April 2017

03Apr

UK. Losing pension drives BMW workers to strike

UK workers employed at the BMW plants have voted to strike in a fight over pensions, the Unite union has announced. These workers employed for making Rolls-Royce and Mini engines are planning to strike as their final salary pension scheme is being closed. The union said the proposed order would mean that some UK workers "lose up to 160,000 in retirement income". Timeline 27 Sep 2016 BMW says come 2017 old pension schemes to close BMW, the German car giant announced its plans...

April 3, 2017
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03Apr

AFP en Chile administran bien, pero con ceguera a las expectativas de la gente

El año pasado fue aquel en que la industria de AFP tocó fondo y comenzó a vivir en peligro. El impacto acerca de las bajas pensiones dejado por el informe de la Comisión Bravo, el escándalo de los “jubilazos” en Gendarmería y la arremetida del movimiento No + AFP con sus multitudinarias marchas, abrieron una caja de Pandora para la industria. A esa tormenta perfecta se sumó la polémica por las fusiones de Cuprum-Argentum y Provida-Acquisition, además de la inédita propuesta...

April 3, 2017
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03Apr

UK. Pension schemes are a ‘material risk’ to FTSE 250

A significant number of British businesses are sitting on pension schemes that could represent a "material risk" to their business, a retirement consultancy has warned. An analysis of FTSE 250 accounts has found that 23 businesses - including the AA, Thomas Cook and Balfour Beatty - would have to withhold payments to shareholders for over two years if they needed to clear their pension shortfalls, compared to just seven in the FTSE 100. The study by JLT Employment Benefits also found...

April 3, 2017
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03Apr

México. Concientización, reto del ahorro para el retiro: Rubio

Vanessa Rubio, subsecretaria de Hacienda, señaló que el Sistema de Ahorro para el Retiro tiene una contribución tripartita donde participa el trabajador, el empleador y el gobierno. Señaló que quienes cotizan al Instituto Nacional del Seguro Social (IMSS) su contribución es de 6.5 por ciento de salario base y para quienes cotizan al Instituto de Seguridad y Servicios Sociales de los Trabajadores del Estado (ISSSTE) es de 11.3 por ciento de salario base de cotización, la diferencia, explicó, radica en...

April 3, 2017
Noticias
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03Apr

The Future of Labour Is Not Pre-Determined

In the heart of the Agenda for Sustainable Development is the demand to end poverty worldwide. Decent work seems to be the best way to generate income for people worldwide under fair conditions. In 2017 according to calculations by the International Labour Organization (ILO), about 200 million people are unemployed, another 1.4 billion are underemployed. There is still a long way to go. Guy Ryder, the general director of ILO has found the time to discuss with DDD why...

April 3, 2017
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03Apr

Approximate Solutions to Retirement Spending Problems and the Optimality of Ruin

By Faisal Habib, Huang Huaxiong & Moshe A. Milevsky (York University) Milevsky and Huang (2011) investigated the optimal retirement spending policy for a utility-maximizing retiree facing a stochastic lifetime but assuming deterministic investment returns. They solved the problem using techniques from the calculus of variations and derived analytic expressions for the optimal spending rate and wealth depletion time under the Gompertz law of mortality. Of course, in the real world financial returns are stochastic as well as lifetimes, raising the...

April 3, 2017
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03Apr

Nudge for Good? Choice Defaults and Spillover Effects

By Claus Ghesla, Manuel Grieder & Jan Schmitz (ETH Zurich) Policy makers increasingly use choice defaults to promote 'good' causes by influencing socially relevant decisions in desirable ways, e.g., to increase retirement savings, charitable giving, or pro-environmental choices. Such default nudges are remarkably successful when judged by their effects on the targeted behaviors in isolation. However, there is scant knowledge about possible spillover effects of defaults on subsequent related choices. Theoretically, such behavioral spillover effects could amplify, eliminate or even...

April 3, 2017
Articles, Labor Market, Savings,
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03Apr

Financial History: Lessons of the Past for Reformers of the Present

By Gerard Caprio Jr. (Williams College) & Dimitri Vittas (World Bank) The environment in which financial institutions operate has changed greatly, but the history of financial development offers important lessons for today. Among the lessons financial history offers: Macroeconomic stability - low inflation and sound public finance - is important for creating the right incentives for banks and for facilitating the development of securities markets. High inflation and large fiscal deficits distort economic behavior in favor of short-term speculative projects and...

April 3, 2017
Articles, Investing, Regulation, Savings, , ,
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03Apr

UK. Pensions hole deepens at Sir Philip Green’s Arcadia

The pension deficit at Sir Philip Green’s Arcadia Group soared to £565m last year as BHS was dragged to its knees by its own shortfall, according to new documents released last night by MPs. The retail billionaire had said he would double his annual contribution into Arcadia’s pension fund to £50m. However, at that time it was believed the deficit was only £200m. Now new papers, dated after the company’s triennial valuation, show the full severity of the issue. They also...

April 3, 2017
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March 2017

31Mar

US. Congress could kill state retirement plans

New state-sponsored IRA plans would aim to help small business employees who don't already have access to a retirement savings plan at work -- like a 401(k). But new legislation could stop them before they even begin. The House of Representatives voted along party lines last month to roll back an Obama-era rule that paved the way for these plans. On Thursday, the Senate narrowly passed legislation that takes another step toward finalizing the repeal. Republicans say that under President Obama,...

March 31, 2017
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