The Wolf of Sesame Street: Revealing the secret corruption inside PBS’s news division

[lostnfound]

19. Partly ideology but also opportunities to profit

Like anything else that gets privatized, a pension program slashed and sold off to be "managed" by some new entity is an opportunity to profit. Create a crisis or a perception of a crisis, then appear with a "solution". (My old boss used to call it the 'match-pump' theory.. (secretly) light a fire with a match, but be standing nearby ready with a water pump to (publicly) put out the fire once it really gets roaring. People will see you are a hero.) Or some 'Shock Doctrine' tactics going on.

If they can convince the public that the pensions are bloated and mismanaged, then the politicians can be "persuaded" to cut benefits and turn the pension funds over to a new firm to manage them. In fact, if a few years ago, you were able to convince the state to invest their pension funds a few years ago in your favorite snake oil company, you could make a killing with a 'pump and dump' scheme (happened in Ohio, if I recall); then now when the pension fund is underfunded, you can make another tidy profit by getting the state to simultaneously cut pension obligations and hand it over to the professionals at your (fill-in the blank Fund Management Experts, Inc.)

If there's a large river of money flowing that's under your control, it's not so hard to siphon some of it your way.