SOMETHING ELSE TO LOOK FORWARD TO - AT 3:05 P.M. ET: Fortune Magazine picks up another serious rut in the economic road ahead.  This is a good lesson for people - and you know who - who want to put their futures in the hands of government.  Not great hands:

(Fortune Magazine) -- Even as the nation's economy is showing some tentative signs of bottoming out, another calamity looms: the public pension bomb.

For years, states nationwide have shortchanged the retirement programs that cover teachers, police, and other public employees; now the stock market plunge has wiped out billions of dollars from already underfunded plans. California, New York and Illinois are among the states scrambling to plug multibillion-dollar holes in their pension systems. The growing obligations raise the specter of higher taxes, diminished services, or even another round of costly federal bailouts.

COMMENT:  I'm afraid we'll go the bailout route, as local pols tell their national parties they can't survive if they raise taxes or cut services.  So look forward to more billions from Washington, and more Washington control. 

These pensions are usually parts of union contracts.  Don't look for great union flexibility.

May 12, 2009