Forbes Article

[brownmech]

http://www.forbes.com/sites/edwardsiedle/2013/05/13/teamsters-multiemployer-pensions-on-brink-of-collapse-dol-asked-to-investigate/

 

[eolesen]

Point of order -- it's not an article done by a reporter for Forbes. It's a blog post.

Not passing judgement on what the guy is saying -- it seems to be spot on, but different standards apply to what goes in print in a national magazine vs. what someone can post on a blog/opinion section of that national magazine's website.

 

[WorldTraveler]

it doesn't change the fact that there have been genuine articles about multi-employer pension funding... and more significantly that the same concerns that exist for single employer pensions and the social security systems of the US and many other countries also apply to multiemployer pensions as well.

Any pension system - public or private - that is paying out more in benefits than it is receiving in payments from members or investment returns is going to eventually fail, regardless of who sponsors it.

Record low interest rates and sluggish economies - and thus low investment returns - combined with a slowing if not shrinking workforce and a growing number of retirees have put stress on many pension plans.

There are not a whole lot of options to fix pension plans in that type of situation and none of them are pretty.

 

[Overspeed]

it doesn't change the fact that there have been genuine articles about multi-employer pension funding... and more significantly that the same concerns that exist for single employer pensions and the social security systems of the US and many other countries also apply to multiemployer pensions as well.

Any pension system - public or private - that is paying out more in benefits than it is receiving in payments from members or investment returns is going to eventually fail, regardless of who sponsors it.

Record low interest rates and sluggish economies - and thus low investment returns - combined with a slowing if not shrinking workforce and a growing number of retirees have put stress on many pension plans.

There are not a whole lot of options to fix pension plans in that type of situation and none of them are pretty.

Agreed. There are plenty of articles written to back up this bloggers comments

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887323916304578402860488523342.html