Public Pensions - a great debate

The Financial Post has had an interesting debate on public pensions...see here:

http://network.nationalpost.com/np/blogs/fpcomment/archive/2009/03/02/counterpoint-pension-funds-are-workers-best-bet.aspx

and the first part is here:

http://network.nationalpost.com/np/blogs/fpcomment/archive/2009/02/26/terence-corcoran-the-model-that-s-killing-pension-plans.aspx

There are multiple layers of questions surrounding public plans and this touches on 2 of them:

1. benefits - the benefits are too rich, as evidenced by the private sector - when was the last time you found a private sector pension plan with inflation indexing??
2. investment management - is the public being well served by the investment management of these funds? let's start with the alternatives: indexed portfolios, non-risky asset investments only - the real issue is that these complaints are only surfacing after a poor year - why were these self-righteous critics not out there complaining when year after year these plans were racking up 7% returns?

More on this to come...