Working Life

   There are so many things wrong about the story in today’s New York Times on New York state’s retiree health care costs that I don’t know where to begin. Here are the first three paragraphs: The cities, counties and authorities of New York have promised more than $200 billion worth of health benefits to […]

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   This was inevitable and quite worrisome: Companies are quietly and gradually moving their pension funds out of stocks. They want to reduce their investment risk and are buying more long-term bonds. But states and other bodies of government are seeking higher returns for their pension funds, to make up for ground lost in the […]

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Among the most troubling retreats, in my view, in the public discourse has been the adoption of the false idea that deep government involvement in the economy is a bad thing. It’s a retreat that too many Democrats have taken part in. The problem is the FACTS say otherwise. And the known left-wing organ, The […]

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   This is how fragile–and foolish–the talk of recovery is. Yesterday, you may recall that I pointed out the record level of personal bankruptcies recorded in 2009–at the same time that some "analysts" were heralding a recovery based on some uptick in manufacturing (one would venture to guess that those same "analysts" were among those […]

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I have written recently that the debate over CEO pay obscured the true source of executive over-the-top compensation: the astronomical levels of money hidden in the pensions of CEOs and top executives. Today, we have more confirmation about the draining of corporate money into the hands of CEOS via their retirement parting gifts.   The […]

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   A few days ago, I wrote about the coming crisis of retirement that could last for decades. Here’s another example: And even as its pension fund faces this giant bulge in payouts, G.M. is not putting any new money in — the company is not required to make any contributions to the fund until […]

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I have argued that the current crisis we are in now is the product of at least three decades of a bankrupt economic system. Now, looking forward, the same system has set the stages, according to a report just out, for a massive worldwide crisis in retirement security that will last decades. The reason we […]

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The other day, I saw an amazing spectacle: a firefighter responded to a call to a burning building in New York City and, as he was dragging the fire hose to the fire, a crowd of angry people stopped him and said, "Stop. Your pension is too generous so don’t you dare put that fire […]

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   It should not surprise anyone that people are scared about the future of their retirement. Yesterday, the Financial Times had this: Anxiety about having enough income in retirement is growing, according to a new Financial Times/Harris Poll, with more than half of adults in the US, France, Italy and Spain saying they are more […]

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The bankruptcy of Chrysler crystallized a pretty straightforward choice about which side you are on in our society: do you care about what happens to workers and their communities or are you more interested in making a few more dollars? The Administration made its choice. A few hedge funds made their choice and, along with […]

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