Out of the limelight, public employee activists have achieved a near victory in their quest for a fair pension plan. However, fulfillment of a national precedent setting grievance award to allow Connecticut state employees to transfer from a defined contribution 401(k) type retirement plan into the state’s traditional defined benefit pension system has been delayed.Continue reading “Connecticut Public Employee Activists Fight for Pension Justice”
Category Archives: Retirement Policy
Why Employee Pensions Aren’t Bankrupting States by Kevin G. Hall, McClatchy Newspapers
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2011/03/06/109649/why-employee-pensions-arent-bankrupting.html?storylink=addthis WASHINGTON — From state legislatures to Congress to tea party rallies, a vocal backlash is rising against what are perceived as too-generous retirement benefits for state and local government workers. However, that widespread perception doesn’t match reality To read more, click here.
1. An Overblown Crisis for State Pension Funds by Zach Carter, Huffington Post
 http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/03/07/state-pension-plans_n_829112.html WASHINGTON — In early 2010, Goldman Sachs announced two blockbuster numbers: profits of $13.4 billion for the prior year and compensation of $16.2 billion — the equivalent of about $500,000 for each employee at the Wall Street titan. All of this lucre, of course, came courtesy of a massive federal bailout of Wall StreetContinue reading “1. An Overblown Crisis for State Pension Funds by Zach Carter, Huffington Post”
New York Times/CBS Poll Finds Strong Public Support for Public Employees, Their Pensions, and Right to Collective Bargaining
Despite a well financed right wing anti-public employee campaign that includes the attempt to take away collective bargaining rights from Wisconsin public employees, a just released New York Times/CBS national poll has found strong public support for public employees, their benefits, and collective bargaining rights. To read the article, click here.  The results of theContinue reading “New York Times/CBS Poll Finds Strong Public Support for Public Employees, Their Pensions, and Right to Collective Bargaining”
Boomers Find 401(k) Plans Fall Short – Wall Street Journal
Every once in a while the Wall Street Journal tells it like it is. Such is E.S. Browning’s “Boomers Find 401(k) Plans Fall Short†in the February 19, 2011 issue. If you want to read it through this link, do it soon as it will be closed to non subscribers in seven days.
401(k) Open and Hidden Fees
Management fees, commissions, and profits severely compromise what can be accumulated in 401(k) and other defined contribution retirement plan accounts. Defined contribution participants typically lose from 20 to 30 percent and more of their accumulations to investment management fees charged by the financial services industry. The administrative overhead costs for defined benefit plans are muchContinue reading “401(k) Open and Hidden Fees”
How 401(k)s Discriminate Against Women
401(k)s are set up so that participants will accumulate funds during their working lives and then purchase annuities with those funds to finance their retirement. They could also actively manage their portfolios during retirement, but most experts agree that annuitizing produces more stable income security. The annuity business is based on calculating life spans. SinceContinue reading “How 401(k)s Discriminate Against Women”
Q&A: Funding of State Pension Funds
Question:Â When you say the prior to the 1980’s, public pensions were funded in a traditional way, do you mean that the state governments simply put most of the funding in a fund as they went along, but then they started to put more and more of it into Wall St., so that after theContinue reading “Q&A: Funding of State Pension Funds”
Social Security and Obama’s 2011 State of the Union Address
There was considerable fear among supporter of Social Security that President Obama would cave in to powerful financial elites that want to see the program privatized or at least cut back in order to divert more retirement savings dollars to Wall Street. The signs were everywhere. He had dangerously reduced employee contributions from 6.2 toContinue reading “Social Security and Obama’s 2011 State of the Union Address”
The Fiscal Health of State Pension Funds by Iris J. Lav and Elizabeth McNichol (Center on Budget and Policy Priorities)
 The Fiscal Health of State Pension Funds: Misunderstandings Regarding State Debt, Pensions, and Retiree Health Costs Create Unnecessary Alarm Misconceptions and Also Divert Attention from Needed Structural Reforms (excerpts)  By Iris J. Lav and Elizabeth McNichol Center on Budget and Policy Priorities January 20, 2011 http://http://www.cbpp.org/cms/index.cfm?fa=view&id=3372 [moderator: This report provides substantive documented informationContinue reading “The Fiscal Health of State Pension Funds by Iris J. Lav and Elizabeth McNichol (Center on Budget and Policy Priorities)”