Today’s Federal Register.
“New Rules Urged to Avert Looming Pension Crisis“: Mary Williams Walsh for the New York Times reports. The article discusses the differences in the proposals of the House Ways and Means Committee and Treasury in solving the pension funding crisis, and also states that “pension managers are turning to hedge funds, real estate investment trusts, emerging markets and other riskier investments, in an effort to recoup the stock losses of the past three years.” The article also discusses a pension investment strategy of duration-matched bonds which is being recommended by some financial analysts as a cure for the problem.
“Pension Benefits: Next Sector to Implode?“: AccountingWeb reports.
In the UK, pension underfunding is also at the forefront of the news, having recently been called a “black hole” by the CBI which is going to hurt economic recovery. “Pensions black hole ‘is threat to profits‘” reports FT.com.
Arden Dale for the Dow Jones Newswire via the Wall Street Journal reported last Friday: “Pension Plans Facing Toughest Environment In A Decade.” The article quotes Steven A. Kandarian, PBGC’s executive director, as stating that “[d]efined-benefit plans are under more pressure [right now] than at any time in a decade” and that “[e]very aspect of the defined-benefit system is under scrutiny – the funding rules, the accounting rules, the proper way to discount liabilities, and financial health of the PGBC, the list goes on.” The article also quotes Howard Silverblatt, an equities analyst at the ratings agency Standard & Poor’s, as saying that the big difference between the savings and loan crisis and the pension funding crisis (an analogy put forth by Treasury Secretary Snow earlier this month) is that companies really have the money to make the contributions.
“Pigging Out? Special retirement plans for top executives are becoming a target for other stakeholders“: Ronald Fink for CFO.com reports. The article discusses in detail the legislative recommendations for nonqualified plans made by the Joint Committee on Taxation during hearings in April.
“Making bottom line, stock options add up: Move toward expensing perk divides companies“: Aldo Svaldi for the Denver Post reports. The Denver Post apparently surveyed the state’s 50 largest companies on the topic of stock option expensing and found that of the only 12 companies that responded, none expensed their options, and only one, eCollege, reported plans to do so in the future.