed a new income tax structure – already different from the governor’s original proposal – the House Committee also passed the amendment without putting in income tax rates. ... progressive tax proponents need to face that without pension...

​”​This is about stealing. This is about fraud. This is about people saying they work and charging the taxpayers when they didn’t work. It’s stealing. It’s criminal​,” the governor said during a news conference at his midtown Manhattan office. “​So this has nothing to do with overtime. It has to do with theft and fraud, and that’s criminal.​”​ ...Recently retired LIRR employee Thomas Caputo claimed he worked an additional 3,864 hours to rake in $344,147 in overtime pay in 2018 for a grand paycheck of $461,646, according to the Empire Center. Another LIRR worker, Marco Pazmino, put in for 4,157...