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Pastimes : Clown-Free Zone... sorry, no clowns allowed -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Knighty Tin who wrote (235123)	4/11/2003 2:17:22 PM
From: Tommaso	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 436258

I need to buy me some of my own Simon and Garfunkle CDs. About my favorite music video, though, is that one of Paul Simon and Chevy Chase. Not that I see many music videos. Will somebody please GOOSE this market!

To: Knighty Tin who wrote (235123)	4/11/2003 2:19:32 PM
From: Simba	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 436258

Look what Dubya has started: washingtonpost.com

To: Knighty Tin who wrote (235123)	4/11/2003 2:41:33 PM
From: mishedlo	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 436258

Look at this scam. Postponemet will make things worse. A Plan to Recalculate Pensions By MARY WILLIAMS WALSH nytimes.com Corporations would find billions of dollars of pension shortfalls eliminated overnight under a proposal being prepared to address a longstanding issue in pension accounting. The proposed legislation, being drafted by a Democrat and a Republican who sponsored changes in retirement laws in 2001, would create a permanent replacement for the 30-year bond in certain pension calculations. An interim measure, allowing companies to use a more favorable rate, is set to expire at the end of the year. The proposal, embraced by the nation's biggest corporations, would use a rate that is tied to high-rated corporate bonds and that is higher than both the interim measure and the rate that companies have traditionally used to measure their pension obligations. The higher rate, known as the discount rate, makes obligations to retirees look smaller, at least on paper. Because companies are required to keep their pensions funded at certain levels, smaller obligations will shrink their mandatory contributions, even though nothing else has changed. America's companies, large and small, had a total pension shortfall of about $300 billion at the end of 2002, according to the government agency that insures pensions. {...} Large companies have lobbied hard for relief. Actuaries say that for every percentage point rise in the rate, pension liabilities appear 10 to 15 percent smaller. The new proposal would raise the rate by about eight-tenths of a percentage point, based on the market environment at the end of last year. Under the old calculation pegged to the 30-year bond, companies would have used a rate of 5.84 percent, versus 6.67 percent under the interim measure. If the new proposal had been in place at the end of the year, the rate would have been 7.42 percent. For General Motors, to use one very large example, the proposed rate would have reduced liabilities by about $7 billion. G.M.'s level of pension funding would have been 91 percent instead of 75 percent. The funding level of a pension plan determines whether a company must make contributions. Other companies have smaller pension funds than G.M., but their liabilities would also look smaller.