Cottonmouth is at it again. The mouthpiece for Mississippi Democrats went into hysterics last week over PERS yet again. Senator Fillingane filed a bill about PERS. What sent Cottonchicken over the edge was some language about mortgage-backed securities (MBS):
“My favorite part, though, is the language that would let PERS retirement funds be invested in mortgage-backed securities (see lines 1241-1243). You may recall mortgage-backed securities as the investment vehicle that nearly ended America in 2008.”
Um, no Cottonchicken. It was not the MBS’s that nearly ended America, it was the fact the credit ratings agencies were grading them AAA instead of what they should have been – B,C or junk. Text of bill. The language merely authorizes PERS to purchase a long and diverse list of securities, of which MBS’s are merely one item. However, once again, Cottonchicken has no clue about what he is talking about because PERS HAS BEEN PURCHASING MORTGAGE-BACKED SECURITIES for quite some time.
Here is the report from the August meeting of the PERS investment committee. Look at Page 10 of this report on the PIMCO II fund. 25% of the fund is…….. mortgage-backed securities. Page 14 of this report shows the fund at the time of the committee meeting had a balance just over $27 million. OH MY GOSH!!! HELLLLPPPP!!!! RUN FOR THE DELTA!!!!!!!!! PERS has mortgage-backed securities in its portfolio!!!!
Jackson Jambalaya
1/30/12
Magnolia Tribune
