Blogs & Newsletters
“Retirement Heist: Overlooked Causes of the Retirement Crisis.”
On Monday, the Pension Rights Center, the New America Foundation, and AARP hosted a discussion, “Retirement Heist: Overlooked Causes of the Retirement Crisis.” The forum centered on investigative journalist Ellen Schultz’s new book, Retirement Heist, which we’ve mentioned before. Speakers included the author herself, Assistant Labor Secretary Phyllis Borzi, David Certner of AARP, Don Fuerst […]
Retirement Heist steals the spotlight
Today, Morning Edition on NPR featured an interview with former Wall Street Journal reporter Ellen Schultz about her new book, Retirement Heist. We have already sung the praises of this important work, which details how corporations have exploited loopholes in the law to boost corporate profits at the expense of workers’ pensions, but I am […]
Shining a light on a hidden pension world
In a new book, Retirement Heist, prize-winning journalist Ellen Schultz has provided the ultimate backstage pass to the world of pensions, with plenty of drama and shocking details. Schultz, a former Wall Street Journal reporter, has woven together a compelling story that reveals how arcane accounting rules, legal maneuvering, and unfair claims procedures have led […]
A race to the bottom?
New Census Bureau data released earlier this week shows that more Americans are living in poverty now than at any time since 1993. While an increase might be understandable, given the uncertain economy, the numbers are still staggering. An estimated one in six Americans, or 15.1 percent of the population, is living in poverty. That […]
Chilean miners get lifetime pensions, but …
A smile came to my face when I first saw the headline, Lifetime pensions awarded to 14 of the trapped Chilean miners. Of course the miners deserve pensions. After all, they were trapped underground for nearly three months! But then I remembered that there were 33 miners stuck in that mine. So less than half […]
Why regulations matter
In today’s anti-government political environment, there’s a lot of rhetoric thrown around about the bugaboo “excessive regulation.” Just last week, I heard a spokesperson for Dupont tell a congressional committee that the decline of traditional pensions was due, in large part, to a “burdensome regulatory regime.” We hear this time and again in almost every […]
PBGC urges bankruptcy court to protect pensions for Harry & David employees
The Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC) recently announced that it has asked a bankruptcy court to continue the company’s defined benefit pension plan, siding with the employees and retirees of Harry & David Holdings Inc. The food and fruit gift basket company is currently in Chapter 11 bankruptcy and is attempting to terminate its underfunded […]
Retirement…What’s that?
Yesterday I attended a hearing held by the Senate’s Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee. Called Stories from the Kitchen Table: How Middle Class Families are Struggling to Make Ends Meet, the hearing focused on the all-too-familiar challenges that many of America’s middle class families are facing due to the economic downturn. I was particularly […]
Snail mail or e-mail? The Labor Department wants to know.
How would you prefer to receive information about your retirement plan: delivered by regular mail on paper or electronically by e-mail? What if you don’t use a computer at work and only have access to a computer at home? What if your home computer is old and doesn’t work very well, or if you don’t […]
Hey, Republicans and Democrats: Are you listening?
On NPR this morning, Morning Edition aired a story on the Republican Leadership Conference, which is taking place in New Orleans this weekend. At one point, the reporter interviewed two women who were waiting in line to meet former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee. The interview includes this brief exchange, which comes at 1:20 in the […]
Senator cites the Retirement Income Deficit
In May, Senators Herb Kohl (D-WI) and Mike Enzi (R-WY) introduced S. 1020, the Savings Enhancement by Alleviating Leakage in 401(k) Savings Act of 2011, or SEAL Act. As we’ve described before, “leakage” occurs when people cash in their 401(k)s or take out loans against their 401(k)s so that they can use the money for […]
Gold-Plated Retirement?
In “The elderly are better off than advertised” Washington Post columnist Robert J. Samuelson attacks what he calls “selective and self-serving statistics” that have been cited by defenders of Social Security and Medicare. According to Samuelson, such statistics are used to oppose cuts in these vital programs and support an “outdated and propagandistic notion that […]
