A number of loyal readers have passed along links to the growing story about five Wisconsin School Districts that invested in a complex investment to bolster their pension/retirement funds which have now gone "south".
You may have read any of these articles that explain that Whitefish Bay and the other Districts have joined together in a lawsuit against the financial firms who sold them the instruments.
Yesterday, the NY Times, yes .. THAT New York Times .. had a front page article on this story which centers around Whitefish Bay. No body reads that, right?
So last night, as I'm watching Lehrer on The News Hour, I had to back up the Tivo and listen twice. Sure enough, they were talking about Whitefish Bay's school district and how devastated they will be due to this financial scheme. (You can listen to the broadcast here. .. NPR also did a radio broadcast.)
Why focus on WFB? The entire amount that these five School Districts invested was $200 million. Whitefish Bay's share of that? A $1.2 million slice of that total. Yes, 75% of that may be gone, so we're talking about a $900k loss. And we may get a part of that back through a lawsuit filed by all five districts. That's not peanuts, but it IS a fraction of the $175m that's been lost in total.
Kenosha, West Allis, Kimberly .. those districts invested far more and are exponentially more sensitive to economic disasters. Waukesha is the 5th.
I'm not saying losing a million bucks is not a story .. but national news? (That's what got Whitefish Bay into the spotlight? Not our poor choice of Trick or Treat times?)
Well, on the bright side, Shawn Yde got his 1.5 minutes of national fame!
Make sure you read:
- Local Election Predictions
- WFB Scam Alert
- One less bad guy on WFB's streets!
- Silver Spring Blame Game
- Solicitors DO NEED PERMITS
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