State and local pensions plans are on a path to failure

The Washington Post has an editorial:

The hardest-hit states are those, such as California, Illinois and New Jersey, that made the most lavish underfunded promises. Still even relatively responsible states such as Virginia and Maryland have been hit hard. The market's comeback this year has ameliorated the situation to some extent. Many pension funds are tempted to gamble for higher returns to make up for their losses. Even if pension funds do manage to achieve that magical 8 percent average rate of return over the next 15 years, they will only have an average of 45 percent of the money they need to pay benefits, according to an analysis by state pension expert Kim Nicholl of PricewaterhouseCoopers. The picture for health benefits, which states are generally paying out of current revenue, is even worse.

For more on this subject , we wrote something for New Geography. On why democracy lacks accountability.