No help: Benchmark proposal earns harsh criticism; Bush administration not addressing flaws of pension system, critics say.(News)

Pensions & Investments, July, 2003

Byline: Vineeta Anand WASHINGTON - Some academics, financial economists and actuaries are slamming the Bush administration's proposal to replace the 30-year Treasury with an index of high-grade corporate bonds as the benchmark for calculating pension liabilities. The problem, they say, is the proposal fails to tackle the underlying structural flaws in the U.S.

pension system. "It's like shuffling deck chairs on the Titanic,'' said Keith P. Ambachtsheer, a Toronto-based financial economist and president of an eponymous pension research and consulting firm. The benchmark provision is part of H.R. 1776, the huge Portman-Cardin pension bill. On July 18, the House Ways and Means Committee approved on voice vote a modified version of the Portman-Cardin...

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