California’s two mammoth public-pension funds — the California Public Employees Retirement System and the California State Teachers’ Retirement System — are short a shocking $225 billion that they’re going to need to pay for the retirements of government workers. But what is it about the two pension funds that worries the state’s Democratic Party? Their fossil-fuel investments.For lefties it's not about the result. It's about checking off another box on your list of liberal bona fides--and feeeeeeeeling good (read: superior) about yourself for "doing something".
Delegates to the state’s annual Democratic Party convention voted over Memorial Day weekend in favor of a resolution urging the funds to dump oil, natural gas, and coal stocks. The vote follows the introduction earlier this year of state legislation that would require the pension funds to sell all coal-related stocks and study the implications of dropping oil and natural gas stocks. With the resolution, local Democrats jumped on the divestment bandwagon, inspired by radical environmentalist Bill McKibben, which has so far persuaded the endowment funds of about two dozen universities to sell shares in fossil-fuel companies. Yet if CalPERS and CalSTRS’s past social-investing records are any indication, the real losers from divestment won’t be the energy companies, but California taxpayers.
“I’ve been involved in five divestments for our fund,” CalSTRS chief investment officer Chris Ailman told his board earlier this year. “All five of them we’ve lost money, and all five of them have not brought about social change.”
Education, politics, and anything else that catches my attention.
Wednesday, June 10, 2015
This Will Be Good For Teachers. Not.
What are they smoking, ground-up unicorn horn?
If I wasn't a teacher with about 24 years to go I would find this a lot funnier.
ReplyDeleteYou missed one. They just divested in Remington, the firearms company that made the gunns that were ollegally obtained an used in the (Sandy Hook?) school shooting. As a former, and hopefully future contributor to this fund, and a current beneficiary of this system -- I couldn't give a #2 about what they invest in. As long as it's profitable. And teachers gain NOTHING by bringing the stuff to light -- who on earth would take the time to look up specific companies which are part of our portfolio, except people to whom pushing an agenda is more important thabeing able to retire, and not bankrupting the state? The only group of people who would voluntarily do this, in my mind … elementary school teachers. And that is not meant to be disparaging to anyone who breaks the mold, but in my experience as both a teacher and a teacher's union rep? That group is responsible for just about every bad vote I've taken part of. They are generally the second income in a two income household, and tend to value appearance over efficiency.
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