Corporate America’s New Golden Goose

[Donnachaidh]

http://www.truthdig.com/eartotheground/item/corporate_americas_new_golden_goose_20111002/



Last month, award-winning Wall Street Journal reporter Ellen E. Schultz published a book-length expose on how corporate employers, consultants and financial firms retooled retirement plans to increase profit and enrich executives at the expense of employees and retirees.

For example, thanks to rules put in place decades ago, by the end of the 1990s pension funds at many large companies swelled, enabling employers to fully pay their current and future retirees’ pensions well into the employees’ 90s without having to add another cent. But with an eye to profits—and a little statistical sleight of hand—companies used surplus assets to finance staff reductions, giving departing employees additional pension payouts rather than severance pay.

Then they cut benefits. This replenished the pension surplus and gave a boost to company earnings, turning “retiree benefits plans into cookie jars of potential earnings enhancements” and converting a “trillion dollars in pensions and retiree benefits into an immediate, dollar-for-dollar benefit for the company.”

Read an excerpt from Schultz’s new book below and hear her discuss her findings on NPR here. —ARK

More at the link --

[Kurovski]

1. Everyone will be OWS in a year or so.

One way or another. 99%

K&R

[truedelphi]

2. Thank you for posting. n/t

[femrap]

3. I better get on the waiting list

at the library. Awesome cover!

K and R

[Kurovski]

4. I sure hope that was a Republican egg.

No...that was uncalled for.

[femrap]

6. a wealthy republican egg! nt

[Kurovski]

9. A wealthy, Oil Lobbyist Republican egg.

No. This isn't polite.

[femrap]

11. A Koch egg!!!!!

That would be justice...who cares about polite.

[Kurovski]

12. A dozen!

An eighteen-pack!

A truckload, a warehouse!!

Screw it! Amy Vanderbilt didn't know what she was talking about.

[femrap]

13. You're right....

when dealing with these greedy and cruel Repugnants, there is just no need for manners.

I watch a guy like that NJ Christie and how he speaks to his constituents, and I'm just blown away. I would like to watch him explode though....but it would make such a mess. Oops, I'm being nasty!

And people wonder why there are BULLIES in schools today...gee, look at Christie, and how could we ever forget W who never apologized and bullied the nation into wars.

I gotta say it has been a long time since I've felt heartened...this OcuPie WS makes me so happy! We, The People (at least some of them) are awakening to the Corporate Takeover of the US.

[Kurovski]

14. Over a decade of citizens talking to each other on line & social media finally paid off.

As it has been said elsewhere...like the depression, only this time we could see the who, what, where and why of this one.

"Blowed-up real good!" :)

[moondust]

5. K/R

[sarcasmo]

7. Looting the 401k is next.

[RegieRocker]

10. That began in 2008

[PETRUS]

8. K&R