Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Strategies & Market Trends : The Epic American Credit and Bond Bubble Laboratory -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: russwinter who wrote (15415)	6/17/2004 2:14:59 PM
From: NOW	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 110194

his apparrent total disbleief in deflation has me concerned

To: russwinter who wrote (15415)	6/17/2004 2:54:48 PM
From: ild	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 110194

Pension-Plan Underfunding Falls 9% to $278.6 Billion Associated Press June 17, 2004 12:37 p.m. WASHINGTON -- More than 1,000 underfunded pension plans reported a total shortfall of $278.6 billion in 2003, a 9% drop from the previous year, based on the latest government filings. The plans' overall deficit was $305.9 billion the previous year, the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp. said Thursday. Airlines and steel companies still are among the industries with the biggest shortfalls. Overall, 1,050 underfunded plans reported $641.8 billion in assets to cover $920.3 billion in retirement benefits and other liabilities, the PBGC said. The 2003 reports were due April 15, but only pension plans that were underfunded by more than $50 million were required to file. PBGC by law cannot identify the companies sponsoring the underfunded plans. At the airlines, 11 companies reported a total deficit of $31 billion in plans covering 444,000 participants. In the steel industry, seven companies had a shortfall of $6 billion in plans covering 213,000 participants. Since the PBGC was created in 1974, the airline and steel sectors have accounted for more than 70% of the agency's claims, though they have just 5% of pension-plan participants. The data are being released earlier than ever before as part of an overall agency strategy to publicize the funding crisis building in the nation's private pension system. The PBGC also wants changes in laws to let workers and retirees know more about the state of their plans' finances. "Workers and investors have a right to know the financial status of pension plans," said Executive Director Brad Belt. The information provided to the PBGC in the reports "should be publicly available," he said. The administration and Congress are considering reforms to the system. A pension bill passed by Congress and signed into law by President Bush in April lets employer sponsors contribute about $80 billion less to their plans. The measure changed for two years the way companies calculate their contributions. The number of underfunded plan filings has shot up, from 166 in 1999 to 1,050 in 2003. Shortfalls rose from $18 billion in 1999 to the $278.6 billion posted last year. Last month, PBGC reported its own midyear deficit of $9.7 billion, caused by the increasing number of bankrupt pension plans it has taken over. The agency guarantees payment of a portion of pension benefits earned by about 44 million Americans in 31,000 private pension plans. The agency receives no public funding, and is financed by insurance premiums paid by companies that sponsor pension plans and by the PBGC's investment returns.

To: russwinter who wrote (15415)	6/17/2004 3:10:27 PM
From: westpacific	Respond to of 110194

From IHUB board. ---- 990N by John Mackenzie (vronsky) Jun 17, 12:06 Received this message from a member of my investment forum who is currently on the floor of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange : " Only have a minute but, write more later but... The entire S&P price action in the futures is being controlled by one counter party. All the guys hate them: their CME clearing number is 990N and they clear through Gelbel trading. That one account is solely responsible for the current level of the S&P. They are the ones that are throwing the S&P up overnight. Then they are the ones that are sitting on the bid all day long, supporting the market action. The S&P pits have been decimated, absolutely ruined. There is no volatility, so all the traders have left. Now the hot pit is the Eurodollar pit. Go figure, that used to be like watching paint dry. All the traders I have talked to view the market as being rigged. They keep waiting for the price action to break loose, but it never does. They are stunned by the lack of volatility. And furious. "Time after time after time 990 just sits there on the bid. Don't they ever go away. They just absorb the entire market and then push the price wherever they want it to go.’ Gee, I wonder who that counter party is. ’ They are all terrified of shorting, because every time they do, they get drilled. I thought it was just my systems that weren't working that well, but they are far more dispirited than I. " Intervention at it’s finest, your tax dollars at work, providing the ultimate tax to us all. We have watched 2000 contract market orders on the Bid at key down levels of - 50 and - 100 on those rare days when 990N decides the program trading will revert to a well defined pattern of "allowable" retracements. The Mini’s are being rigged in order to provide "support" for swollen price levels. They have to be for now, as without the daily rigging, "Price" would revert to it’s inherent "Value", a disturbing proposition to those benefiting from the financial economy’s adolescent denials. Counterparties provide an important function in any exchange, liquidity. Given the incessant "intervention" by 990N, there is very little liquidity beneath these markets to provide real support. Posted on behalf of John Mackenzie