Actuaries in the news (but not favorably)

[Random Walk]

Local news story in today's New York Times national edition, about questions on an actuary's projections of the cost of a proposal to offer early retirement to thousands of New York City employees. The subheadline is "Actuary's Work Questioned In Albany":

Originally Posted by http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/16/nyregion/16actuary.html

Mr. Schwartz, a former city actuary, said that he routinely skewed his projections to favor the unions — he called his job “a step above voodoo” — and admitted that he had knowingly overreached on the pension bill by claiming that it cost nothing, either now or in future years. “I got a little bit carried away in my formulation,” he explained.

...

“What people call actuarial science is at least as much as an art as a science,” Mr. Schwartz said.

“Back in my days as city actuary, I would go to that part of the range that would make things look as expensive as possible,” he added. “As consultant for the unions, I go to the part of the range that makes things as cheap as possible, but I never knowingly go out of the range.”

Mr. Schwartz resigned from his city job in 1986 after admitting he had given false testimony in a deposition in a lawsuit brought by female employees who claimed that their pension payments were lower than those made to their male counterparts.

(Sigh.)