Christian Fong

Fiscal Sustainability: The Public Pension Sinkhole

Sustainability is a buzzword for the Gen X and Millennial generations.  Does it mean managing the risk of “non-sustainable” practices in energy use, environmental policy and the balance of urban and rural growth?  Sure, and states have stepped into those issues with various goals and mandates.  But at what cost?  Notably, Chet Culver created the goal of an energy-independent Iowa, and committed hundreds of millions of dollars, in grants, tax credits, mandates and regulations to get us there.  With that price tag, it is worth remembering that sustainability also applies to the cost of public finance.  By the middle of August 2010, public pension funds were facing a hole in their funding of $1 to 3 trillion 

That’s the gap between assets and the promises made to retirees.  (A hole?  More like a sinkhole swallowing up anything built on it!) It is irresponsible to not take care of the world around us.  It is similarly irresponsible to think that we can drive ourselves into bankruptcy in an attempt to do it.  Sustainability requires that we say, “How are we going to afford this in the long-term?

The 1,000 Year Flood

I just finished a splendid book called “The 1,000 Year Flood” by Stephen Lyons about the Cedar Valley’s Flood of 2008. (Link to it is in main blog post.) It describes in detail about the first year of flood recovery.  It is hard to recommend a book that describes events in which I played a role, but I do anyhow. The book stands out to me for its handling of two topics:

1) The human impact of the Flood of 2008.

2) The disconnect between the "official facts" and ground-level truth. ...

Traffic Cameras and Behavioral Economics

Bad law enforcement provokes behavioral changes. Take traffic cameras’ affect on a local economy.

I grew up a bit southwest of Underwood, a small Iowa town located just north of Council Bluffs.  Folks in that area often work in downtown Omaha, the jobs hub of that metro area. There are three choices to get downtown. 

1) The shortest way. Cut through Council Bluffs, directly down Broadway, and go over the I-480 Bridge into downtown Omaha. The direct, quickest route also was very handy for quick stops at the grocer, the gas station or the dry cleaner on the way home.  They lived and died by the commute traffic.