The Great Antidote with Josh Rauh on the U.S. Public Pension Crisis: Deep Dive
Joshua Rauh and Juliette Sellgren
What lessons can be learned from places like Chicago, IL and Detroit, MI when we think about the role of pensions in state and city public finance? Perhaps more importantly, what is the impact of poorly designed and funded systems on the individuals involved with them and paying for them? Josh Ruah has some suggestions to help us think about this sometimes dry-seeming but very important issue in this episode of The Great Antidote.
What lessons can be learned from places like Chicago, IL and Detroit, MI when we think about the role of pensions in state and city public finance? Perhaps more importantly, what is the impact of poorly designed and funded systems on the individuals involved with them and paying for them? Josh Ruah has some suggestions to help us think about this sometimes dry-seeming but very important issue in this episode of The Great Antidote.
Publicly stated shortfalls in public pension liabilities are serious. In this episode of The Great Antidote, guest Dr. Joshua D. Rauh and host Juliette Sellgren discuss the United States public pensions crisis and why even young people should be concerned about it. Rauh is the Ormond Family Professor of Finance at Stanford’s Graduate School of Business and a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution. He formerly served at the White House where he was Principal Chief Economist on the President's Council of Economic Advisers.
Rauh begins by talking about how he got interested in studying pensions and the academic challenges he had to overcome. The discussion of what pensions are starts around 16:33. Rauh talks about how the problem has grown and might be fixed. California, Illinois, and Michigan are discussed as particularly bad situations but there are many other states (and cities) in similar trouble. There are serious political and legal choices that politicians, government officials, voters, and tax-payers face as cities and states become more strained by budgets promises they've already made and are, in some cases, legally prevented from modifying.
You'll also find out, as always, the one thing Rauh thinks young people today should know and something he's changed his mind about.
Listen to this episode
The Great Antidote: Josh Rauh on the Pending Public Pension Crisis | Adam Smith Works
Rauh begins by talking about how he got interested in studying pensions and the academic challenges he had to overcome. The discussion of what pensions are starts around 16:33. Rauh talks about how the problem has grown and might be fixed. California, Illinois, and Michigan are discussed as particularly bad situations but there are many other states (and cities) in similar trouble. There are serious political and legal choices that politicians, government officials, voters, and tax-payers face as cities and states become more strained by budgets promises they've already made and are, in some cases, legally prevented from modifying.
You'll also find out, as always, the one thing Rauh thinks young people today should know and something he's changed his mind about.
Listen to this episode
The Great Antidote: Josh Rauh on the Pending Public Pension Crisis | Adam Smith Works
The guest: Joshua D. Rauh
- Stanford School of Business profile, Hoover Institution profile
- Videos: Joshua Rauh: The Looming Pension Crisis; Public Pensions: An Economic Time Bomb
- Tweeting at @joshrauh
Related Liberty Fund content
- Adam Smith discusses pensions in Book II, Chapter 2 of the Wealth of Nations
- Joshua Rauh on Public Pensions - Econlib (econtalk.org)
- Pensions, by Henry McMillan. Concise Encyclopedia of Economics.
- Social Security, by Thomas R. Saving. Concise Encyclopedia of Economics.
- Fiscal Sustainability, by Laurence J. Kotlikoff. Concise Encyclopedia of Economics.
People and places mentioned
Additional resources on topics mentioned
- U.S. State Budgets (revisited) - IGM Forum (igmchicago.org)
- The State Pension Funding Gap: 2017 | The Pew Charitable Trusts (pewtrusts.org)
- Public Sector Retirement Systems | The Pew Charitable Trusts (pewtrusts.org)
- How Well-Funded Are Pension Plans in Your State? | Tax Foundation
- $1 Trillion State Pension Gap: Planet Money : NPR
Resources compiled by Christy Lynn