What? How the heck is that a pension ??

That’s a bond. Why does that have anything to do with a pension ?

And who in his right mind plants a bond and links it to a pension ? How does that even work?

A bond is a loan. That means the firm or institution is taking a loan.

A pension is the opposite of that - it’s money taken from employee payments and added to a conservative fund with a time horizon of 20-30 years. This allows them to make long term plans which avoid the risks of high beta and risk stocks or deals.

So as your economy goes up, your fund goes up and you pay people off with the interest.

Something changed/went wrong, long before you got to the bond.