They referenced it being a 160 billion dollar fund so they really should have been looking at returns of closer to 100 billion...
http://ycharts.com/indicators/sandp_500_total_return_annual
*although if all large pensions/trusts/endowments were passively invested in the market, some of these financial companies on the s&p list would not have been able to steal so much from pensions so i'm wondering what type of effect that would have had on total market returns
While I would agree that a pension fund shouldn't be in all equities (or investment with similar risk profiles) if the fund managers are mandated to target 7.5% returns its hard to see how they can include a sizable cash or treasury component and expect to hit that.