“In June of 2012, Calpers lowered the expected rate of return on its portfolio to 7.5% from 7.75%. Calpers had last dropped the rate in 2004, from 8.25%. But even the 7.5% return is fiction. Wall Street would laugh if the matter weren’t so serious. And the trouble is not just in California. Public-pension funds in Illinois use an average of 8.18% expected returns. The 100 top U.S. public companies with defined benefit pension assets of $1.3 trillion have an average expected rate of return of 7.5%. Three of them are over 9%. (Since 2000, these assets have returned 5.6%.) Who wouldn’t want 7.5%-8% returns these days? Ten-year U.S. Treasury bonds are paying 1.74%.”
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324100904578403213835796062.html
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