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Strategies & Market Trends : Galapagos Islands -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Peach who wrote (9748)	10/27/2002 12:27:15 PM
From: X Y Zebra	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 57110

He sounds like a wild and crazy guy who knew how to enjoy life. Yeah..... :~] ___________________________________ edworkforce.house.gov in other news... Unfunded Private Pension Liability Reaches Record Level -- Representative Miller Urges Bush Administration to Step Up Oversight Thursday, July 25, 2002 WASHINGTON - Congressman George Miller revealed today that un-funded private pension liabilities have risen to the highest level ever reported by the Pension Benefit Guarantee Corporation (PBGC) and he urged the Bush Administration to take immediate steps to improve oversight of the reporting and management of these critical funds. Un-funded pension liabilities for private companies have skyrocketed from $26 billion last year to a staggering $111 billion this year, Miller revealed. In a letter sent Thursday to Secretary of the Treasury Paul O’Neill and Secretary of Labor Elaine Chao, Miller said “it is my understanding that this 425% jump in un-funded liabilities is unprecedented, and the figure represents the highest amount of un-funded pension liabilities ever reported to the PBGC on the Corporation’s 4010 forms.” “The implications of such massive shortfalls in pension funds are staggering, for pensioners, taxpayers, and for the private companies themselves,” wrote Miller, the senior Democrat on the House Education and the Workforce Committee. “At a time when millions of working men and women fear for their jobs and have lost hundreds of billions of dollars from their 401(k) investments, the disclosure of severe problems in their pension funds cannot help but further raise anxiety about their long-term economic security. For taxpayers, the un-funded liability could mean enormous costs. And for private companies, failure to accurately account for their pension liabilities could cause them serious financial jeopardy.” more in the above link.... _______________________________ A letter from Senator George Miller addressed to Secretary O'Neill is included. In it, the Senator asks the following questions... Americans must have the fullest confidence that the federal government is vigorously protecting pension plan assets and funding, requiring the utmost corporate transparency, and working diligently to protect taxpayers. I would appreciate your prompt response to the following questions: (1) What factors, in your view, account for the unprecedented increase in unfunded pension liabilities, as reported by the PBGC? (2) What specific actions are your Departments taking to ensure that such plans continue to be adequately funded? (3) Do your Departments receive adequate and timely financial information from pension plans and companies to provide a high level of oversight, and do you have adequate agency resources to properly monitor defined benefit plans? (4) Are the rules for estimating investment returns and calculating contributions adequate? Do they need revision in order to ensure that pension plan assumptions are reasonable and plans are adequately funded? (5) Why does the PBGC report in its data book only the vested unfunded liabilities, which understates by more than $79 billion dollars, the amount of under- funding by private pension plans? (6) What safeguards are in place to ensure that companies properly report the status of their pension plans, and that they (the companies) are using reasonable methodology and economic assumptions, especially in light of changes in investment returns and stock values, to fund adequately? (7) Do you estimate that the PBGC will experience an increased number of claims, or claim amounts made as a result of changes in the economy, and if so, to what degree? (8) Do you support the repeated, urgent recommendations of the Department of Labor’s Inspector General (IG) to require pension plans to undertake full scope audits (rather than limited audits that permit the auditor to take the word of others to vouch for accuracy of certain financial information); and do you support the IG’s recommendations to require that pension auditors who find evidence of fraud report directly to the Secretary of Labor rather than back to the pension plan, as is currently the practice? I look forward to hearing from you on these urgent and critical issues affecting the economic security of millions of Americans. While this issue is now part of the political landscape, nevertheless... the point is that the focus on pension liabilities will be a dark cloud over stock valuations... Not only everyone will be paying attention to this issue, but also due to the possibility of increased cost of more detailed audits, and government regulation added to the pile....