Professor Elam

Friday August  26, 2016

One of my Twelve Steps to Conquer Accounting includes a subscription to the Wall Street Journal In this post I offer a link to

Covering up the Pension Crisis.

One need look no further than our own San Antonio police and fire fighter negotiations to see the dangers. Accounting rules have not been stringent enough to force

actuaries and fund mangers to admit their assumptions of high returns on investments are unrealistic. In short we have huge pension shortfalls in many government sectors.

And don't forget bankrupt Puerto Rico.

There is a chapter on pensions in Spiceland but I have not covered itl. The reason is that it covers defined benefit plans. I doubt there will ever be another defined benefit plan started  in the USA.

At any rate, read, learn, grow as accounting students by reading outside the textbook for greater content.