September 2019

Reforming Social Security: The Challenge of Income Inequality

By David W. Rasmussen Objective: This article examines the role Social Security plays in alleviating poverty among retirees in the context of threats to its solvency. Method: Examining long-term employment trends, declining access to defined benefit pensions and saving behavior can determine if in the more future Social Security beneficiaries are likely to be poor. Results: Labor market trends driven by technical change, global competition and increasing demand for services indicate that more future retirees will have lower life-time...

Will More Workers Have Nontraditional Jobs as Globalization and Automation Spread?

Matthew S. Rutledge,Gal Wettstein, Sara Ellen King Recent research has called attention to alternative employment arrangements that often leave workers without retirement and health benefits and with income instability. At the same time, workers are facing increasing competition from automation and globalization. This competition is of special concern for older workers, who increasingly need longer careers to secure an adequate retirement and jobs with benefits to enable saving and access to affordable health care. The question is: are these...

Francia. Jornada de caos circulatorio en París por una huelga masiva de transporte

París vive este viernes una jornada de caos circulatorio con cientos de miles de personas afectadas que han tenido que modificar sus modos de desplazamiento por un paro masivo del transporte urbano contra la reforma de las pensiones. Desde primera hora de la mañana, las consecuencias del paro de la RATP, la entidad del transporte metropolitano, eran evidentes en las calles, atestadas de coches y de viandantes, y en las autopistas de acceso, donde antes de las 8.00 hora...

Reforma de pensiones en Perú: En enero se tendría propuesta del Ejecutivo

Así lo informó la ministra de trabajo, Sylvia Cáceres, que también descartó que el Gobierno esté planteando medidas para recortar derechos de los trabajadores. El Gobierno tendría listo en enero una propuesta para la reforma de pensiones en el país, aseguró la ministra de Trabajo, Sylvia Cáceres. Como se recuerda, el Congreso conformó una comisión especial para analizar y construir propuestas para mejorar el sistema pensionario del país, tanto de la ONP como de las AFP. Ahí también se...

France. Paris traffic gridlock as metro workers strike over pension reform

Paris metro workers walked off the job Friday over plans for a major overhaul of the pension system, sparking huge traffic jams as commuters scrambled to find other ways of getting to work. Ten of the city's 16 metro lines were shut down completely, while service on most others was "extremely disrupted," the city's RATP transit operator said. Massive crowds waited on the platforms of the two automated driverless lines still operating and officials counted nearly 300 kilometres (185...

How Making Smart Financial Decisions Can Have a Positive Impact on Climate Change

There’s a lot of responsibility that comes with managing a fund with $1.5 trillion in assets—a responsibility that Japan’s Government Pension Investment Fund (GPIF), the largest pension fund in the world, faces every day. We have more than 5,000 stocks and 3,400 bond issuers in our portfolio, and the fund is designed to operate with a 100-year, multi­generational time frame. Unlike investors with a shorter time horizon, we consider climate change to be a systemic risk affecting the entire...

Kenya. Treasury to introduce risk policy for financial markets

•The micro-prudential banking policy is expected to mitigate risks likely to emerge during downturns in key sectors including banks, pension schemes, insurance and capital markets to safeguard capital and liquidity adequacy. •According to National Treasury CS Ukur Yatani, the banks should assess the market to ensure that competition viewed as a sign of market dynamism, does not pose as a potential source of new risks that will have adverse consequences in the future. The National Treasury is formulating...

Canada. Pension plans should not invest in companies that harm working people

Of all the gains unions have made for workers, the ability to retire with dignity and a pension is perhaps the most valued. Last year employers and employees in Canada contributed over $70 billion to registered pension plans. It is big money. Still, just over a third of workers are covered by RPPs as most rely on the more modest Canada Pension Plan and Old Age Security. The inequality among retirees created by different pension benefits is obvious. There...

Chile. Oro y monedas extranjeras son parte de los nuevos activos en que las AFP podrán invertir

El superintendente de Pensiones, Osvaldo Macías, eligió Londres para dar a conocer los próximos pasos que dará el órgano en materia de régimen de inversión que tienen las AFP. La autoridad explicó que serán nueve normativas que se concretarán durante el próximo año. La primera es autorizar la inversión en vehículos con exposición a oro. Esto, pues actualmente está prohibida cualquier inversión en commodities. La idea de la Superintendencia de Pensiones (SP)es aprobar la exposición hacia el metal dorado...

México. Afores no financiarán proyectos como Dos Bocas o Santa Lucía: Consar

El gobierno de Andrés Manuel López Obrador y la Comisión Nacional del Sistema de Ahorro para el Retiro (Consar) no obligarán a las administradoras de fondos para el retiro (Afores) a invertir en proyectos de infraestructura como Dos Bocas, el Tren Maya o Santa Lucía, toda vez que el tope de inversión del ahorro de los trabajadores no es suficiente para financiarlos, garantizó Abraham Vela Dib. El presidente de la Consar explicó a senadores que existen límites, por instrumento,...