Secret to making a post go viral on Tumblr:

Thursday, June 28, 2012

Secret to making a post go viral on Tumblr:

David Bowie. It doesn’t even need to be in-context. You could quote an article on pensions, but throw in some David Bowie and it’s gold:

By most accounts, pension plans are in trouble. How many plans and how much trouble depends, at least in part, on the accounting. And now that the Governmental Accounting Standards Board has adopted new rules for calculating pension liabilities today, the hole faced by many pension plans could look a lot deeper.

David Bowie, saddened by the hole your pension plan faces

As we wrote in our story, States Face Pressure on Pension Shortfalls, the new rules will require state and local officials to use more conservative assumptions when calculating pension liabilities. As a result, some plans could see their liabilities double, according to an analysis by the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College of how the changes could affect 126 state and local pension plans.

The list of the plans analyzed by BC is below. Before you dive in, there are a few important caveats. First, the numbers come from 2010 when pension funds were smaller than they are today. With some plans, funding levels would have decreased if the GASB changes were implemented in 2010 because investments were doing poorly. Depending on how the stock market does, these plans may not reflect a shortfall when the rules take effect in 2013.

The year 2013, as portrayed by David Bowie

But for plans that already have large deficits, the hole is likely to look bigger, regardless of the market.

[infographic]

* Data for Colorado don’t reflect design changes as well as an escalating contribution rate schedule that were adopted in 2011
** The reported funded ratio for Indiana Teachers is made up of two separately funded accounts, the pre-1996 account and the 1996 account. The pre-1996 1996 account is for employees hired afterwards and is pre-funded. The funded ratio for the pre-funded account is currently 94.7%. As expected, the pay-go account has a much lower funded ratio of 33.1%. It is for employees hired prior to 1996 and is funded under a pay-go schedule.

David Bowie is pissed off at the lower funded ratio of the pay-go account. Fuck you, pay-go

*** Historically, Pennsylvania Schools has not fully paid its ARC. Under Act 120 of 2010, the Pennsylvania School Employees Retirement System will fully fund the plan by gradually increasing the contribution rate in future years.
**** Tennessee plans only perform actuarial valuations in odd numbered years. The current funded ratio and market funded ratio for Tennessee plans are based on 2011 data.
***** The reported funded ratios represent only state employees, teachers and political subdivisions for the VRS plan. They do not reflect the information in the other plans — SPORS, JRS and VaLORS.