From: "Antti Kurenniemi" 

Oh, forgot to mention that pension system is run by the govt here, not
companies. Pretty communistic, and cannot work I'm sure...


Antti Kurenniemi


"Rich Gauszka"  wrote in message
news:44204ac0{at}w3....
> Big Business is now screwing our pension protection
>
>
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/03/19/business/19pension.html?_r=1&hp&ex=11428308
00&en=0e0f6f1b696f3337&ei=5094&partner=homepage&oref=login
>
> With a strong directive from the Bush administration, Congress set out
> more than a year ago to fashion legislation that would protect America's
> private pension system, tightening the rules to make sure companies set
> aside enough money to make good on their promises to employees
> Then the political horse-trading began, with lawmakers, companies and
> lobbyists, representing everything from big Wall Street firms to tiny
> rural electric cooperatives, weighing in on the particulars of the Bush
> administration's blueprint.
> In the end, lawmakers modified many of the proposed rules, allowing
> companies more time to cover pension shortfalls, to make more forgiving
> estimates about how much they will owe workers in the future, and even
> sometimes to assume that their workers will die younger than the rest of
> the population.
>
> On top of those changes, companies also persuaded lawmakers to add dozens
> of specific measures, including a multibillion-dollar escape clause for
> the nation's airlines and a special exemption for the makers of Smithfield
> Farms hams.
>
> As a result, the bill now being completed in a House-Senate conference
> committee, rather than strengthening the pension system, would actually
> weaken it, according to a little-noticed analysis by the government's
> pension agency.
>
> The agency's report projects that the House and Senate bills would lower
> corporate contributions to the already underfinanced pension system by
> $140 billion to $160 billion in the next three years.
>
> That shortfall raises the specter of more pension plans failing, pushing
> their liabilities on to the government, according to the agency and
> critics of the bills. And some companies with fully financed pensions feel
> unfairly penalized by having to pay higher pension premiums to make up for
> others' shortfalls.
>
> "It takes a better economist than me to understand how reducing
> contributions by that much is going to protect benefits and put the system
> on a sounder footing," said Jeremy I. Bulow, an economist at Stanford
> University.
>
>

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