Pension Contracts News Today : Breaking News, Live Updates & Top Stories | Vimarsana

It's a lot of money. some of these folks are very politically active, the new york times reported they were part of draft chris christie for president committee. and they won these contracts, these pension contracts, they received millions of dollars in fees, regardless of the performance of their funds, they're helping chris christie's political career and receiving a lot of money. >> this was a campaign issue for chris christie against john corzine when he ran against him. basically he and some of his republican republicans -- he sends a memo to governor corzine, outlining 14 action items, t...

Unions, the power of labor lobbies in this country and bringing down cities. >> police unions, fire fighter unions and municipal unions generally and politicians who get votes by giving the police force, giving the fire fighters, giving civil servants what they want, getting reelected and postponing the bill that has to be paid way down the road. this is true of countless cities across the country. >> do you think we're going to see, for instance, with what's going on in desert hot springs, what happened in the state of michigan, or in detroit, specifically, where suddenly because they were ba...

Knowing the laws in california you'd think there'd be something to negotiate and that's where i'm rusty. and those contracts can't be rewritten, those pension contracts? >> well, that's exactly the argument that the creditors are saying. we have contracts, too, and we're in bankruptcy and we're rewriting them. the pension fund attorneys are saying, and the stockton owners are saying, no, those can't be rewritten, it's in the state law that these things need to be paid. but then the issue becomes this federal bankruptcy law trumps state laws and it's an issue that's going to keep a lot of lawye...

Knowing the laws in california you'd think there'd be something to negotiate and that's where i'm rusty. and those contracts can't be rewritten, those pension contracts? >> well, that's exactly the argument that the creditors are saying. we have contracts, too, and we're in bankruptcy and we're rewriting them. the pension fund attorneys are saying, and the stockton owners are saying, no, those can't be rewritten, it's in the state law that these things need to be paid. but then the issue becomes this federal bankruptcy law trumps state laws and it's an issue that's going to keep a lot of lawye...

But it gives a chance to negotiate all the bad deals in the past and get back to the norm. bottom line is when you are spending a lot more you you are bringing in and frankly, these cities have set themselves up even in the best of times they were still losing money. it gives them a chance to get back to the norm and get things like we do with our checkbooks, put them in line. when we make a dollar we don't spend a dollar one. i do think they will have to get rid of some people unfortunately. that is part of the game. >> arthel: you mentioned a couple things. city's way of hitting a reset butt...