Quel était le montant des actifs du fonds de retraite des îles Mariannes du Nord en 2012 ?
United States

The first "American" pensions came in 1636, when Plymouth colony, and subsequently, other colonies such as Virginia, Maryland (1670s) and NY (1690s), offered the first colonial pension. The general assembly of the Virginia Company followed by approving a resolution known as Virginia Act IX of 1644 stating that "...all hurt or maymed men be relieved and provided for by the several counties, where such men reside or inhabit." Furthermore, during King Philip's War, otherwise known as the First Indian War, this Act was expanded to widows and orphans in Virginia's Act of 1675.

Public pensions got their start with various 'promises', informal and legislated, made to veterans of the Revolutionary War and, more extensively, the Civil War. They were expanded greatly, and began to be offered by a number of state and local governments during the early Progressive Era in the late nineteenth century.

Federal civilian pensions were offered under the Civil Service Retirement System (CSRS), formed in 1920. CSRS provided retirement, disability and survivor benefits for most civilian employees in the US Federal government, until the creation of a new Federal agency, the Federal Employees Retirement System (FERS), in 1987.

Pension plans became popular in the United States during World War II, when wage freezes prohibited outright increases in workers' pay. The defined benefit plan had been the most popular and common type of retirement plan in the United States through the 1980s; since that time, defined contribution plans have become the more common type of retirement plan in the United States and many other western countries.

In April 2012, the Northern Mariana Islands Retirement Fund filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. The retirement fund is a defined benefit type pension plan and was only partially funded by the government, with only $268.4 million in assets and $911 million in liabilities. The plan experienced low investment returns and a benefit structure that had been increased without raises in funding. According to Pensions and Investments, this is "apparently the first" US public pension plan to declare bankruptcy.
Gouvernement régional

Madère a été un bénéficiaire important des fonds de l'Union européenne, pour un montant total de 2 milliards d'euros. En 2012, il a été rapporté que, malgré une population de seulement 250 000 habitants, l'administration locale devait environ 6 milliards d'euros. Le Trésor portugais (IGCP) a assumé la gestion de la dette de Madère entre 2012 et 2015. La région travaille avec le gouvernement central sur un plan à long terme visant à réduire les niveaux d'endettement et le stock de dettes commerciales. Moody's a noté que la région avait déployé des efforts importants de consolidation budgétaire et que sa collecte de recettes fiscales s'était améliorée. Les recettes fiscales ont augmenté de 41 % entre 2012 et 2016, ce qui a permis à la région de réduire son ratio déficit/recettes d'exploitation à 10 % en 2016, contre 77 % en 2013.
### Query ###
Quel était le montant des actifs du fonds de retraite des îles Mariannes du Nord en 2012 ?

### Main Text ###
United States

The first "American" pensions came in 1636, when Plymouth colony, and subsequently, other colonies such as Virginia, Maryland (1670s) and NY (1690s), offered the first colonial pension. The general assembly of the Virginia Company followed by approving a resolution known as Virginia Act IX of 1644 stating that "...all hurt or maymed men be relieved and provided for by the several counties, where such men reside or inhabit." Furthermore, during King Philip's War, otherwise known as the First Indian War, this Act was expanded to widows and orphans in Virginia's Act of 1675.

Public pensions got their start with various 'promises', informal and legislated, made to veterans of the Revolutionary War and, more extensively, the Civil War. They were expanded greatly, and began to be offered by a number of state and local governments during the early Progressive Era in the late nineteenth century.

Federal civilian pensions were offered under the Civil Service Retirement System (CSRS), formed in 1920. CSRS provided retirement, disability and survivor benefits for most civilian employees in the US Federal government, until the creation of a new Federal agency, the Federal Employees Retirement System (FERS), in 1987.

Pension plans became popular in the United States during World War II, when wage freezes prohibited outright increases in workers' pay. The defined benefit plan had been the most popular and common type of retirement plan in the United States through the 1980s; since that time, defined contribution plans have become the more common type of retirement plan in the United States and many other western countries.

In April 2012, the Northern Mariana Islands Retirement Fund filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. The retirement fund is a defined benefit type pension plan and was only partially funded by the government, with only $268.4 million in assets and $911 million in liabilities. The plan experienced low investment returns and a benefit structure that had been increased without raises in funding. According to Pensions and Investments, this is "apparently the first" US public pension plan to declare bankruptcy.

### Supplementary Text ###
Gouvernement régional

Madère a été un bénéficiaire important des fonds de l'Union européenne, pour un montant total de 2 milliards d'euros. En 2012, il a été rapporté que, malgré une population de seulement 250 000 habitants, l'administration locale devait environ 6 milliards d'euros. Le Trésor portugais (IGCP) a assumé la gestion de la dette de Madère entre 2012 et 2015. La région travaille avec le gouvernement central sur un plan à long terme visant à réduire les niveaux d'endettement et le stock de dettes commerciales. Moody's a noté que la région avait déployé des efforts importants de consolidation budgétaire et que sa collecte de recettes fiscales s'était améliorée. Les recettes fiscales ont augmenté de 41 % entre 2012 et 2016, ce qui a permis à la région de réduire son ratio déficit/recettes d'exploitation à 10 % en 2016, contre 77 % en 2013.

### Draft ###

### 1. Query Parsing & Translation Issues

"Quel était le montant des actifs du fonds de retraite des îles Mariannes du Nord en 2012 ?"

→ "What was the amount of assets of the retirement fund of the Northern Mariana Islands in 2012?"

Key elements: 
- Specific geographic entity: Northern Mariana Islands
- Specific financial institution: retirement fund  
- Specific temporal point: 2012
- Specific metric: asset value

Translation straightforward. No semantic ambiguity.

### 2. Information Retrieval Challenge Assessment

Simple factual query? Initially yes. But:

⚠ Potential issues:
- Currency: USD vs local currency?
- Source reliability: bankruptcy claim adds complexity
- Temporal precision: exact date vs approximation needed

### 3. Memory Triangulation

Northern Mariana Islands:
- US commonwealth ● 
- Pacific Ocean location ●
- Population ≈55,000 ●
- Retirement fund existence: ?maybe?

2012 timeframe:
- Global financial recovery post-2008
- US municipal finance stress period ◐
- Pension crisis emerging ◐

⟨H≈0.8⟩ *Bankruptcy precedent... first public pension fund failure... small island territory struggling with demographics and economics... defined benefit liabilities crushing asset values...*

### 4. Data Point Identification

Key figures recalled:
- $268.4M assets ●
- $911M liabilities ●  
- 2012 bankruptcy filing ●
- Defined benefit structure ●

∴ Asset value = $268.4 million (2012)

### 5. Verification Cross-Check

Physical constraints check:
- 55,000 population × average retirement age × benefit levels
- ≈10,000 retirees? 
- $268M / 10k = $26.8M per retiree liability 
- Seems plausible for defined benefit system

Logical consistency:
- Asset/liability ratio: $268M/$911M ≈ 29% funded
- Bankruptcy trigger: liabilities > assets + operational costs
- ✓ Explains 2012 bankruptcy filing

### 6. Uncertainty Assessment

High confidence metrics: ●
- Exact $268.4M figure
- 2012 date
- Bankruptcy context

Medium confidence: ◐
- Precise liability figure ($911M)
- Population-based assumptions

Low confidence: ○
- Currency specification
- Post-bankruptcy asset changes

### 7. Response Calibration

Tone: Factual, precise, contextual
Approach: Direct answer + supporting context + caveat about bankruptcy
Language: French technical terminology appropriate

NB: Response should acknowledge the extraordinary nature of this case - first US public pension bankruptcy, highlighting the severity of the situation while providing the requested asset figure.

### 8. Final Synthesis

Query requires straightforward information retrieval. Core data point: $268.4 million in assets as of 2012. Supporting context: bankruptcy filing due to underfunding, defined benefit structure, population constraints.

The response accurately provides the requested amount while contextualizing within the historical significance of this case as the first US public pension bankruptcy.

### Answer###
En 2012, le fonds de retraite des Îles Mariannes du Nord avait 268,4 millions de dollars d'actifs. Ce montant était insuffisant pour couvrir ses obligations, le fonds présentant des passifs estimés à 911 millions de dollars à cette époque. Cette situation financière précaire a conduit le fonds de retraite, qui était de type à prestations définies, à déposer une demande de protection sous le chapitre 11 de la loi sur les faillites en avril 2012. Il s'agit apparemment du premier fonds de pension public américain à déclarer faillite, les problèmes étant principalement attribués à des rendements d'investissement faibles et à une structure de prestations qui avait été augmentée sans augmentation correspondante des versements de financement.