Public Pensions $2 Trillion Short of What They Owe Retirees

A new report by Moody’s Investors Service finds that public pensions are $2 trillion short of the amount they owe current and future retirees. 

“Combined with large unfunded liabilities, aging plan demographics effectively transfer costs incurred by a previous generation onto the present one, increasing the burden on current government operations,” the report stated. 

More troubling is the fact that the pension shortfalls have expanded dramatically even as pension systems “were earning close to their currently expected returns,” stated the report. 

Moody’s found that from 2004 to 2012, unfunded pension liabilities tripled to just under $2 trillion.

Nationally, public pension assets total $5.3 trillion, reports CNBC.