Guest Editorial: Permanent Fund troubles make for sad music

To modernize an old expression, Alaskans are fiddling while the Permanent Fund burns.

Not literally, of course. The Permanent Fund’s stocks and bonds, real estate deeds, lease agreements and investment contracts are all safely stored. But the fiddling part, that’s true.

And because it’s a state election year, we can expect a lot of candidates to turn up the volume on their fiddles. No matter how off-key the music, no one ever loses an election by playing happy tunes about big Permanent Fund dividends.

No one wins an election talking about principal, realized and unrealized gains, spendable and...