Getting clearance for these pension plans was near the top of businesses' wish list, but the rules were being attacked by Democrats in Congress even before their release.
It's an odd pairing: the millions of working-class Americans who rely on public pensions have invested billions with the private equity industry, which in exchange has made billions for these pension funds.
Wall Street may consider pensions an "investment," but for workers, these pensions -- averaging a modest $19,000 a year -- are a form of compensation earned through hard work, promised through contracts, and deferred until retirement.
But for many of these pension funds, that gamble is not paying off as hoped.
"We need to make sure we're making the best decisions that would provide for the overall sustainability of these pension funds," Gallagher said.
"The total liability for these government pensions is £1.3 trillion," or more than $2.1 trillion, said Mr. Hanton, the economist who helps advise the Intergenerational Foundation.
State legislators voted for pensions for state and city employees when they knew or should have known that these pensions were unaffordable.
A member of the "Independent Institute," Lawrence J. McQuillan, in a letter to the Sacramento Bee recently denounced the retirement security of police officers, firefighters, nurses, and teachers as an unfair "class system" that forces "the rest of us" to "pay for these protected government pensions".
"In principle the terms offered by the Government for these additional state pension deals look very attractive.
However, the Department for Work and Pensions cut these payments from £165m to £125m in April.
