Free Republic

Former House Speaker John Boehner and former Rep. Joe Crowley are joining forces in a bipartisan effort to combat a looming pension crisis affecting nearly 1.3 million American retirees Opens a New Window. Boehner, the Ohio Republican who retired in 2015, is part of the Retirement Security Coalition, a leading force that is raising awareness to the underfunded multiemployer benefit plans. “The job Joe and I have taken on is to try to elevate the seriousness of this problem," he told FOX Business’ Neil Cavuto Opens a New Window. on Thursday. "And Congress really does in fact need to act."...

Ten years ago, subprime mortgages went from a little-known form of lending to a precipitating cause of the international banking crisis that led to the Great Recession of 2008 to 2009. Like these mortgages, another relatively obscure financial problem could end up being the next big taxpayer bailout. Unless the funding crisis for multiemployer pension plans is addressed, the “solution” will look more like the savings and loan crisis of the 1980s, under which the taxpayers lost $123.8 billion. In his testimony last November in the House, Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC) Director Thomas Reeder wrote, “Legislation is needed to...

Connecticut has the most underfunded pension system in the nation, amassing more than $127.7 billion in liabilities.. The study entitled Unaccountable and Unaffordable showed Connecticut’s pension system dropping below Illinois and Kentucky when its pension liabilities were calculated with a “risk-free” discount rate equal to the rate of a U.S. Treasury bond. Connecticut’s unfunded pension liability rose from $99.2 billion in ALEC’s 2016 study to $127.7 billion in 2017, leaving the pension system only 19 percent funded. The debt from the public pensions amounts to $35,721 per person in Connecticut, the second highest per capita debt in the nation behind...

The company said the move is an alignment with industry trends in which fewer companies offer pensions. WILMINGTON, Del. -- The DuPont Company said it will eliminate its pension contribution for active employees. ... active employees will no longer accrue additional benefits, and employees under age 50 also will no longer receive dental, medical and life insurance benefits in retirement. ... Since 1998, nearly one-quarter of all Fortune 500 companies have stopped contributing to employees' primary pension plans, and 40 percent offer only a 401(k).

A new federal study says many workers in employer-funded pension plans that fail could see their benefits reduced under the current system of government support. The study was released Wednesday by the Pension Benefit Guarantee Corp., the federal agency that insures pensions for about 41 million Americans. It found that about half of employers in so-called multi-employer pension plans that fail in the near future will receive reduced payouts. …

Having a pension plan has been part of the American Dream for millions of workers. Put in thirty or thirty-five years with a company, retire, and then the company will send you a check every month for the rest of your life—an attractive prospect. The amount of the check is pre-determined. It is a “defined benefit” promised to the worker. Unfortunately, this simple vision has proved difficult to implement. The basic problem has been that pensions are a promise for the future, but nobody can guarantee the future. In our dynamic economy, the Schumpeterian process of “creative destruction” relentlessly weeds...

Wall Street investors hungry for advance information on upcoming federal health-care decisions repeatedly held private discussions with Obama administration officials, including a top White House adviser helping to implement the Affordable Care Act. The private conversations show that the increasingly urgent race to acquire“political intelligence” goes beyond the communications with congressional staffers that have become the focus of heightened scrutiny in recent weeks. White House records show that Elizabeth Fowler, then a top ­health-policy adviser to President Obama, met with executives from half a dozen investment firms in 2011 and 2012. Among them was Kris Jenner, a stock picker with...

The tiny, cash-strapped town of Central Falls, Rhode Island, is expected to know Monday whether it is officially bankrupt. Robert Flanders, the town's state appointed receiver, will work through the weekend to decide whether he will file for bankruptcy on behalf of Central Falls... ... Central Falls faces a $4.9 million budget shortfall. The real financial problem, however, is the city's $80 million public pension debt and it's public safety worker pension fund is on track to run out by October. A Chapter 9 municipal bankruptcy filing would give Central Falls the opportunity to change it's union agreements. But it...

Rhode Island Is 'Being Crushed' By Pension Debt, Treasurer Urges Major Overhaul Of Retirement System Grace Wyler May 24, 2011, 5:56 PM Rhode Island's retirement system needs a swift and dramatic overhaul to save the state from collapsing under its massive pension debt, according to a new report from state treasurer Gina Raimondo. The report, out yesterday, suggests several radical solutions to the state's pension woes including, reducing benefits, suspending cost-of-living adjustments, raising the retirement age, and implementing a new "hybrid" retirement system that would couple a smaller pensions with a 401k-style plan. The report, "Truth In Numbers: The Security...

We live in a funny world. Bernie Madoff pretended he was getting 8% returns on his clients' investments—and he's in jail for running a Ponzi scheme. But in the public sector that kind of make-believe is common. As former chancellor of the New York City public schools, I learned that one of the options the city pension plan offered teachers and administrators guaranteed an 8.25% return, regardless of what the investments actually earned in the market. In fact, throughout the country public-employee pension plans have been massively underfunded, often pretending, like Madoff, that they'd get 8% returns forever, even if...

As reported exclusively on these pages last week, Union pension plans are in much worse shape than people feared. In fact, Moody’s September 2009 report measured 133 union pension plans. Out of the total 133 only 25 union pension plans are adequately funded, 43 of them are between 65-79% funded that classifies them as endangered. The remaining 65 union pension plans, one out of every two measured, are underfunded at a critical rate, less than 65%. For the full list click here. The proposed card check bill, which will allow unions to dramatically increase their rolls by eliminating the secret...

Much of the first 14 months of the Obama administration has been a public "love story" between the White House and the Labor Unions. It seems as if President Obama has been basing many of his decisions on how they help the Union Bosses as opposed to how they help the entire country.... These are just a few ways the President is favoring his friends, the Union leaders over the needs of the Union Rank and file and the American People. The reason for the favorable treatment, the Pension Plans are about to collapse, most of the rank and file...

Within the last year and a half, the federal government has provided hundreds of billions of dollars to prop up otherwise failing corporations and financial intermediaries. This mating of economics and politics, inevitably steeped in favoritism, justifiably has earned denunciations from many sources, including National Legal and Policy Center. Labor unions also have been among the critics. Yet their leaders habitually put high principle aside when their own hides need bailing out. Case in point: a bill introduced in late October by Rep. Earl Pomeroy, D-N.D. (see photo), the Preserve Benefits and Jobs Act of 2009 (H.R. 3936). This legislation...

Almost half of the nation’s 20 largest unions have pension funds that federal law classifies as “endangered” or in “critical” condition due to being underfunded, an Examiner review of federal actuarial reports shows. Pensions with less than 80 percent of the assets needed to cover present and projected liabilities are considered “endangered,” while those that fall below a 65 percent threshold are classified as “critical” under the Pension Protection Act of 2006. The growing number of local and national union pensions that lack sufficient resources to cover their obligations could threaten the retirement security not just of union members, but...

"The amount of underfunding in pension plans sponsored by financially weaker employers is very substantial," Snowbarger said in testimony prepared for the Senate Special Committee on Aging.

One financial expert describes it as one of the most stunning transfers of wealth in human history, from the pockets of taxpayers to the pockets of government employees. What will it take to awaken the victims? What's happening is that extravagant increases in pensions and other compensation of state and local government employees threaten to cause a wave of bankruptcies, tax increases and cutbacks in services. An analysis by the L.A. Daily News this week showed that California's largest public agencies face an increase of $108 billion in pension costs compared to just three years ago. According to the Legislative...

The bill Perry signed could save the state about 455 million dollars in the next two years. The pension plan currently has a nearly eleven billion-dollar shortfall. Much of the blame goes to the stock market tumble in the early 2000s. There's also the Legislature's decision a decade ago to cut its contribution to the 90 billion-dollar Teacher Retirement System of Texas. Unexpected retirement growth also inflamed the problem.

Thu September 4, 2003 11:15 AM ET WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Underfunded pension liabilities at troubled U.S. companies doubled this fiscal year, and could exceed $80 billion with airlines accounting for nearly a third of the deficit, the government said on Thursday. The Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp. also told Congress its deficit has grown to $5.7 billion as of July 31. The deficit for the entire fiscal year ending Sept. 30 last year was $3.6 billion. This gives the U.S. agency less money to bail out any troubled company retirement plans. Airlines, including bankrupt United Airlines Corp. UALAQ.OB , have an...

WASHINGTON (AP) - The Bush administration said Monday it is working on a plan aimed at improving the way traditional pension plans offered by private employers are financed. The proposal, which would require congressional approval, is geared to the roughly 32,000 traditional, defined benefit pension plans, which promise participants a specific monthly benefit at retirement. Senior administration officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the proposal would change the contribution companies make to traditional pension plans but not change the benefits flowing to retirees. The proposal comes as many of these traditional pensions face funding shortfalls. More than half of...

March 12, 2003 Administration Drafting Proposals to Preserve Pension PlansBy BLOOMBERG NEWS ASHINGTON, March 11 — The Bush administration is drafting proposals to discourage companies struggling to pay for traditional worker pension plans from dropping them, the head of the agency that insures pension plans told Congress today. Steven A. Kandarian, executive director of the agency, the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation, told the Senate Finance Committee today that inadequate requirements had led to a $300 billion shortfall in the assets of company plans. He said his agency's record $3.6 billion budget deficit for last year would deepen as it tried...