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To: yard_man who wrote (105857)	5/31/2001 9:50:24 PM
From: patron_anejo_por_favor	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 436258

Cost shifting of health benefit costs will continue to erode disposable income: cbs.marketwatch.com Retiree health benefits have been declining for 10 years and the erosion may soon accelerate, according a General Accounting Office report prepared for the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions. With the economy slowing, health care costs rising and the legal environment shifting, more companies likely will reduce coverage further, experts say. About 37 percent of people who retire before 65 and 26 percent of people of traditional retirement age have some type of health benefit through their former employer, the GAO study said. Early retirees had a coverage rate of 70 percent in the 1980s. As a result, more retirees are going into their golden years without a safety net of employer-sponsored health-care that some paid into by accepting lower salaries during their careers, said Jennifer Borislow, an employee-benefits specialist and insurance company president in Methuen, Mass. "Employers, with all good intentions, made these promises and they're not able to keep them," she said. "They're not able to pay as much as they thought they could towards the cost of retiree coverage or they're not able to pay anything." Because most companies won't cut back or cancel coverage for existing retirees, pre-retirement workers "at the center of our economy" increasingly are concerned about their future health-care benefits, said Tricia Smith, a health issues director for the American Association for Retired Persons (AARP). "That's where the real worry is, and people are getting extremely nervous about that," she said. When less is not more Another survey from William M. Mercer confirms the trend. Last year, 31 percent of large employers offered medical coverage to early retirees, down from 46 percent in 1993, according to Mercer. "Employers, with all good intentions, made these promises and they're not able to keep them." Jennifer Borislow,Benefits specialist And those who retired when they were eligible for Medicare fared even worse -- only 24 percent of large firms offered medical benefits to Medicare-eligible retirees compared with 40 percent eight years ago. Employers don't always cut benefits altogether. In some cases, they reduce the terms by increasing the share of premiums retirees pay for health benefits, increasing co-payments and deductibles or capping their coverage expenses. About 83 percent of employers said they would consider increasing premiums and cost-sharing for retirees 65 and older, according to Hewitt Associates. A recent decision by the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court also has had a chilling effect on companies flirting with offering health benefits to retirees, said James McElligott, an employment lawyer representing management in Richmond, Virginia. A court found that employers who offer more benefits to early retirees than they do to Medicare-eligible retirees at age 65 violate age-discrimination laws, he said. "This lawsuit is going to make employers that don't have retiree health-care much more reluctant to offer that kind of coverage," McElligott said.

To: yard_man who wrote (105857)	5/31/2001 10:16:18 PM
From: Lucretius	Respond to of 436258

the day japan recovers is the day we find out we're stuck in a debacle that we can't get out of. greenie can go f*ck himself....

To: yard_man who wrote (105857)	5/31/2001 11:36:06 PM
From: NOW	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 436258

"Japan must get rid of the bad loans burdening its financial sector" says AG. Sounds so easy. Just get rid of em. You know bury em in the backyard or something. "Just get rid of em I tell ya". Or is that what the Yakuza boss says when he gets the call from the bank whom he is in arrears with?

To: yard_man who wrote (105857)	6/1/2001 4:57:41 PM
From: pater tenebrarum	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 436258

well, in a way he's right,eventually the bad loans must be disposed of...the problem is only, if this is done radically all at once, Japan's financial system and economy will simply implode completely in a deflationary death spiral. admittedly i have no recipe for them either...the best advice would have been: 'never allow a bubble to form', BEFORE it formed. i don't think their problems can now be solved without a great deal of pain...and you won't find a politician prepared to preside over this administration of pain. i've often asked myself if their 'easy money policy' that Greenboink wishes so much to succeed isn't exactly the wrong thing to do, since it hasn't worked one bit so far, for over 11 years. perhaps it's time to try something new? for instance a two pronged monetary strategy, whereby medium to LT rates are allowed to rise, while the BoJ continues to monetize some of the outstanding govt. debt could conceivably work...Japan has lots of savings, maybe they can be mobilized by IMPROVING the return on them instead of the opposite? other deflationary supercycle bears in history have always been ultimately resolved by war unfortunately.