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FROM
JEROME CORSI'S RED ALERT
401K losses devastate retirees State and local government pension programs face insolvency
Posted: April 13, 2009
11:17 am Eastern © 2009 WorldNetDaily
Editor's Note: The following report is excerpted from Jerome Corsi's Red Alert, the premium online newsletter published by the current No. 1 best-selling author, WND staff writer and columnist. Subscriptions are $99 a year or $9.95 per month for credit card users. Annual subscribers will receive a free autographed copy of "The Late Great USA," a book about the careful deceptions of a powerful elite who want to undermine our nation's sovereignty. In the continuing global recession, retirement in the United States is no longer secure, Jerome Corsi's Red Alert reports. Massive losses have been taken in 401K programs, while state and local government pension programs around the country are facing insolvency.
Last year, mutual fund losses were substantial, estimated at between a 20 to 50 percent plunge, depending upon the investment strategy of the fund. "Since the vast majority of 401Ks are invested in mutual funds, losses in the industry created huge losses in private retirement accounts throughout the United States," Corsi writes. "Suffering investors may need years of investment gains in a recovered economy just for their 401K plans to recover to pre-recession values." Given the dramatic downturn in the stock market since 2007, significant losses have been experienced in 2,600 government-run pension funds for state and municipal workers, including public school teachers, police officers and firefighters. The Financial Times reported that the largest state and municipal pension plans lost 9 percent of their initial start-of-year value of $2 trillion in the first two months of this year alone. That followed a loss of 30 percent last year, equal to approximately $900 billion. In 2008 and 2009, state and local government pension funds lost more than $1 trillion, approximately 40 percent of their initial 2008 value. The massive losses have left many state and local government retirement funds only about 50 percent funded. As a result, the vast majority of state and local government retirement funds have been reduced to half the money needed to cover the retirement commitments made to the approximately 22 million government workers covered by these plans. "The crisis has been compounded because typically state government retirement funds are 'underfunded' in that the contributions to the fund may be calculated at only somewhere between 60 to 70 percent of the ultimate retirement income obligations," Corsi writes. Many state and local investment funds are forced to liquidate investment assets, even at the deep losses the investments have taken, simply to meet retirement income payment obligations to current retirees. "To make matters even worse, state and local government pension funds typically have no federal guarantee," he notes. Private corporation pension funds are guaranteed by the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation, a federal government agency created in 1974 that currently protects the pensions of 44 million American workers and retirees in more than 29,000 private single-employer and multi-employer defined benefit pension plans. Red Alert's author, whose books "The Obama Nation" and "Unfit for Command" have topped the New York Times best-sellers list, said a massive failure in state and local government pension funds, as well as considerable defaults in corporate pension plans, would inevitably draw in the federal government to guarantee against losses, regardless of whether the failed plan is currently covered by the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation. "Still, pension fund losses will only add additional trillions of dollars to the federal government obligations in a federal budget that is already in trillions of dollars of deficits," Corsi wrote. "The reality is that just as the baby boomer generation is about to retire, private retirement and pension fund retirement savings are evaporating, reducing significantly the retirement security many, if not most, baby boomers had anticipated." Corsi received his Ph.D. from Harvard University in political science in 1972. For nearly 25 years, beginning in 1981, he worked with banks throughout the U.S. and around the world to develop financial services marketing companies to assist banks in establishing broker/dealers and insurance subsidiaries to provide financial planning products and services to their retail customers. In this career, Corsi developed three different third-party financial services marketing firms that reached gross sales levels of $1 billion in annuities and equal volume in mutual funds. In 1999, he began developing Internet-based financial marketing firms, also adapted to work in conjunction with banks. In his 25-year financial services career, Corsi has been a noted financial services speaker and writer, publishing three books and numerous articles in professional financial services journals and magazines. For more information on the future of 401Ks and for financial guidance during difficult times, read Jerome Corsi's Red Alert, the premium, online intelligence news source by the WND staff writer, columnist and author of the New York Times No. 1 best-seller, "The Obama Nation." For the complete report and full immediate access to Jerome Corsi's Red Alert, subscribe now. |
