When I was a little boy, my mother liked to quote the following quatrain (sometimes attributed to the New York wit Dorothy Parker): “See the happy moron, / He doesn’t give a damn, / I wish I were a moron, / My God! Perhaps I am!”

"US rejects 'living wills' of 5 banks," from FT. WSJ puts this event in the larger story of Dodd Frank unraveling. Juicy quotes: WSJ: “living wills,” ... are supposed to show in detail how these banking titans, in the event of failure, could be placed into bankruptcy without wrecking the financial system.

We examine the governance of public pension funds and its relationship to investment performance. Pension fund board composition is strongly related to the performance of private equity investments made by the fund. Funds whose boards have high fractions of members who either sit on the board by virtue of their position in state government (ex officio) or were appointed by a state official underperform the most, followed by funds whose boards have a high fraction of members elected by participants.

Pension Disaster: Puerto Rico’s recent financial woes have deflected attention from a problem potentially far “yuger,” as Donald Trump might say: The $3.4 trillion black hole at the center of state and local pensions.