pensions

Why aren’t more municipal bonds being downgraded by the ratings agencies Fitch, Moody’s and S&P?  If you look at sovereign debt in revenue-constrained countries like Greece, Portugal or Ireland, the ratings agencies are issuing…

I will be on Canada’s BNN TV at noonish talking about finance: Banks and Buffett. It will be a casual discussion with the moderators Howard Green and Andrea Mandel-Campbell and one other guest, Brian Milner of the Globe & Mail. Below…

In my recent post on greed, I wrote about how for the last generation corporations have been trying to get out of as many of their expensive obligations to workers as they can reasonably get away with.  The list of obligations includes…

Reuters is reporting that the ratings agencies are about to get into some serious legal problems.  You see,during the bubble years, the ratings agencies gave a gold-standard AAA rating to what now seems to be dubious investment…

Dr. Doom: Where we're going we don't need roads - Dealbreaker Marc Faber's July Newsletter. On Robert S. McNamara - James Fallows Very good obit on McNamara. Regulation And Oversight Of Gun Sales Reduces…

Yesterday, I argued that the United States faced a policy dilemma in avoiding debt deflationary forces while maintaining fiscal prudence. The reality is that President Obama faces political constraints in Washington right now regarding…

FT.com - Spanish banks lead the way in risk management Spain's banks are beig praised for risk management, much as Canadian banks are. The Cajas are a different story. "Managers believe that this intense board-level focus on risk is one…

It looks like Chrysler is going down for the count. A few piggish bondholders decided to play chicken with the Federal Government. They are going to lose this game and, consequently, lots of money too. Chrysler and the Obama…

Press reports coming out of Germany are suggesting that the Germans are looking to hook up Opel with Fiat in order to prevent a lot of job losses when General Motors goes under.  In my view, this means curtains for both Chrysler and GM and…

We are in a secular bear market. What this means for many pensioners or for many about to become pensioners is great uncertainty about the quality of their retirement. I expect this uncertainty to translate into anger regarding the move…