Looks like the United States' largest pension fund, CalPERS, has taken a 31.1% hit since peaking in October of 2007. That's a loss of over $81 Billion! And as the major trend-setter for the institutional investor and pension fund world, I'm willing to bet we will find out in the coming weeks and months that state pension funds across the country mimicked CalPERS investment strategy and will be seeing similar proportional losses.
Luckily, all those state employee retirees in California won't have to worry because their pensions are 'fully guaranteed'. Meaning: in a time when the Cali state budget is stretched to maximum capacity, taxpayers from other parts of the country will foot the bill. Enjoy it, guys!
