Pensions Under Attack

Pensions Under Attack

Author: Monica Townson

Publisher: James Lorimer & Company

Published: 2001-02-07

Total Pages: 294

ISBN-13: 9781550286946

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Canada's aging population has raised cries of alarm from some quarters. Critics warn of a demographic time bomb waiting to explode and an age war over pensions as the baby boom generation starts to retire in the next decade. They say the answer is to get rid of public pension programs like the Canada Pension Plan and force people to contribute to their own personal savings plans instead. Will this spell disaster for the elderly, or is it a bold new idea for coping with rising costs? Monica Townson, a prominent independent economist, discusses the forces behind the push to privatize public pensions and looks at the likely impact of privatization on the financial security of futre seniors. She describes how Chile, under the Pinochet dictatorship, replaced its public pension plan with a forced savings scheme and became the darling of right-wing governments around the world, and how Britain, under Margaret Thatcher, introduced opting out of public pensions and triggered a major scandal involving some of the big names in the insurance industry. As the debate about pivatization heats up the new millennium, Pensions Under Attack provides the information needed to question the hidded agenda behind the current push to privatize public pensions. It will be a timely contribution to a discussion whose outcome affects the personal financial security of every Canadian.


The Betrayal of the American Dream

The Betrayal of the American Dream

Author: Donald L. Barlett

Publisher: Public Affairs

Published: 2012-07-31

Total Pages: 322

ISBN-13: 1586489690

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Examines the formidable challenges facing the middle class, calling for fundamental changes while surveying the extent of the problem and identifying the people and agencies most responsible.


The Rise of the Working-Class Shareholder

The Rise of the Working-Class Shareholder

Author: David Webber

Publisher: Harvard University Press

Published: 2018-04-02

Total Pages: 351

ISBN-13: 0674972139

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When Steven Burd, CEO of the supermarket chain Safeway, cut wages and benefits, starting a five-month strike by 59,000 unionized workers, he was confident he would win. But where traditional labor action failed, a novel approach was more successful. With the aid of the California Public Employees’ Retirement System, a $300 billion pension fund, workers led a shareholder revolt that unseated three of Burd’s boardroom allies. In The Rise of the Working-Class Shareholder: Labor's Last Best Weapon, David Webber uses cases such as Safeway’s to shine a light on labor’s most potent remaining weapon: its multitrillion-dollar pension funds. Outmaneuvered at the bargaining table and under constant assault in Washington, state houses, and the courts, worker organizations are beginning to exercise muscle through markets. Shareholder activism has been used to divest from anti-labor companies, gun makers, and tobacco; diversify corporate boards; support Occupy Wall Street; force global warming onto the corporate agenda; create jobs; and challenge outlandish CEO pay. Webber argues that workers have found in labor’s capital a potent strategy against their exploiters. He explains the tactic’s surmountable difficulties even as he cautions that corporate interests are already working to deny labor’s access to this powerful and underused tool. The Rise of the Working-Class Shareholder is a rare good-news story for American workers, an opportunity hiding in plain sight. Combining legal rigor with inspiring narratives of labor victory, Webber shows how workers can wield their own capital to reclaim their strength.


Retirement Heist

Retirement Heist

Author: Ellen E. Schultz

Publisher: National Geographic Books

Published: 2012-10-30

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 1591845653

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Winner of the 2012 Helen Bernstein Book Award for Excellence in Journalism Hundreds of companies have slashed pensions and health coverage for millions of retirees, claiming that a “perfect storm” of stock market losses, aging workers, and spiraling costs have forced them to take drastic measures. But this so-called retirement crisis is no accident. Ellen E. Schultz, an award-winning investigative reporter formerly of The Wall Street Journal, reveals how large employers and the retirement industry have all played a huge and hidden role in the death spiral of American pensions and benefits. A little over a decade ago, pension plans were fat. But companies used slick accounting and dubious loopholes to turn their pension plans into piggy banks, tax shelters, and profit centers. As pensions weakened, companies slashed benefits for workers while doling out gargantuan pensions to their top executives. Drawing on original analysis of company data, government filings, and confidential memos, Schultz uncovers decades of widespread deception during which employers exaggerated their retiree burdens while tricking employees, misleading shareholders, and lobbying for taxpayer handouts.


Pension Ponzi

Pension Ponzi

Author: Bill Tufts

Publisher: John Wiley & Sons

Published: 2011-01-25

Total Pages: 231

ISBN-13: 1118098730

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The vast majority of Canadians are blissfully unaware that every man, woman and child in Canada now owes a $35,000 share of government debt and must pay this back, with interest! Make no mistake, this debt will change our country and affect every single Canadian in the decades to come. You may think you have planned for your retirement and are safe, but the government must find a way to recover this borrowed money, and they can only do that by raising your taxes and reducing your hard-earned benefits. How did this debt come about, and why can't we simply pay it off? Pension Ponzi lays the blame squarely at the feet of the politicians who refused to stand up to Canada's public sector unions. The fact is Canada's public sector, which accounts for 20% of the workforce, has been grossly overpaid relative to their counterparts in the private sector with cushy pensions paid for with your taxes and new debt. There is no denying that the country does not have the financial resources to ensure that the next generation of Canadians will have the same standard of living as the ones before it-or to support our growing seniors population. Meeting our public sector pension obligations will break the current social safety net that is a pillar of the Canadian way. Can you escape this bleak future? Can you afford to live longer? Nationally-recognized pension expert Bill Tufts and award-winning journalist Lee Fairbanks explore how this catastrophe came about and then suggest ways that government can fix what's broken, and how you as an individual can protect yourself from the financial calamity that is about to engulf Canada.


When I'm Sixty-Four

When I'm Sixty-Four

Author: Teresa Ghilarducci

Publisher: Princeton University Press

Published: 2008-04-28

Total Pages: 384

ISBN-13: 1400824389

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A crisis is looming for baby boomers and anyone else who hopes to retire in the coming years. In When I'm Sixty-Four, Teresa Ghilarducci, the nation's leading authority on the economics of retirement, explains how to confront this crisis head-on, revealing the causes behind the increasingly precarious economics of old age in America and proposing a bold plan to guarantee retirement security for every working citizen. Retirement is one of the hallmarks of a prosperous, civilized market economy. Yet in America today Social Security is on the ropes. Government and employers are dismantling pension security, forcing older people to work longer. The federal government spends billions in exemptions for 401(k)s and other voluntary retirement accounts, yet retirement savings for most workers is falling. Ghilarducci takes an unflinching look at the eroding economic structure of retirement in America--and what she finds is alarming. She exposes the failures of pension regulators and the false hopes of privatized Social Security. She tells the ugly truth about risky 401(k) plans, do-it-yourself retirement schemes, and companies like Enron that have left employees without any retirement savings. Ghilarducci puts forward a sweeping plan to revive the retirement-income system, a plan that will ensure that, after forty years of work, every American will receive 70 percent of their preretirement earnings, guaranteed for life. No other book makes such a persuasive case for overhauling the pension and Social Security system in order to provide older Americans with the financial stability they have earned and deserve.


Downhill from Here

Downhill from Here

Author: Katherine S. Newman

Publisher: Metropolitan Books

Published: 2019-01-29

Total Pages: 336

ISBN-13: 1250119464

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A sharp examination of the looming financial catastrophe of retirement in America. As millions of Baby Boomers reach their golden years, the state of retirement in America is little short of a disaster. Nearly half the households with people aged 55 and older have no retirement savings at all. The real estate crash wiped out much of the home equity that millions were counting on to support their retirement. And the typical Social Security check covers less than 40% of pre-retirement wages—a number projected to drop to under 28% within two decades. Old-age poverty, a problem we thought was solved by the New Deal, is poised for a resurgence. With dramatic statistics and vivid portraits, acclaimed sociologist Katherine S. Newman shows that the American retirement crisis touches us all, cutting across class lines and generational divides. White-collar managers have seen retirement benefits vanish; Teamsters have had their pensions cut in half; bankrupt cities like Detroit have walked away from their commitments to municipal workers. And for Generation X, the prospects are even worse: a fifth of them expect to never be able to retire. Only the vaunted “one percent” can face retirement without fear. Other countries are confronting similar demographic challenges, yet they have not abandoned their social contract with seniors. Downhill From Here makes it clear that America, too, can—and must—do better.


Better Pensions, Better Jobs

Better Pensions, Better Jobs

Author: Mariano Bosch

Publisher: Inter-American Development Bank

Published: 2013-10-16

Total Pages: 248

ISBN-13: 1597821780

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The Latin America and Caribbean (LAC) region has reduced its inequality and poverty, and is looking towards the future with greater optimism than in the past. As the region grows, new problems appear that economic policymakers must address. How to provide adequate pensions for the elderly is one such problem. This book offers an analysis of pension systems from the perspective of the functioning of the regions labor markets. It clarifies why, more than half a century after pension systems were created, only a minority of workers in the region save for their pension in the contributory systems through payroll taxes. The study points out that the problem lies not only in the lack of coverage, but also in the low level of benefits, even of contributory pensions. It argues that to design public policies for pensions, it is essential to understand the complex web of interactions between employers and workers that take place in the labor market.


Rescuing Retirement

Rescuing Retirement

Author: Teresa Ghilarducci

Publisher: Columbia Business School Publi

Published: 2018

Total Pages: 166

ISBN-13: 9780231185646

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In Rescuing Retirement, Teresa Ghilarducci and Tony James offer a comprehensive yet simple plan to help workers save for retirement, increase retirement savings by earning higher returns, and guarantee lifelong income for everyone. It offers a practical guide to the future of secure retirement.