On Monday I attended an American Law Institute conference on the “Public Pension Crisis,” organized by the fabulous Amy Monahan. (That is, the conference was organized by her, not (as far as I know) the crisis.) Often these kinds of events fill me with a contrarian spirit, and this one was no exception. Most readers here know that a number of state & local governments face massive unfunded pension obligations to their workers. The baseline assumption behind the conference is that this is a serious problem to be solved. Maybe in the end public pensions are a problem, but I think there’s a least a possible story that current arrangements aren’t so bad: The problem isn’t pensions; it’s federalism.
