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Politics : Ask Michael Burke -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Knighty Tin who wrote (67912)	9/20/1999 9:07:00 AM
From: Freedom Fighter	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 132070

Mike, Today's WSJ reported that IBM's overfunded pension contributed 450 million to it's earnings in 1998 because they didn't have to make any contributions. It's well known that the bull market itself has contributed to earnings via outsized capital gains in pensions. But even I didn't realize the amounts we are talking about. Numbers like that help explain the higher than average margins for some businesses. So after these companies are finished raiding the overfunded pensions to make earnings estimates and then switch to cash plans what happens if there's a bear market? (bg) Wayne