Overview

America’s insurance system for single-employer pension plans, operated by the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC), is under serious financial strain. In Pension Wise: Confronting Employer Pension Underfunding—And Sparing Taxpayers the Next Bailout, Charles Blahous—one of the nation’s foremost retirement security experts—explains the origins and dangers of current underfunding in our single-employer defined-benefit pension system and offers principles to underlie a solution.Blahous details both the technical reasons behind pension plan underfunding and the political considerations that prioritize the near-term financial demands of employers and pension beneficiaries over the long-term fiscal health of the pension insurance system. The author also presents the fundamental value judgments concerning who should bear the cost of filling the PBGC shortfall and to what extent the risk of financing pension benefits should continue to be shifted away from plan sponsors, either to other employers or to taxpayers at large. Although acknowledging that there are no obviously correct answers, he suggests a range of reforms to improve the pension insurance system’s operation and to resolve its projected shortfall.

Full Product Details

Author:   Charles Blahous
Publisher:   Hoover Institution Press,U.S.
Imprint:   Hoover Institution Press,U.S.
Dimensions:   Width: 15.20cm , Height: 1.40cm , Length: 22.90cm
Weight:   0.250kg
ISBN:  

9780817912147

ISBN 10:   0817912142
Pages:   84
Publication Date:   30 November 2010
Audience:   General/trade ,  General
Format:   Hardback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   Awaiting stock  
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Table of Contents

List of Figures and Tables Acknowledgments Abstract Introduction The Nature of Single-Employer Defined-Benefit Pensions The Nation’s Pension Insurance System: The Condition of the PBGC The Magnitude of Pension Underfunding Nationwide Technical Reasons for Pension Underfunding Pension Plan Assets Pension Plan Liabilities Addressing Underfunding: Statutory Contribution Requirements Other Funding Safeguards Established by the PPA Premiums Recent Developments: Legislation and the Financial Markets’ Plunge Additional Reasons for Underfunding: Structural Issues Facing the PBGC Political Economy Factors Pension Funding Policy Principles: Separating Measurement Accuracy from Value Judgments Can the Hole be Filled? Separating Fairness from Risk Issues Going Forward: General Principles for Pension Insurance System Reform Conclusions and Recommendations Notes Bibliography About the Author Index

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Author Information

Charles Blahous, one of the nation's foremost retirement security experts, serves as one of two public Trustees for the Social Security and Medicare programs. Blahous served as deputy director of President George W. Bush's National Economic Council and, before that, as executive director of the president's bipartisan Social Security Commission and as special assistant for economic policy.

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