Public Pensions: Wanted, Dow 31,000

Government union leaders as well as their political allies around the country have often blamed the state and local pension crisis, in which governments have built up some $3 trillion in unfunded liabilities, on the 2008 market crash, not on unaffordable pension systems. They see themselves as a victim of Wall Street machinations. But David Crane, a California Democrat who served as an adviser on pensions to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, reminds us in an op-ed why that's simply not true.