State-funded pension obligations in 19 of the European Union nations were about five times higher than their combined gross debt, according to a study commissioned by the European Central Bank. The countries in the report compiled by the Research Center for Generational Contracts at Freiburg University in 2009 had almost 30 trillion euros ($39.3 trillion) of projected obligations to their existing populations
….
A recession threatening the world’s second-biggest economic bloc, along with efforts to reduce debt across Europe, is exacerbating the financial risks. Stable or falling birthrates, plus rising life expectancies, are adding to pressures, with the proportion of economic output devoted to spending on retirement benefits projected to rise by a quarter to 14 percent by 2060, according to the ECB report.
Europe has the highest proportion of people aged over 60 of any region in the world, and that is forecast to rise to almost 35 percent by 2050 from 22 percent in 2009, according to a report from the United Nations. That compares with a global estimate of 22 percent by 2050, up from 11 percent in 2009..
…
would be interesting to talk about, but almost impossible to talk about intelligently.
those reports are almost always distortions of the truth designed to create the maximum of hysteria with the idea of cutting retirement benefits “because we can’t afford them.”
Except “we” are the people who will need the benefits and so far at least we can easily afford them. The basic principle is that if we are going to be living longer, we need to budget a little more of our wages to pay for our retirement.
We can’t count on the stock market, and we can’t count on being able to work longer even if we are going to live longer. If in fact we end up able and willing to work longer, or we get the kind of stock market that grows the economy so workers can both make more and pay more for other people’s retirement (that’s where the money for dividends and interest and capital gains comes from)… that’s great and let the good times roll.
Meanwhile the best and sanest and cheapest and safest way to pay for at least a basic retirement is government run, but not government paid, pay as you go with wage indexing.
It is often forgotten that the poor “young” who are paying for the now retired will soon enough become the poor old, who will get their money back… just as if they had put it in the bank, or into stocks, only a whole lot safer.
Yes, an attack on ‘European SS’, I simply had not seen one quite so blatant [or had thought of it as an aspect of intensified neo-liberal restructuring – which is not going all so smoothly in a region long aware of class].
You and I have discussed your above before; I assumed you recalled our agreement….now you do.
This from Michael Yates is an important, related, read —
”The public sector is still, despite the effort of capital to dismantle it, the one sanctuary people have against the depredations of the 1 percent. Through struggle, working men and women have succeeded in winning a modicum of health care and retirement security, as well as some guarantee that their children will be educated, all irrespective of the ability to pay for these essential services. They have also found decent employment opportunities in government, especially women and minorities. The public sector, then, is a partial barrier to the expansion of capital in that it both denies large sums of money to capitalists (social security funds, for example) and protects the workers in it from the vagaries of the labor market. It is thus not surprising that capital has gone on the offensive against government provision of whatever is beneficial to the working class. In this, it has been remarkably successful. Financiers have used their think tanks, foundations, and political donations to pressure governments at all levels to slash and to privatize public services. They have found willing handmaidens in government, from mayors and governors to President Obama.”
So yes, holding the line is important but We are going to have to go beyond, far beyond, that. Ii is a question of class [segments] and means, very certainly not one to do with resent Democratic or Republican parties.
Round and around the revolving door does spin. Those who take the ride are guaranteed to win, in the game of securities enforcement law. In yet another move between publicand private practice John Khuzami moves from the SEC to “….a job that pays more than $5 million a year at Kirkland & Ellis, one of the nation’s biggest corporate law firms. In doing so, he is following the quintessential Washington script: an influential government insider becoming a paid advocate for industries he once policed.” NY Timjes, July 23, 2013. http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2013/07/22/a-legal-bane-of-wall-street-switches-sides/?hpw
“We started out knowing that everybody and anybody wanted him,” said Mark Filip, who leads Kirkland’s government and regulatory defense group.”
Mr. Khuzami’s skills were so sought after that “…Visa and Bridgewater, the giant hedge fund, were among the companies that approached Mr. Khuzami for in-house counsel jobs. The fervor grew so great that Fox Business declared it the “biggest bidding war on Wall Street.”
So what were his accomplishments while in government service? All the NY Times article could point to was a conviction of a “terrorist” and “The job paved the way for him to join the United States attorney’s office in Manhattan, where he ran a securities task force.”
“Mr. Khuzami drew praise for creating units to track complex corners of Wall Street and applying prosecutorial tactics to civil cases. Under Mr. Khuzami, the enforcement division logged a record number of actions, including a case against Goldman Sachs.”
There is nothing in the article describing any enforcement of securities laws and nothing regarding any record of convictions. Lots of info about all the good he has done, and likely will do, for the banking and securities firms he’ll represent.
A year and half old but should be worth a few comments —
Europe’s $39 Trillion Pension Risk Grows as Economy Falters
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-01-11/europe-s-39-trillion-pension-threat-grows-as-regional-economies-sputter.html
State-funded pension obligations in 19 of the European Union nations were about five times higher than their combined gross debt, according to a study commissioned by the European Central Bank. The countries in the report compiled by the Research Center for Generational Contracts at Freiburg University in 2009 had almost 30 trillion euros ($39.3 trillion) of projected obligations to their existing populations
….
A recession threatening the world’s second-biggest economic bloc, along with efforts to reduce debt across Europe, is exacerbating the financial risks. Stable or falling birthrates, plus rising life expectancies, are adding to pressures, with the proportion of economic output devoted to spending on retirement benefits projected to rise by a quarter to 14 percent by 2060, according to the ECB report.
Europe has the highest proportion of people aged over 60 of any region in the world, and that is forecast to rise to almost 35 percent by 2050 from 22 percent in 2009, according to a report from the United Nations. That compares with a global estimate of 22 percent by 2050, up from 11 percent in 2009..
…
Juan
would be interesting to talk about, but almost impossible to talk about intelligently.
those reports are almost always distortions of the truth designed to create the maximum of hysteria with the idea of cutting retirement benefits “because we can’t afford them.”
Except “we” are the people who will need the benefits and so far at least we can easily afford them. The basic principle is that if we are going to be living longer, we need to budget a little more of our wages to pay for our retirement.
We can’t count on the stock market, and we can’t count on being able to work longer even if we are going to live longer. If in fact we end up able and willing to work longer, or we get the kind of stock market that grows the economy so workers can both make more and pay more for other people’s retirement (that’s where the money for dividends and interest and capital gains comes from)… that’s great and let the good times roll.
Meanwhile the best and sanest and cheapest and safest way to pay for at least a basic retirement is government run, but not government paid, pay as you go with wage indexing.
It is often forgotten that the poor “young” who are paying for the now retired will soon enough become the poor old, who will get their money back… just as if they had put it in the bank, or into stocks, only a whole lot safer.
Coberly,
Yes, an attack on ‘European SS’, I simply had not seen one quite so blatant [or had thought of it as an aspect of intensified neo-liberal restructuring – which is not going all so smoothly in a region long aware of class].
You and I have discussed your above before; I assumed you recalled our agreement….now you do.
This from Michael Yates is an important, related, read —
”The public sector is still, despite the effort of capital to dismantle it, the one sanctuary people have against the depredations of the 1 percent. Through struggle, working men and women have succeeded in winning a modicum of health care and retirement security, as well as some guarantee that their children will be educated, all irrespective of the ability to pay for these essential services. They have also found decent employment opportunities in government, especially women and minorities. The public sector, then, is a partial barrier to the expansion of capital in that it both denies large sums of money to capitalists (social security funds, for example) and protects the workers in it from the vagaries of the labor market. It is thus not surprising that capital has gone on the offensive against government provision of whatever is beneficial to the working class. In this, it has been remarkably successful. Financiers have used their think tanks, foundations, and political donations to pressure governments at all levels to slash and to privatize public services. They have found willing handmaidens in government, from mayors and governors to President Obama.”
So yes, holding the line is important but We are going to have to go beyond, far beyond, that. Ii is a question of class [segments] and means, very certainly not one to do with resent Democratic or Republican parties.
Round and around the revolving door does spin. Those who take the ride are guaranteed to win, in the game of securities enforcement law. In yet another move between publicand private practice John Khuzami moves from the SEC to “….a job that pays more than $5 million a year at Kirkland & Ellis, one of the nation’s biggest corporate law firms. In doing so, he is following the quintessential Washington script: an influential government insider becoming a paid advocate for industries he once policed.” NY Timjes, July 23, 2013. http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2013/07/22/a-legal-bane-of-wall-street-switches-sides/?hpw
“We started out knowing that everybody and anybody wanted him,” said Mark Filip, who leads Kirkland’s government and regulatory defense group.”
Mr. Khuzami’s skills were so sought after that “…Visa and Bridgewater, the giant hedge fund, were among the companies that approached Mr. Khuzami for in-house counsel jobs. The fervor grew so great that Fox Business declared it the “biggest bidding war on Wall Street.”
So what were his accomplishments while in government service? All the NY Times article could point to was a conviction of a “terrorist” and “The job paved the way for him to join the United States attorney’s office in Manhattan, where he ran a securities task force.”
“Mr. Khuzami drew praise for creating units to track complex corners of Wall Street and applying prosecutorial tactics to civil cases. Under Mr. Khuzami, the enforcement division logged a record number of actions, including a case against Goldman Sachs.”
There is nothing in the article describing any enforcement of securities laws and nothing regarding any record of convictions. Lots of info about all the good he has done, and likely will do, for the banking and securities firms he’ll represent.