In the latest LLNL retirees newsletter, UCRS declared they had finished divesting from all companies with ties to fossil fuels. That sounds like a big hit to the bottom line of the fund. How are they going to replace the cash-flow coming from oil, gas, and coal? Or is UCRS about to take a huge dive into the red in order to please a bunch of eco-alarmists?
GreggS
21 comments:
A valid question for both UC employees, UC retirees, and future UC retirees. In addition to this, there were major UC benefit changes effective July 1, 2013. Note the PDF below is the proposed changes. How much of the proposal was implemented is of interest, as well as the root cause for these proposed 2013 changes if not solely based on the weakening performance of UC retirement funds in 2013 and in prior years.
"Proposed Changes to UC Retirement Benefits"
https://ucsdnews.ucsd.edu/archive/thisweek/2010/11/FactsPension.pdf
One word: Solyndra
One word: Solyndra
8/02/2022 11:14 AM
Another word: Privatize. We all lost big-time when UC fired their financial guru back in the 1990s and turned retirement over to the financial industry, at the demand of the regents, who BTW had a vested interest in the financial companies that took it over. Gone forever were the days when we could see a surprise bonus because the fund was gaining too much value.
The word, “California” tells you all you need to know. Given a choice between sanctimonious, virtue-signaling insanity and simple sound investments, UCRS will choose the former every time.
Unreliable renewables MUST be backed up by fossil fuels. There is no other option. That's why Germany's CO2 emissions are typically 2 to 6 times higher than France per kWh. Germany tried to go renewable with wind and solar, France is powered by Nuclear. Germany had to back up their unreliables with Lignite (dirty coal). California is heading down the same road. UCRS is ignorant. Retirees may have to sue the UCRS for malfeasance.
Germany is now reconsidering closing its last nuclear plants, as it should. Nuclear is the only response to cutting back fossil fuels.
Report: $1.5 trillion, California has nation’s largest public pension debt load
https://newspress.com/report-at-1-5-trillion-california-has-nations-largest-public-pension-debt-load/
Report: $1.5 trillion, California has nation’s largest public pension debt load
https://newspress.com/report-at-1-5-trillion-california-has-nations-largest-public-pension-debt-load/
8/05/2022 9:21 AM
I think for LLNL the relevant number would be UC pension which is not the same as the average California pension.
8/05/2022 2:51 PM
Indeed CALPERS is not the same as UCRS.
"Indeed CALPERS is not the same as UCRS."
Agreed, but I don't think anyone said otherwise. The CALPERS link just shows how mismanaged retirement funds can get. The PBGCs ability to back pensions of any scale is a reasonable question. So how will CALPERS stay out of insolvency? By giving pensioners a haircut, by raising CA taxes, or both?
This info is very dated, but around 2011, I was told the LLNS pension fund was one of the best managed pension funds within the NNSA Complex. Has anyone tracked the LLNS pension funds (TCP1) from 2007 to present, in terms of assets/liabilities, and compared these ratios to UCRS for the same period?
UCRS pays my pension with generous COLAs every year.As long as that continues, I'm happy. Also happy I retired from UC and then went to work for LANS, but only for one year.
A point - I never voted to divest from those companies. Some left-leaning fan of social political causes did. My retirement fund is not a sandbox for politics of ANY kind. UCRS has a fiduciary obligation to manage that retirement fund with an eye toward healthy sustainable returns in their investments. As such the divestment was wrong, possibly criminal. At the very least I'd like to see those on that board replaced with people more interested in business fundamentals and less so about what Facebook/Twitter is posting this week.
Sigh... It's California. Rage if you must, but recognize that it's a done thing
8/07/2022 6:40 PM
Face facts Gregg, the UC Board of Regents calls the shots for UCRS, including the privatization that turned a booming retirement fund into a so-so investment. (A couple of regents made out very well with that maneuver.) Retirees and employees have no say in these matters, so they shouldn't worry their little selves about such weighty decisions.
8/08/2022 5:43 PM said, "Sigh... It's California. Rage if you must, but recognize that it's a done thing".
In California. Right -- gottit....
I knew where I was living. Smack dab in the middle of Control-Freaks Central. Previously I'd "dealt" with them putting a stranglehold on use of my firearms, controlling my water ration, orchestrating rolling blackouts of electricity, and saying if and when I can light a fire to heat my home. it is a major reason I and thousands of other residents have left the state.
Now someone has ideas on how they can "improve" my retirement fund. Well, they can't improve it. Oh they can alter it. Improve the cash-flow I seriously doubt. So don't say I should meekly accept this action, I don't. Retirees won a class-action suit not long ago in order to get back benefits that they believe had been promised. Is it not a reasonable expectation to have a board overseeing the pension to maintain solid levels of income in order to preserve the solvency of the fund?
That's not rage, that's voicing a significant concern.
Gregg: I am glad you left CA and found your natural habitat. Without regulations, CA can become a poor state, like... AL, KY, MS....
8/10/2022 7:33 AM
"Without regulations, CA can become a poor state..."
Rich in money the government takes from you and can hand out to people it likes, or just waste on stupid stuff, poor in personal freedoms. Take your pick.
Gregg: I am glad you left CA and found your natural habitat. Without regulations, CA can become a poor state, like... AL, KY, MS....
8/10/2022 7:33 AM
Why should CA pay for somebody like Gregg who retired to move to some backwood red state to say bad things about polices that created the great state of CA that made a job he never earned! I say that if you get a pension from CA you better fall in line with the politics of CA...else you get cut. Sounds fair.
I say that if you get a pension from CA you better fall in line with the politics of CA...else you get cut. Sounds fair.
8/12/2022 6:47 PM
Right. Get a clue about what "fair" means.
8/12/2022 6:47 PM "Why should CA pay for somebody like Gregg who retired to move to some backwood red state to say bad things about polices that created the great state of CA that made a job he never earned! I say that if you get a pension from CA you better fall in line with the politics of CA...else you get cut. Sounds fair."
ROTFLMAO!
Instead of flying over Wisconsin how about practicing some of that "enlightenment" you claim to possess? Madison is just as if not more progressive than Berkeley. LLNL would not even recruit at UW Madison out of fear of protests by strongly Left-leaning UW students and faculty. Berkeley never had an incident like Sterling Hall.
The suggestion of punishment if one is not in line with a group's politics goes against the tradition of academic freedom that dominated the LLNL site when I started work back in the 80s. Actually it goes against a lot of principles that used to be core features of American society.
My pension is no toy to conduct social experiments with. I have a RIGHT to peacefully point out my concern with the future solvency of UCRS.
Note well - when I was a co-moderator here I would have allowed this person's thoughts to be posted here - there is no violation of blog rules. Far more than he demands happen to me.
Sterling Hall: The murderers got a few years and time off for good behavior, if I remember correctly. About the same time, the leftist Weathermen bombed the US Capitol, which none of the media reporting on the Jan 6, 2021 attack seem to remember.
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