and then there's this: "PBGC Chief Questioned on Investment Practices"

[SoCalDem]

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122486911340367147.html?mod=googlenews_wsj

The stupidity continues...Like the Titanic picking up passengers as it's sinking.......
........................................................................

* OCTOBER 24, 2008, 6:13 P.M. ET

PBGC Chief Questioned on Investment Practices
By DARRELL A. HUGHES

WASHINGTON -- The head of the U.S. Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation said that his agency is facing a shortfall because it has lost nearly $5 billion in stock investments at a time when more companies are inadequately funding their pension plans, forcing the PBGC to take them over.

"PBGC has faced many challenges, including economic contraction in certain industries that traditionally have provided defined-benefit pensions," PBGC Director Charles Millard testified before the House Education and Labor Committee Friday.

PBGC reported earlier this week a $3.12 billion loss in equity investment during the 11 months ended August 2008. Those losses increased by roughly $1.7 billion in September alone, bringing the fiscal year 2008 total stock investment loss to $4.79 billion, according to documents released by the agency.
In the News

"With the current market turmoil, we have to ask the question whether it is wise to invest our nation's pension backstop in volatile equities," << Gee d'ya think??>>> said House Education and Labor Chairman George Miller.

The agency's negative financial report comes as lawmakers are demanding more transparency from PBGC officials with regard to investment and management policies. The financial crisis has pension watchdogs and lawmakers on edge, which has magnified PBGC's role in insuring pensions of millions of workers.

snip

[aquart]

1. His qualifications for the job were........?

And can I ask if he went on junkets and who sponsored them?

[SoCalDem]

2. Maybe he was a Dog Show judge or sumpthin

:rofl:

[SoCalDem]

3. Eeek..he looks like John Edwards, a little bit

http://wordpress.com/tag/charles-millard/

Charles Millard gave the following as his credentials:

“I have had the chance to serve as a VISTA Volunteer in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, and as a Board member of the New York Urban League. In 1985, I worked in Chile for the Vicariate of Solidarity, a Santiago-based human rights organization. I have served as a New York City Councilman and was then appointed by Mayor Rudolph Giuliani to be the President of the New York City Economic Development Corporation (EDC) and Chairman of the New York City Industrial Development Agency. I also worked as a Legislative Assistant in the early 1980s for Congresswoman Millicent Fenwick of New Jersey.

“My work in New York as head of EDC is worth noting,” he explained, “because, like PBGC, EDC was created as a corporation to manage governmental programs that are principally business-like in nature, produce self-sustaining revenue, involve numerous negotiated transactions, and require greater budget and other flexibility than a traditional government agency.”

He continues to speak of his qualifications as a “Wall Street attorney representing large financial institutions” which, I suppose by default makes him qualified to handle the finances of one of the last economically stable retirement plans. Mr. Millard’s statement to the senators included his job as “Managing Director involved in investment banking, public finance and investment management with firms such as Lehman Brothers and Prudential Securities”.

His appointment was all but unnoticed until last February when he hatched a plan to retool the agency’s investments to get a better return. When the fiscal year ended for the agency in September, the results of that move was revealed.