Petrelis Files

Palin Lied About $40 Billion AK Fund Amount?

Was Sarah Palin telling a lie during her debate with Joe Biden about her state's investment fund? Okay, lie is perhaps too strong a word to use in this case. Maybe she simply was ignorant about the actual amount in the fund and its health. She apparently was off by about $8 billion when she spoke about the fund in her one and only debate. As far as I know, this is the first story to point out Palin's incorrect figure during the debate.

From Friday's News Miner story from Fairbanks:

In the vice presidential debate last week, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin said, “we have a $40 billion investment fund, a savings fund called the Alaska Permanent Fund.”

The governor needs to update her figures.

Three weeks ago today it was a $35 billion fund.

On the day of the debate, it was a $32.8 billion fund.

During the four business days that followed the debate, the fund lost more than $500 million a day, dropping to $30.5 billion as of Wednesday.

The stock market decline Thursday pushed it to $29.6 billion. The trend was continuing Friday on Wall Street ...

Mike Burns, executive director of the permanent fund corporation, described the experience this week as a “very challenging time,” which is putting it mildly.

The loss of billions on paper is not pleasant, but it has not triggered a political uproar in Alaska.

I think this is mainly due to an understanding that has developed among Alaskans who have witnessed staggering declines in their own retirement accounts and still don’t know what to make of the economic chaos afflicting the nation.

The Alaska Permanent Fund did enjoy a brief moment as a $40 billion fund. When it edged past that number on July 12, 2007, the governor issued a news release saying, “We should all be proud of this milestone.”

That was just before $1 billion was transferred to pay 2007 dividends ...

The current fiscal year began July 1 with the fund valued at $35.9 billion, trimmed by dropping stock prices and the summer transfer of $1.3 billion to pay dividends to Alaskans this fall ...