David Sirota with yet another great article explaining the corruption of Chris Christie
so Christie of course as the governor gets to make decisions about the pension funds
for the state of New Jersey and its workers now conveniently he has made decisions that
enrich his wall street friends and disproportionately so now let's explain so writing for the international
business times Sirota writes under Christ Christie the New Jersey pension system paid
more than $600 million in fees to financial firms in 2014 50% more than a year ago and
a higher rate than almost any other state reports paying for pension management so understand
this somebody's got to manage the pension money so that's normal and they're going to
get a fee for that they're not going to do that out of the goodness of their own heart
the question is what kind of fee are they getting and does it make sense is it anywhere
near the average so let's take a look at the number first of all how has it gone under
Chris Christie take a look at this graphic Sirota mentioned it was 50% higher over the
last year but if you look at before Chris Christie came in it is significantly and massively
higher than when Christ Christie came in I'll break down numbers exactly for you the year
before Christie became governor they spent $125 million in fee which is you know significant
but it's a big pension fund they have in New Jersey that makes sense in 2013 Christ Christie
has been in charge for some time now they spent a whooping $398 million dollars and
then last year in 2014 over $600 million the rate of increase is gigantic it's almost five
times the size of what they spent before Christ Christie came in now you wonder why Wall Street
loves Chris Christie how did Chris Christie become one of the establishment Republicans
who was leading in this race before all of these stories about corruption came out well
it's because the establishment Republicans who fund the Republican candidates love this
corruptions that's why they give the money you know something those Republicans say big
government is corrupt you're right who corrupted them these guys because in returns they hundreds
of millions of dollars alright more from the article here in all since Christie took office
his administration has spent $1.5 billion dollars of retirees pension money on Wall
Street fees now again you need to pay some fees so is that normal 1.5 billion well let's
listen had the Christie administration maintained the fee level the state was paying in the
year before the governor took office the pension system would have saved more than $914 million
think about that man Christ Christie with his decision to enrich his wall street friends
cost the state of New Jersey the pension system for those retirees $914 million I hope he
enjoyed the donations that he got OK now how is New Jersey in comparison to other places
well under Christie the New Jersey pension systems has delivered returns that have trailed
the median for similarly sized pension funds the state's high fee alternative investment
portfolio has also lagged behind the S&P 500 so wait a minute if you can't even keep up
with the S&P 500 what are you paying all those fees for if you're trailing the median for
similarly sized pension funds what are you paying all those fees for the fees aren't
getting you a better result they're just getting a better result for the pocket books and wallets
of the wall street friends that Chris Christie has decided to give those contracts to alright
now more comparisons here New Jersey tax payers are now spending 67 cents on fees per $100
under management that is more than triple the fee rate since Christie took office in
2010 and more than 50% higher than the median for a state pension systems according to a
2013 report by the Maryland public policy institute no only are they paying more than
the other states they're paying 50% more than the median for other states so this is out
of proportion last week Christie's pension commission and this is the thing that really
rubs salt in the wounds here Christie's pension commission calling for cuts to guaranteed
retirement income and health benefits for public workers the report did not include
trying to reduce financial fees among its suggested pension reforms so after they spent
all that money in fees to wall street fat cats they then turn around and go oh we need
reform we don't have enough money OK great you want to reform the fees that wall street
gets oh no way no way that money keep getting funneled over to wall street those are republican
donors they need to be catered to this is why they get upset at Obama cause this is
the corruption that wall street is used to and actually wall street was the number one
donor for Obama in 2008 and did plenty of favors for them they did the bail outs they
did the did the fed gave over $7 trillion dollars in money helped prop up the banking
system they did all but it wasn't enough you should have done more corruption like this
you should have just given me pension funds to managers I should get to charge exorbitant
fees and deliver no results for you oh Obama didn't do that enough Chris Christie on the
other hand the guy goes on the boardwalk seems like the common man yelling at people pretending
to be a tough guy average guy no no he's bathed in corruption he was born in it to quote Bane
alright and finally this again insult to injury here the move obscuring the increase and remember
they tried to hide some of these fees cause they got embarrassed instead of fees they
called it an allocation oh that's really different so the move obscuring the increase in reported
fees also comes on the heels of Christie telling New Jersey teachers fire fighters cops and
other public workers that there are no alternatives to cutting their retirement benefits because
the state pension system is strapped for cash there are no alternatives then they turn around
and they so oh the Democrats and De Blasio are against cops this guy is taking money
out of cop's retirement funds let alone the firefighters and the teacher he knows that
he's spending $914 million more in fees to wall street and he say oh no there's nothing
I can do oh I had to give them $900 million more in fees you I got to cut your pension
vote for these guys at your peril you think he's a common guy you have no idea the whole
point of Chris Christie is political corruption and crony capitalism