Email signup
Road Race Promo
AFLAC
SEA-PAC join
MolanMilner
State Employees' Association
of New Hampshire,
SEIU Local 1984

207 North Main Street
Concord, NH  03301
*    *   *
P.O. Box 3303
Concord, NH  03302-3303
*    *   *
(603) 271-3411
(800) 852-3737
Fax (603) 271-3500
*    *   *
www.seiu1984.org
sea@seiu1984.org

Back to Home Print This Page Email This Page

Wall Street Reform

Money

Why it matters to us, part 2

On June 30, 2007, before the Wall Street meltdown, the NH Retirement System had $5.9 billion in investments, including

  • $29.7 million of stock in Citigroup, Inc.
  • $23.5 million of stock in American International Group, Inc. (AIG) 
  • $14.0 million of bonds issued by Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corp. (Freddie Mac) 
  • $13 million of bonds issued by Federal National Mortgage Association (Fannie Mae)


Two years later, NHRS had restructured its investments to minimize losses, after


In those two years, the stock market had lost 37% of its value. NHRS had only lost 25% of its investments' value.

Pension fund money that is lost when Wall Street crashes has to be made up somewhere. For NHRS, this "asset loss" was "the primary driver" in this year's increase in employers' contribution rates.

So, keep following the money: increased employers' contribution rates puts strain on municipal budgets, causing most cities and towns to raise property taxes. The money NHRS lost in the Wall Street meltdown will come out of state and municipal budgets for a long time to come.

NHRS lost $2.5 billion during those two years. Most of us think that's a lot of money to come out of the pockets of New Hampshire residents.

But people like John A. Paulson might not think it's a lot of money. It's only about two-thirds of what he earned in 2007. Paulson is the "prominent hedge fund manager" at the center of fraud charges lodged earlier this year against Goldman Sachs. Paulson has not been charged in the case.

David Tepper might not think it's a lot of money. Tepper is another hedge fund manager. He made $4 billion in 2009, betting "that the government would not let the big banks fail" and benefitting "from a successful investment in bonds of American International Group."

After sparking the Wall Street meltdown that cost the NHRS (and New Hampshire residents) $2.5 billion, the top 25 hedge fund managers earned a collective $25.3 billion in 2009.

That's why Wall Street Reform matters to us. Wall Street's reckless actions crashed the economy. Their irresponsible games hurt our pension fund and hurt our State's economy. Then they spent millions on lobbyists, fighting Wall Street Reform, so they could keep playing under the same rules they had benefited from for years - rules that allowed them to gamble big.  But now that they've lost, all of us have to pay.


Read Part 1 of this series here.