Big shoes

Rob Christensen has a good story on Richard Moore this morning. You should read it. Mr. Moore says he's giving up politics for now, which is too bad. Our national and state government could well benefit from someone as knowledgeable as he is when it comes to financial matters.

Because the state has long had a conservative investment policy -- about half the assets are in fixed-income investments such as bonds -- the state's losses were far less dramatic than in many investment funds. The state pension fund was down 12 percent for the year ending Sept. 30, compared with the S&P 500, which was down 24 percent, Moore said.

North Carolina is one of three states -- the others are New York and Connecticut -- where an elected state official has sole responsibility for investment of the state's pension fund. There has been talk in the legislature, pushed by the State Employees Association of North Carolina, about creating a committee to oversee the investments.

But Moore doesn't think that idea will gain much support given the strong performance of North Carolina's pension fund. When a single elected leader is in charge, Moore said, he or she can be held accountable.

Moore's right, of course, about the need for accountability. Given the ease with which elected officials point fingers at one another when things go wrong, there's precious little of that commodity in state government right now.

Janet Cowell has some big shoes to fill.