Mike Riley asks a question on which Rhode Island journalists should follow up: What was General Treasurer Seth Magaziner thinking when he hired a far-left policy adviser whose repeated theme on public pensions and other post-employment benefits has long been that the problem is purely an illusion of accounting?

Further quotes from this policy director [Tom Sgouros] can be found in his scary “The Manufactured OPEB Crisis.” Can you imagine a guy who never managed money being elected Treasurer of Rhode Island in the midst of a pension Crisis and selecting an anti-capitalist political supporter who doesn’t believe basic financial concepts as his policy adviser? Sadly, you don’t have to imagine this scenario because you are living it.

I tend to doubt that the local mainstream media will take much interest in this story, though.  It’s “dog bites man.”  Rhode Island Democrats take office and fill their ranks with progressive activists.  It’s not like the job titles mean anything.  Those appointed to the jobs are just there to help build constituencies, to earn a living off of taxpayers while remaining activists, and maybe to lay in waiting for some vacant elective office or other.