October 30, 2005

The End of Pensions - New York Times

A long but enlightening, if not a bit surreal, piece about the pension pain the country is experiencing. When will our erudite elected officials at all levels of government take on the problem for a fix.

"And as future auto executives would discover, pension obligations are - outside of bankruptcy, anyway - virtually impossible to unload. Unlike wages or health benefits, pension benefits cannot be cut. Unlike other contracts, which might be renegotiated as business conditions change, pension commitments are forever. And given the exigencies of the labor market, they tend to be steadily improved upon, at least when times are good."

"The three filings (Delphi, Delta Airlines and Northwest Airlines) have blown the lid off America's latest, if long-simmering, financial debacle. It is not hedge funds or the real-estate bubble - it is the pension system, both public and private. And it is broken."

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