Ronald Reagan managed to convince a surprising number of people who should have known better that the federal government is the enemy and government regulation is the problem rather than a solution. The Savings & Loan crisis (with the Keating Five scandal) should have put an end to that nonsense, but some were slow to figure out that regulations typically exist for a reason. The corporate looting of America under George Bush finally is putting an end to that canard, however. Americans get it. Regulations are there to protect them. And even before the corporate scandals of the last few years, one trend was clear: The more an industry earns a reputation for being untrustworthy, the more Democrats, Republicans, and Independents favor increased regulation of it.

Three stories today on the front pages of three national newspapers tell the tale. These are the kinds of practices that should not be occuring under a government that takes regulation seriously. You know, under a Democratic administration. From Ellen Nakashima at WaPo we learn that insurers are snooping around in people's medicine cabinets:

Health and life insurance companies have access to a powerful new tool for evaluating whether to cover individual consumers: a health "credit report" drawn from databases containing prescription drug records on more than 200 million Americans.

Collecting and analyzing personal health information in commercial databases is a fledgling industry, but one poised to take off as the nation enters the age of electronic medical records. While lawmakers debate how best to oversee the shift to computerized records, some insurers have already begun testing systems that tap into not only prescription drug information, but also data about patients held by clinical and pathological laboratories...

The trend holds promise for improved health care and cost savings, but privacy and consumer advocates fear it is taking place largely outside the scrutiny of federal health regulators and lawmakers.

Meanwhile Vikas Bajaj of the NYT explains that the mortgage crisis is about to get much worse as gimmicky loan terms at prime rates begin to bite:

The first wave of Americans to default on their home mortgages appears to be cresting, but a second, far larger one is quickly building.

Homeowners with good credit are falling behind on their payments in growing numbers, even as the problems with mortgages made to people with weak, or subprime, credit are showing their first, tentative signs of leveling off after two years of spiraling defaults.

Predatory lending of all sorts has been allowed to go unchecked for years under Republicans. By contrast, Barack Obama has made abusive lending practices a signature issue, including the re-regulation of credit cards and payday lenders (PDF).

And from the front page of that leftist rag the WSJ, we learn that increasingly pension plans are being siphoned for executive perks. It's all done in secrecy and by sleight of hand:

At a time when scores of companies are freezing pensions for their workers, some are quietly converting their pension plans into resources to finance their executives' retirement benefits and pay.

In recent years, companies from Intel Corp. to CenturyTel Inc. collectively have moved hundreds of millions of dollars of obligations for executive benefits into rank-and-file pension plans. This lets companies capture tax breaks intended for pensions of regular workers and use them to pay for executives' supplemental benefits and compensation.

The practice has drawn scant notice. A close examination by The Wall Street Journal shows how it works and reveals that the maneuver, besides being a dubious use of tax law, risks harming regular workers. It can drain assets from pension plans and make them more likely to fail. Now, with the current bear market in stocks weakening many pension plans, this practice could put more in jeopardy...

Generally, only the executives are aware this is being done. Benefits consultants have advised companies to keep quiet to avoid an employee backlash.

Ripping off pension plans to the point of crisis is one of the most vile legacies of Republican governance. Americans will be looking to Democrats to rein in corporate excesses.

When the Wall Street Journal reports that something is shady and needs to be scrutinized, you know something is seriously wrong!

http://online.wsj.com/...

At a time when scores of companies are freezing pensions for their workers, some are quietly converting their pension plans into resources to finance their executives' retirement benefits and pay.

In recent years, companies from Intel Corp. to CenturyTel Inc. collectively have moved hundreds of millions of dollars of obligations for executive benefits into rank-and-file pension plans. This lets companies capture tax breaks intended for pensions of regular workers and use them to pay for executives' supplemental benefits and compensation.

http://online.wsj.com/...

  Just when you thought the greed and outrageous behavior of corporate America could get no worse, the leaders of companies have sunk to a new low: they are using workers' pension money to fund CEO pensions. No this is not a joke.

It is not only former White House employees who are declining invitations to appear before Congress. Battles on similar fronts are occurring on the labor and employment fields. There are two primary battles. One involving a secret regulation issued by the Department of Labor

The second - and the one reported on here - concerns the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC). After a very negative report from the Government Accountability Office (GAO), Rep. Miller demanded that the PBGC turn over documents related to that GAO report. So far PBGC has not provided the documents. PBGC says that it will comply but first it has to get a report from its consultant.

crossposted from unbossed

Michael Philip Jagger was born in Dartford, Kent on 26th July 1943. When he was 4 he met Keith Richards until they went into secondary schools and lost touch. But one day in 1960 they accidentally met on the Dartford train line and both realised that they had an interest in rock n roll combined with blues. Between 1960-1962 The Rolling Stones formed. It comprised of Mick on lead vocal and harmonica, Keith Richards on guitar, Bill Wyman on bass, Charlie Watts on drums and Brian Jones on guitar.  Link

Join me below as the UK commemorates this grand event......

crossposted from unbossed

For years, I have warned that pensions are at high risk A few months ago, unbossed noted that the Pension Benefit Guarantee Corporation (PBGC) was engaged in a dangerous strategy for financing pension shutdowns. Now it is ready to take additional actions you need to be aware of. They will affect defined benefit pensions and most likely have an impact on other retirement benefits.

  It was probably pretty obvious but there is a damning report out yesterday that paints a stark picture: the collapse of the housing bubble has created a savings and retirement crisis for millions of Americans who face a bleak future.

I gave the following remarks this evening at a candlelight vigil for hospital workers who are negotiating a new contract.  They are in serious jeopardy of losing their defined-benefit pension.  I was invited to attend by organizers from SEIU.  I thank the organizers for the invitation, and I thank the hospital workers for their warm reception.  It was an honor to speak at their vigil.  They are fighting the right fight for important benefits.  I wish them the best of luck. Keep the faith.

Yes, I had a candlelight vigil sandwich on door-knocking bread for dinner tonight.  The Good Book advises that a person does not live on bread alone.   Similarly,  a campaign is not run on door knocking alone.  If anybody is so inclined, donations to the campaign would be greatly appreciated.  http://www.actblue.com/... Thank you all so much.  For my remarks, please read below the fold.

In the 'olden days' of our great great grandparents, you stopped working when you died - or were crippled horridly. Eventually and largely with the help of Unions, workers managed to obtain benefits like pensions - where employers paid out a defined benefit upon a worker's retirement.  It took years to qualify for what was often a nominal payment.  

Social Security was introduced under FDR as a way to provide the most basic of safety nets for the elderly.  Even then, few people had any real income after 'retirement' - most still scrounged to do what they could to 'get by'.

But things got much better.  My parents could retire without worry - Mom had gone back to work when I was a kid and even her shortened tenure with a Fortune 500 Company left her in great shape for retirement. But even she noticed that things were starting to change for workers younger than her.  We have taken 'retirement' for granted but failed to notice the insideous changes happening to the methods for funding our old age.

Gone are the days of real pensions and defined benefits. 401K's are the rule along with IRA's  The burden of retirement is back on YOU as an individual.

more.....

The pension problem is not a local concern rather it is national and international. The money taken out of your check is invested, it is not placed in some bank vault for your rainy day, it is given to someone to invest.  Consider that and read on.
   One thing we should keep in mind is that pension deficits are the real "bubble" and are headed for trouble here and abroad.  The Financial Times repored United Kingdom pension deficits in the billions of  dollars in 2009.   Only the Japanese are dealing effectively with the problem.   The World Bank reported a worldwide problem in May 2007and corporations worldwide are dumping or drastically limiting pensions and healthcare.  This means that the public taxpayer is increasingly affected as retired people are using public hospitals and local public resourses to fill the gap.  This is at a time when J.P. Morgan reported (Financial Times, June 27, 2005) that the problem is corporate savings.  Internationally corporations are hording money both from stockholders and other investors and from national tax liabilities.  The effect is clear, in both their elimination of pension liabilities and the pressure they have exerted on governments to reduce corporate taxes.
     

  I happened to see a cartoon recently in which one person says to another, "My 401(k) feels like a 201(k)". That is, indeed, one of the other, less-talked about facts that many people are facing in the more-visible credit-crisis gripping our economy. You would think that that reality would force a serious rethinking of the foolishness of the 401(k) system and the "opportunity society" mantra. But, you would be wrong--at least if you observed the debate in political and elite circles.

    I don't like "The Sky is Falling" diaries.  People tend to muddle through.  Put enough people together and you get an economy, and the economy tends to muddle through, too.
    But every now and then it is prudent to be fearful.  Not panic-stricken, but instilled with enough caution to focus on a serious problem, to check and double-check if one's house is truly in order.
    Now appears to be such a time.  In the last 24 hours, a state pension fund closed its doors to new withdrawals after a "run" on the fund by municipal participants.  I believe this is only a foretaste of what is to come over the next 12-48 months.
    There is an excellent chance that the dominant issue of the 2008 election campaigns will not be Iraq nor iran nor executive power nor immigation, It will be the economy, in the form of this "Panic."

    The story, and the ramifications, below.

crossposted from unbossed

I don't know whether the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC) is actually assuming responsibility for more hospitals or if it just seems that way. If the former, this may be a sign not only of problems with the way pensions are being funded but also a sign of the over all poor financial health of our health care system.

Maybe I'm just tired, but watching this here at my desk just now made me start to cry:

Emotional Question From Audience Member On Health Care

To see what people were saying on the subject, I blogsearched the guy's name (Steve Skvara) and found this from an outfit called the MRC:

LTV steelworker Steve Skvara provided the seminal moment in last night's debate:

Think Progress has the transcript:

QUESTION: After 34 years with LTV Steel I was forced to retire because of a disability. Two years later, LTV filed bankruptcy. I lost a third of my pension and my family lost their health care.

Every day of my life I sit at the kitchen table across from the woman who devoted 36 years of her life to my family and I can’t afford to pay for her health care. What’s wrong with America and what will you do to change it?

Mr. Skarva's one question sums up not only what's wrong with America, but what's wrong with the Republican party, what's wrong with the DLC and the incrementalists who want to nibble around the edges on reform, who think we can get universal health care by computerizing medical records and streamlining paperwork, who think surely Bush and the GOP will come to their senses on Iraq and will end the occupation.

None of these things will happen without a fight. It's our job to keep reminding the Dems of what they're fighting for.

Regardless of who is the Democratic nominee next year, the union worker who lost his pension and his health care when his company declared bankruptcy should be the Poster Boy for the Democratic party. He should be used to show what the Republicans meant when they call for a free market, and unbridled power of corporations. He should be the face of a party that panders to the wealthy, and does nothing for the little guy.

Update: His name is Steve Skvara and here is the link to the video:
http://www.crooksandliars.com/...
(Thanks to cronesense for link and name!)

More below:

    That's where we are right now according to the Alicia H. Munnell, Director of Boston College's Center for Retirement Research, which issued as study several days ago detailing the looming shortfalls facing baby boomers as they approach the end of their working careers.
    The report highlights how soaring healthcare costs and longer lifespans, together with the demise of the traditional pension, are pointing to ever more gloomy retirement prospects for not just the baby boom generation, but even more bleak futures for the generations after them.    This despite the fact that, contrary to popular wisdom, boomers and the generations after them are saving and investing not just as much as, but even more than generations before them to fund retirement, according to reports by the Federal Reserve and the Congressional Budget Office.
    Essentially, wealth was transferred to the flappers of the 1920s and the depression/World War 2 era generations, and those after them are left with the bill.
    I'll explain more below the fold.  

Private equity firms invest middle-class pension money in brain-dead schemes, steal taxpayer money, strip the companies they buy of workers, collect huge paychecks and pay little or no taxes.  The average secretary at one of those firms pays a higher tax rate (35%) than the partners at a private equity firm (15%).

Some in Congress want to rectify these glaring inequities and simultaneously get valuable, well-deserved revenue to fund social programs.  But others in Congress (including some who are quite vociferous in Senate Judiciary Committee hearings) flatly refuse to change the status quo.