Joshua Rauh on Public Pensions

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4.7 • 4.3K Ratings

🗓️ 5 November 2012

⏱️ 68 minutes

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Summary

Joshua Rauh, Professor of Finance at Stanford University's Graduate School of Business and a senior fellow at Stanford University's Hoover Institution, talks with EconTalk host Russ Roberts about the unfunded liabilities from state employee pensions. The publicly stated shortfall in revenue relative to promised pensions is about $1 trillion. Rauh estimates the number to be over $4 trillion. Rauh explains why that number is more realistic, how the problem grew in recent years, and how the fiscal situation might be fixed moving forward. He also discusses some of the political and legal choices that we are likely to face going forward as states face strained budgets from promises made in the past to retired workers.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to Econ Talk, part of the Library of Economics and Liberty.
0:06.4	I'm your host Russ Roberts of Stanford University's Hoover Institution.
0:11.0	Our website is econtalk.org where you can subscribe, comment on this podcast, and find links
0:16.3	and other information related to today's conversation.
0:19.0	You'll also find our archives where you can listen to every episode we've ever done going
0:23.3	back to 2006.
0:25.4	Our email address is mailadycontalk.org.
0:27.9	We'd love to hear from you.
0:29.9	Today is October 29th, 2012, and my guest is Joshua Row, Professor of Finance at Stanford
0:39.9	University's Graduate School of Business, and a senior fellow at Stanford University's
0:44.5	Hoover Institution.
0:45.5	Josh, welcome to Econ Talk.
0:47.2	Thanks very much, Russ.
0:48.2	Pleasure to be here.
0:50.1	Before we get started, I want to mention that I'm recording this in the suburbs of Maryland
0:55.0	on October 29th, which is the day that Sandy, the storm, is supposed to arrive.
1:01.0	So, unusually, out of character for these podcasts, my family is all home.
1:05.6	School is canceled.
1:06.6	You hear any noises in the background, small children fighting, large children fighting,
1:12.2	et cetera.
1:13.2	Just ignore them.
1:14.2	It's just my family.
	...

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