Author: Mary Pat Campbell

UNITE HERE Launches Website for Beneficiaries of Pension Plans Taken Over by Athene

Mary Pat Campbell

Link: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210503005554/en/UNITE-HERE-Launches-Website-for-Beneficiaries-of-Pension-Plans-Taken-Over-by-Athene

Excerpt:

As Athene takes control of pension plan assets, it seeks to profit by earning more from investment returns than it is required to pay out to recipients. Athene uses Bermuda-based reinsurance subsidiaries to reinsure most deposits. Apollo manages most of Athene’s assets in exchange for fees. Apollo invests some of Athene’s assets in loans and structured debt products originated or securitized by Apollo affiliates.

Apollo Global Management created Athene in 2009 and has managed its assets since its inception. On March 8, Apollo announced its plan to acquire and merge with Athene.

UNITE HERE’s new website will provide information and resources to the beneficiaries of plans taken over by Athene. It includes facts about the recent JCPenney transaction, links to reporting on Athene’s investment practices, and contact information for relevant regulatory agencies. Beneficiaries can use the site to sign up for updates.

Publication Date: 3 May 2021

Publication Site: Businesswire

Covid ‘Doesn’t Discriminate by Age’: Serious Cases on the Rise in Younger Adults

Mary Pat Campbell
Covid ‘Doesn’t Discriminate by Age’: Serious Cases on the Rise in Younger Adults

Excerpt:

About 32% of the U.S. population is now fully vaccinated, but the vast majority are people older than 65 — a group that was prioritized in the initial phase of the vaccine rollout.

Although new infections are gradually declining nationwide, some regions have contended with a resurgence of the coronavirus in recent months — what some have called a “fourth wave” — propelled by the B.1.1.7 variant, first identified in the United Kingdom, which is estimated to be somewhere between 40% and 70% more contagious.

As many states ditch pandemic precautions, this more virulent strain still has ample room to spread among the younger population, which remains broadly susceptible to the disease.

Author(s): Will Stone

Publication Date: 4 May 2021

Publication Site: Kaiser Health News

Here’s the average net worth of Americans ages 65 to 74

Mary Pat Campbell

Link: https://www.cnbc.com/select/average-net-worth-of-americans-ages-65-to-74/

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Excerpt:

According to the Fed data, the median net worth for Americans in their late 60s and early 70s is $266,400. The average (or mean) net worth for this age bracket is $1,217,700, but since averages tend to skew higher due to high net worth households, the median is a much more representational amount.

While $266,400 may seem like a lot of money at first, people in their 60s usually start tapping into their net worth to cover living expenses in retirement. When planning for your non-working years, it’s important to understand how net worth works and how it relates to living on a fixed income.

Here’s a look at the average and median net worth by age in the U.S., according to the Fed. As you can see, net worth tends to peak for most American during the decade after age 65.

Author(s): Megan DeMatteo

Publication Date: 4 May 2021

Publication Site: CNBC

Private Equity Returns Stumbled in 2020, Hurting Public Pension Plans

Mary Pat Campbell
Private Equity Returns Stumbled in 2020, Hurting Public Pension Plans

Excerpt:

Private equity investments underperformed broad US stock indexes for the fiscal year that ended June 30, 2020.  Importantly for taxpayers and governments, this underperformance of private equity weighed down public pension system asset returns during a particularly difficult year for investments.

These investment results may mark the beginning of the end of superior private equity returns that have characterized early 21st century institutional investing. If private equity returns have now fallen “back to earth,” many public pension systems can expect heightened scrutiny over their allocations to this asset class and the high investment costs that go with it.

Author(s): Marc Joffe

Publication Date: 27 April 2021

Publication Site: Reason

N.J. teachers need to be told the truth: Their pensions are in jeopardy | Opinion

Mary Pat Campbell

Link: https://www.nj.com/opinion/2021/05/nj-teachers-need-to-be-told-the-truth-their-pensions-are-in-jeopardy-opinion.html

Excerpt:

The very notable exception is New Jersey’s Teachers’ Pension and Annuity Fund (TPAF), which is by far the single-worst public pension in the Brookings study. TPAF is New Jersey’s largest public pension fund and covers all active and retired teachers. New Jersey’s Public Employees Retirement System (PERS), the pension plan for state and municipal workers, is second-worst but not nearly in the dire predicament of TPAF.

This is what Brookings had to say about TPAF: Under any of their investment return scenarios, TPAF is in “near-term trouble” — meaning near-term insolvency. Brookings projects that TPAF will run out of assets in 12-to-15 years, at which point the $4.5 billion-plus in benefits payments will have to be made from the New Jersey’s perpetually strained state budget. This would be a fiscal disaster for New Jersey and a retirement crisis for TPAF’s 262,000 beneficiaries.

Author(s): Mike Lilley

Publication Date: 5 May 2021

Publication Site: NJ.com

Pending bill opens door to pension corruption at CalPERS

Mary Pat Campbell

Link: https://calmatters.org/commentary/2021/05/california-pension-calpers-corruption-legislation/

Excerpt:

Assembly Bill 386 sailed through the Assembly Judiciary Committee last week on a unanimous vote with virtually no discussion about its provisions.

….

Potentially it opens the door to insider dealing and corruption in an agency that’s already experienced too many scandals, including a huge one that sent CalPERS’ top administrator to prison for accepting bribes.

CalPERS, which is sponsoring the bill with support from some unions and local governments, claims that the exemption is no big deal since the money it lends through “alternative investment vehicles” such as venture capital funds and hedge funds is already partially exempted from disclosure.

However, there is a big difference. Using outside entities to invest means they have skin in the game. Direct lending by CalPERS means that its board members, administrators and other insiders would be making lending decisions on their own without outside scrutiny.

Author(s): Dan Walters

Publication Date: 3 May 2021

Publication Site: CalMatters

Up For Grabs: The Best & Worst States For Business 2021

Mary Pat Campbell
Up For Grabs: The Best & Worst States For Business 2021

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Excerpt:

For the 17th year in a row, Texas tops Chief Executive’s Best and Worst States for Business list. Number two? Florida, once again. When it comes to the three criteria CEOs tell us they value most in site selection—tax policy (37 percent rank it first), regulatory climate (35 percent) and talent availability (25 percent)—Texas and Florida outclass all comers. (Find out why, despite the February storm and power collapse, businesses are still flocking to the Lone Star State.)

And once again—yawn—California, New York, Illinois and Massachusetts pile up at the bottom of our rankings (based entirely on polling of the nation’s CEOs) where they have dwelt for most of the list’s existence.

But while the names at the top and the bottom remain unchanged, what has changed— dramatically—are the stakes. Governors take note: Our survey—of 383 CEOs in March 2021— finds the nation’s business leaders an increasingly restless bunch thanks to Covid. They’re open to all kinds of new ideas about how—and, more to the point—where to do business.

Publication Date: 28 April 2021

Publication Site: Chief Executive

Covid-19 Vaccinations Are Slowing, So Officials Target Markets, Schools

Mary Pat Campbell

Link: https://www.wsj.com/articles/covid-19-vaccinations-are-slowing-so-officials-target-markets-schools-11620044791

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Excerpt:

As demand wanes, states, municipalities and healthcare providers are trying everything from one-on-one education in nontraditional locations to incentives including a free drink and cash.

West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice said recently the state would offer a $100 savings bond to residents aged 16 to 35 who receive a vaccination. The state had been an early leader in vaccinations.

In Detroit, $50 prepaid debit cards are being offered to drivers who take a city resident for a shot. In Connecticut, Gov. Ned Lamont rolled out a campaign where some restaurants will give a free drink to anyone who shows a vaccination card.

Author(s): Melanie Grayce West, Talal Ansari

Publication Date: 3 May 2021

Publication Site: Wall Street Journal

‘The Premonition’ Review: A Pandemic of Experts

Mary Pat Campbell

Link: https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-premonition-review-a-pandemic-of-experts-11620078624

Excerpt:

The article, in any case, doesn’t claim that 180,000 people could have been saved by more robust public-health interventions in early 2020 but that those deaths are mostly the result of Americans’ poor health. That the U.S. death rate, even so, is lower than that of the U.K. and Italy and nearly equal to that of France — all G7 nations — rather complicates Mr. Lewis’s breezy thesis.

It is amazing to me that intelligent people in 2021 can survey the past year and conclude that some alternative set of non-pharmaceutical interventions would have made an appreciable difference in the spread of this magnificently resilient virus. But many such people do believe that, including the author of this book and its ostensible heroes. One of those heroes, an accomplished hospital administrator named Carter Mecher, drew up a national pandemic response plan for the George W. Bush administration. The key to stopping dangerous pathogens, he came to believe as he studied pandemic modeling, was closing schools.

….

Here is a point that Mr. Lewis’s heroes show no awareness of grasping: that the United States is a big unruly country in which people are accustomed to going where they please and don’t care for government authorities telling them what to do based on poorly understood “data.” One of the Wolverines, a public-health official in Santa Barbara County named Charity Dean, appears to believe that any sign of a dangerous contagion permits health authorities to assume dictatorial powers. She tells Mr. Lewis that in early 2020 California should have closed its borders “until it figured out exactly how much virus was circulating, and where” and that the U.S. should follow Thailand’s example and require “anyone entering the country to wear a GPS wristband” and so enable the authorities to know who’s disobeying quarantine rules.

Author(s): Barton Swaim

Publication Date: 3 May 2021

Publication Site: Wall Street Journal

Book Link: https://amzn.to/3xLQZzS

Bidenomics Takes Root in Europe’s Economically Fragile South

Mary Pat Campbell

Link: https://www.wsj.com/articles/bidenomics-takes-root-in-europes-economically-fragile-south-11620039617

Excerpt:

Since the 1990s, Italian leaders have tried to overhaul the sclerotic economy while also running tight budgets. Mr. Draghi is the first in decades who can deploy massive fiscal firepower to help.

Italy’s economy has rarely grown by more than 1% annually over the past quarter-century. The economy has never fully recovered from the global financial crisis and subsequent eurozone crisis, and slumped by another 9% in 2020 amid the pandemic and strict lockdowns.

Germany, France and other EU countries backed the recovery fund mainly for fear that Italy and Southern Europe could get stuck in another deep economic slump that once again tests the cohesion and survival of the eurozone.

….

Most of Greece’s debt is in bailout loans from the rest of the eurozone, with no repayments due for many years, making another Greek debt crisis unlikely for a long time.

Author(s): Giovanni Legorano

Publication Date: 3 May 2021

Publication Site: Wall Street Journal

Social Security Sees Slowdown in Retiree Rolls Amid Covid Deaths

Mary Pat Campbell

Link: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-05-03/social-security-sees-slowdown-in-retiree-rolls-amid-covid-deaths

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Excerpt:

The rate of growth in retired Americans who collect Social Security has slowed down sharply, and the drop may be due in part to the disproportionate number of deaths from Covid-19 among the elderly.

The number of people who received retirement benefits from the Social Security Administration rose 900,000 to 46.4 million in March, the smallest year-over-year gain since April 2009.

While the Office of the Chief Actuary at the government agency said it is still too early to assess the impact from Covid-19, the year-over-year change appears to reflect excess deaths. About 447,000 people who died from the virus were 65 or older, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, or about 80% of total deaths.

Author(s): Alexandre Tanzi

Publication Date: 3 May 2021

Publication Site: Bloomberg

U.S. Household Income Surged by Record 21.1% in March

Mary Pat Campbell

Link: https://www.wsj.com/articles/consumer-spending-personal-income-march-2021-11619732790

Excerpt:

Household income rose at a record pace of 21.1% in March as federal stimulus checks helped fuel an economic revival.

The March surge in income was the largest monthly increase for government records tracing back to 1959, largely reflecting $1,400 stimulus checks included in President Biden’s fiscal relief package signed into law in March. The stimulus payments accounted for $3.948 trillion of the overall seasonally adjusted $4.213 trillion rise in March personal income.

Spending was also up sharply, increasing 4.2%, the Commerce Department said, the steepest month-over-month increase since last summer.

Consumers shelled out more on goods, particularly big-ticket items such as autos and furniture, compared with services in March. Economists expect that to change in the coming months due to widespread vaccinations and broader reopening of the economy.

Author(s): Sarah Chaney Cambon

Publication Date: 30 April 2021

Publication Site: Wall Street Journal