Working Life

New Jersey’s public pension system is in dire straights–or so says Mary Williams Walsh in The New York Times today in an article that argues that politicians have made some questionable moves in pension funding.: In 2005, New Jersey put either $551 million, $56 million or nothing into its pension fund for teachers. All three […]

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What a great country we have: a few people at Goldman Sachs are going to divvy up $16 billion, while the people that make it possible for the bankers and dealmakers to make off like bandits won’t have a decent pension to retire on. I’m talking about public employees—you know, the people who pick up […]

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There been a steady drumbeat underway now about the precarious situation facing public pensions (we’ve talked alot here about private pensions, too…but that’s not the topic today). What I have noticed regarding the drumbeat on public pensions is its eerie similarity to the drumbeat around Social Security: benefits are too high and there just isn’t […]

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[Had a couple of days that I went “dark” here] Well, here’s a minor step that would can salute: U.S. Opposes Bankruptcy Bonus Plan By FLOYD NORRIS The Justice Department has joined with unions and creditors of the Dana Corporation, an auto parts company in bankruptcy protection, in opposing a proposed pay system for top […]

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The Wall Street Journal reports today that DuPont is going to severely cut back its pension plan for workers, even though the company remains profitable and its pension plan is in sound shape. Welcome to the new world: DuPont Aims to Slash Pension Plan Benefits Will Be Reduced By Two-Thirds After 2007, Eliminated for New […]

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Sigh. Not that I expected the Times to adjust its coverage of the NY City pensions situation. But…can’t the reporters at least acknowledge that the serious fiscal situation cities and states are in come in large part from the shredding of a progressive taxation system, i.e., that the rich and corporations pay so little in […]

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Readers of this blog know that I’ve been quite positive about the pension reporting that usually is done by Mary Williams Walsh of The New York Times. Today, she has a lead front-page article (co-authored with Michael Cooper) with the scary headline “City Gets Sobering Look At Possible Pension Trouble.” The upshot of the article […]

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I’ve been generally very positive about the quality of Mary Williams Walsh’s reporting about pensions for The New York Times. I think she typically understands the issue better than most reporters. Today, she launched the first in a series of articles reporting on the public pension plan system (as distinguished from the private sector pension […]

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There was a very important article in The Wall Street Journal yesterday and I posted this at Daily Kos yesterday. It’s almost become an article of faith in the public lore that “generous” pensions for hard-working Americans are the cause of many of the financial binds that private companies (and municipalities) face. I’d bet that […]

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We’ve been following the attack on the pension system for a long time. What an outrage: people save their own money–it is their money because pension money is deferred compensation–and, poof, it’s either gone or taken over by the federal agency that is struggling with a $23 billion deficit, which could get even bigger if […]

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