Excerpt: The pitch goes like this: The municipality or public agency responsible for funding its retiree medical plan (known as OPEB for 'other post-employment benefits) is induced to borrow money from a bank at a temporarily low interest rate usually tied to LIBOR. The municipality then buys a big fat juicy insurance policy that pays a fixed rate of interest, so that if interest rates remain at record-low levels for a decade, the municipality makes a hypothetical profit to pay off its OPEB liabilities.  MORE >>