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August 2022

June Slump Causes $262 Billion Drop in U.S. Public Pensions’ Assets

Large public pension funds had a difficult second quarter, as the 100 largest U.S. public pension plans lost a combined $262 billion in funding during June, according to actuarial and consulting firm Milliman. The deficit between the estimated assets and liabilities widened to $1.521 trillion at the end of the month from $1.259 trillion at the end of May, as the public funds’ asset value dropped to $4.318 trillion from $4.566 trillion. crisisRead also U.S. public pensions suffer worst year since...

Iranian Pensioners Continue Protests Amid Economic Woes

Pensioners and retired government employees have continued protests in more than a dozen Iranian cities for a second day as they seek a hike in pensions to offset rising prices amid the country's growing economic woes. Reports from eyewitnesses from 16 cities, including Mashhad, Shushtar, Ilam, Yazd, Qazvin, Karaj, Bandar Abbas, Kermanshah, Abadan, and Isfahan, showed protesters on June 7 demanding more money, saying their pensions aren't enough to live on. In the city of Ilam, retirees spread an empty tablecloth...

US. Average Public Pension Assumed Rate of Return Hits 40-Year Low

The average investment return rate assumption for U.S. public pension funds has fallen below 7.0%, to its lowest level in more than 40 years, according to the National Association of State Retirement Administrators. Among the 131 funds that NASRA measured, more than half have reduced their investment return assumption since fiscal year 2020 as rising interest rates and other factors have contributed to more volatile investment returns. For the 30‐year period that ended in 2020, public pension funds accrued approximately $8.5...

July 2022

In a Highly Indebted Economy: Security Issues for the Asset-based China’s Reform and the Financial System

By Tianyong Zhou Since the start of the 21st century, all major global economies have been experiencing a shift to a model of low consumption, low interest rate, low inflation, low growth and high debt. China is no exception. This article argues that in the high-indebtedness economic model, the proportion of committed and guaranteed debt service credit is decreasing, while the proportion of asset-backed credit corresponding to debt is on the rise; and with respect to currency stability, the role...

Wait Your Turn: Pension Incentives, Workplace Rules and Labor Supply Among Philadelphia Municipal Workers

By David McCarthy & Po Lin Wang Little academic work has examined the labor supply response to pension incentives at the intensive margin. We explore this issue using individual-level administrative and pension data for Philadelphia city employees, where workers have some choice about whether or not to perform overtime, which is pensionable. We document large variation across workers in the incentives to do overtime provided by pension rules. Although standard regressions show that worker overtime is positively associated with own...

Italy. Pensions at the center of the electoral campaign, here are the parties’ proposals

The issue of pensions, like every electoral round, has forcefully entered the center of the campaign for the vote on 25 September. Silvio Berlusconi immediately launched the minimum pensions of one thousand euros, a proposal already in the past relaunched by the Brothers of Italy (to be financed with a cut in citizenship income). The League has already re-proposed Quota 41 (the possibility of going out with 41 years of contributions regardless of age, ed). In the center-left there...

Iranian Pensioners Protest Again, Demand Full Hike In Pensions As Promised

Pensioners and retired government employees have again taken to the streets in several cities across Iran shouting anti-government slogans and demanding a full 38 percent increase in their pensions, which was promised by the Supreme Labor Council. The recent wave of protests by pensioners and retirees comes after the government announced on June 6 that it would increase the monthly incomes of non-minimum-wage retirees by 10 percent, far below a previous pledge to raise them by 38 percent plus 5.15...

The market meltdown threatening pensions for millions in the U.S.

American public pension funds are facing serious challenges that threaten the retirement plans for millions of US state and local government employees. Pension plans remained severely underfunded during the 11-year bull market that followed the Great Recession. The plunge toward insolvency and high-return markets led fund managers to take on risky bets in hope of staying afloat. Now, the recent selloff has left funds struggling to keep up with their future obligations. The 100 largest public pension funds in the United...

Greece to allow pension increases from 2023, first since debt crisis- PM

Greece's Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis promised pension increases for the first time in more than a decade next year, saying Greece had definitively turned a page from the financial chaos which required three international bailouts. During its decade-long financial crisis that broke out in 2009, Greece was forced by its international lenders to slash pensions more than 10 times to reduce state spending and meet its fiscal targets. "Everyone must benefit from growth without threatening the fiscal balance or the country's...

June 2022

Swedish parliament passes mini-budget after pensions compromise

Sweden's parliament passed the government's extra budget on Wednesday after weeks of disagreement over extra money for pensioners, paving the way for increased spending on the police, defence and additional aid to Ukraine. The minority Social Democrat government, which hopes to win a third successive term in power at a general election in September, was forced to vote against its own budget last week to avoid having to adopt the opposition's finance bill. It then reintroduced interim spending plans, including around...