'Retirement Heist' compiles evidence of plundered pensions

[babylonsister]

'Retirement Heist' compiles evidence of plundered pensions
By Steve Weinberg, Special for USA TODAY
Updated 15h 28m ago


Sometimes the real crime consists of activities considered "legal," despite the damage they cause. That adage has never been more apt than when applied to the termination of pension funds by U.S. employers large, midsize and small. Over and over, loyal, deserving employees with modest incomes have watched their planned retirement savings disappear because of corporate managers and pension industry consultants.

Journalist Ellen Schultz has been writing about such shameful behavior for a long time, mostly in The Wall Street Journal. Now she has pulled together the copious, irrefutable evidence between the covers of a book. It is shocking, and demoralizing. But will members of Congress and federal agency regulators stop what Schultz calls "retirement heists"? Probably not, unless voters make it clear the incumbents will lose their jobs unless something changes. Unfortunately, voters are rarely if ever that organized, no matter how much they have been cheated by corporate chieftains.

The book is crammed with heartbreaking anecdotes of retirees suffering (and in some cases probably dying) because of pension-related corporate greed. But the perpetrators have not been charged with any crimes. In most cases documented by Schultz, the perpetrators have escaped widespread blame — except in her investigative pieces and now in this book.

more...

http://www.usatoday.com/money/books/reviews/story/2011-10-14/retirement-heist-book/50795990/1

[hobbit709]

1. and the people doing this are the same ones that want to get their hands

on the SS trust fund.

[Blue_Tires]

7. +1

[a kennedy]

2. She was on the Daily Show last night.....

:applause: http://www.thedailyshow.com/ it's under Most Recent Episode.

[Ineeda]

3. She was on with Stewart last night.

I hope she makes the rounds to bring this appalling heist into the public's eye. The fact that the 'ordinary folks' pension funds were raided to benefit golden parachutes and the top echelon's pensions is outrageous. (Yet another outrage fostered by the 1%.) :mad:

[Turbineguy]

4. The way to steal in America

is to get the republicans to make it legal first.

[saras]

5. "incumbents will lose their jobs " - never happen.

They might move from government jobs to jobs in industry, then move right back in a few years, but until we start jailing as many bankers as we have jailed pot smokers, we're NOT going to get anywhere except Kent State redux.

[vets74]

6. We have Wall Street defrauding pension funds for $5-trillion.

That's simple Common Law Fraud during the 2003-2008 organized crime spree.

Bribery to generate the 1,500 bogus "AAA" issues.

Fraud. Directly punishable under New York State law. That's pension funds and private investors which goes to their own retirement funds.

Get a prosecution ????? LOL.

[nichomachus]

8. I had two small pensions when I retired

Nothing huge. I decided to take them both as lump-sum payouts -- anticipating this.