Dean Baker on Economists and Pension Accounting

Public Pension Shortfalls: Don't Forget Braindead Economists  

...if the economists who make projections knew arithmetic,
then the pension funds would not be facing these huge shortfalls.

These "experts," all of whom draw high salaries in their working careers
and much higher pensions than public employees,
...all asserted that stocks would average 7.0 percent real returns
even when the market was at its bubble peaks.

If the market had performed as they had projected,
then these pension funds would be just fine today.

...the biggest problem with these pension funds
is that they listened to the country's leading economic experts
in planning for the future.


...the workers and the taxpayers will pay for the incompetence of the experts.

The experts themselves are protected. 

Dean Baker
The Center for Economic and Policy Research