Long-Term Financial Stability of Nation’s Largest Pension System Questioned

  By Travis Gillmore Changing demographics and a weak economy are threatening the future of California’s state employee pension system, according to some economists. Some are asking questions about the system’s structure and why investments have performed poorly in recent years. “All the time and money spent by investment committees debating, sourcing and allocating to private funds, consultants, hiring new employees, and putting together endless reports to track the thousands of investments, all of it absolutely wasted,” Meb Faber co-founder and Chief Investment Officer of Cambria Investment Management wrote in a November report analyzing the system. The California Public Employees’ Retirement System, better known as CalPERS, manages approximately $465 billion in assets and is the nation’s largest public pension fund....