Richard Ravitch, New York’s putative lieutenant governor, “is looking into using pension funds to help insure municipal bonds,” according to an “insider” quoted in this New York magazine profile .
But more than a few pension fund managers and investors believe that using pension funds to insure municipal bonds is a bad idea in principle — so bad it’s actually outlawed in at least one nearby state.
New York’s main problem is not interest rates or a lack of access to credit markets. The problem is a large structural budget gap that took years to accumulate, which was hidden during the 2003-2007 boom and has been exposed by the investment banking collapse of 2008.
Albany’s budget problems won’t be solved by financial engineering.
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