newsminer.com

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.”

While the fund did contain $40 billion in May, its value has been dropping for months.

The governor needs to update her figures. As of Monday, it was a $31.6 billion fund.

As of Tuesday, it was a $30.9 billion fund. The losses on Monday and Tuesday totaled more than $35 million per hour.

The Alaska Permanent Fund first cracked the $40 billion barrier on July 12, 2007, prompting a press release to herald the news.

"We should all be proud of this milestone," the governor said in a news release the next day.

The fund had grown by $7 billion in a little more than a year.

But past performance is no guarantee of future results.

This fiscal year began July 1 with the fund valued at $35.9 billion, due to dropping stock values and the effect of a $1.3 billion transfer to pay dividends.

The fund performed well during July and August, gaining $600 million during the period.

But the last five weeks have been brutal.

At the end of August, the fund was worth $36.5 billion. The day after the debate, the fund was down to $32.7 billion.

The last few weeks have probably been the worst in the history of the fund.

Mike Burns, executive director of the permanent fund corporation, describes it as a “very challenging time.”

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

I think this is mainly because Alaskans have witnessed staggering declines in their own retirement accounts and still don’t know what to make of the national economic chaos.