The shit is about to hit the fan for Pension Funds

[osoab]

That is great you can take a lump sum Ken. I was going to suggest it, but I have no idea how union pensions work.
Go out as a private contractor outside of union work if you can. Cash on the barrel head.

I can take My Annuity Lump sum, which is a nice chunk of change...

But not the pension. That I will have to collect monthly. If and for as long it is there to collect.

Well, at least you know that the possibility that it won't be there. Think of the millions that will get slapped in the face with reality of no pension or a really really smaller pension benefit.

[StackerKen]

My Carpenters pension is Highly diversified last time I looked I think only about 10% was in Mortgages and real estate ....I should be getting another quarterly report any day now...

Pensions are invested on Wall Street and when the music stops it all goes POOF!

Watch the video to understand just how huge the cancer is. It will wipe out EVERYTHING including pensions.

Book ;
I have been hearing this and trying my best to brace myself for it for almost three years now

Almost 3 years ago when I 1st found GIM (rip) folks the where sayin the end was Near.

It's still six months away.

If My pension and annuity go Poof...I will survive....If they don't...I will survive that much better

[Book]

Think of the millions that will get slapped in the face with reality of no pension or a really really smaller pension benefit.

I bought myself a big screen HDTV to watch it on teevee. Stockpiled the popcorn.

[JohnQPublic]

"This is cancer"

About sums up the situation.

[kregener]

How aggravating is his repeated use of; "We are a democracy"?

[StackerKen]

"This is cancer"

About sums up the situation.

But we know cancer Is Cure-able and does Not have to be fatal. Right?

[steel_ag]

"Background

Black Swan Events were characterized by Nassim Nicholas Taleb in his 2007 book (revised and completed in 2010), The Black Swan. Taleb regards almost all major scientific discoveries, historical events, and artistic accomplishments as "black swans" — undirected and unpredicted. He gives the rise of the Internet, the personal computer, World War I, and the September 11 attacks as examples of Black Swan Events.

The term black swan was a Latin expression — its oldest known reference comes from the poet Juvenal's characterization of something being "rara avis in terris nigroque simillima cygno" (6.165).[1] In English, this Latin phrase means "a rare bird in the lands, and very like a black swan." When the phrase was coined, the black swan was presumed not to exist. The importance of the simile lies in its analogy to the fragility of any system of thought. A set of conclusions is potentially undone once any of its fundamental postulates is disproven. In this case, the observation of a single black swan would be the undoing of the phrase's underlying logic, as well as any reasoning that followed from that underlying logic.

Juvenal's phrase was a common expression in 16th century London as a statement of impossibility. The London expression derives from the Old World presumption that all swans must be white because all historical records of swans reported that they had white feathers.[2] In that context, a black swan was impossible or at least nonexistent. After a Dutch expedition led by explorer Willem de Vlamingh on the Swan River in 1697, discovered black swans in Western Australia[3], the term metamorphosed to connote that a perceived impossibility might later be disproven. Taleb notes that in the 19th century John Stuart Mill used the black swan logical fallacy as a new term to identify falsification.

Specifically, Taleb asserts[4] in the New York Times:

What we call here a Black Swan (and capitalize it) is an event with the following three attributes. First, it is an outlier, as it lies outside the realm of regular expectations, because nothing in the past can convincingly point to its possibility. Second, it carries an extreme impact. Third, in spite of its outlier status, human nature makes us concoct explanations for its occurrence after the fact, making it explainable and predictable.

I stop and summarize the triplet: rarity, extreme impact, and retrospective (though not prospective) predictability. A small number of Black Swans explains almost everything in our world, from the success of ideas and religions, to the dynamics of historical events, to elements of our own personal lives.

[edit] Identifying a black swan event

Based on the author's criteria:

1. The event is a surprise (to the observer).
2. The event has a major impact.
3. After the fact, the event is rationalized by hindsight, as if it could have been expected (e.g., the relevant data were available but not accounted for).

[edit] Coping with black swan events

The main idea in Taleb's book is to not attempt to predict Black Swan Events, but to build robustness against negative ones that occur and be able to exploit positive ones. Taleb contends that banks and trading firms are very vulnerable to hazardous Black Swan Events and are exposed to losses beyond that predicted by their defective models.

Taleb states that a Black Swan Event depends on the observer. For example, what may be a Black Swan surprise for a turkey is not a Black Swan surprise to its butcher; hence the objective should be to "avoid being the turkey" by identifying areas of vulnerability in order to "turn the Black Swans white"."

[Jewboo]

Well, at least you know that the possibility that it won't be there. Think of the millions that will get slapped in the face with reality of no pension or a really really smaller pension benefit.