Keep PSERS funds in public bank |LTE

Letter to the Editor by Stan Pokras, published in the Philadelphia Inquirer on June 15, 2021

Can’t we trust our public officials and out civil servants to handle money at least as well (or better) that commercial firms?

If anybody has any remaining belief that the private sector is more trustworthy than the public in handling our money, we need look no farther than the ongoing debacle with the PSERS teacher’s pension fund.

Imagine an alternative: a team of civil servants with banking experience who are not bedazzled by the get-rich-quick schemes of high-flying financial wheeler-dealers, but are just investing responsibly on behalf of the teachers.

In the same way, rather than entrusting our city’s public funds to the big banks to chase around the world for the highest returns, we could keep the funds in a public bank that would invest in ways that support local needs – with the interest coming back to the city. Now that sounds fiscally prudent.