Now governments need to put a lot of money into the pension funds or dilute the promises or, at least for new hires, move away from old-style pensions to the 401(k)-style plans common in the private sector, or all three.
All told, less than half of U.S. workers are now offered any pension plan at all--traditional or 401(k)-style.
European policy makers are considering a host of proposals to eliminate implicit government guarantees, including a new resolution regime, turning some liabilities into bail-in debt that will automatically take losses, depositor-preference regimes that would subordinate unsecured bondholders, and U.K.-style plans to ring-fence certain activities.
Essentially, they want to treat the past 17 years under the 401(k)-style system as though it never happened.
FORBES: Why Defined-Benefit Plans Are Safer Investments for State Governments and Workers
Studies show returns for 401(k)-style plans lagging 1 percentage point a year behind those of professionally managed traditional pension plans, the GAO said.
All teachers hired after 1991 were placed on a 401(k)-style plan.
FORBES: Why Defined-Benefit Plans Are Safer Investments for State Governments and Workers
The rule of law should guarantee that officials cannot act arbitrarily, as Argentina's government did recently when it seized the private 401(k)-style pensions of its citizens.
The proportion of private industry employees participating in 401(k)-style defined contribution plans rose from 36% in 1999 to 43% in 2008, according to Investment Company Institute data.
The advocate of public pension plan reform did, however, point to bad outcomes for public employees in selected states that substituted 401(k)-style retirement packages for traditional defined benefit plans.
Nearly every state in the U.S. has enacted some form of pension changes in the past four years, ranging from increasing contributions from workers to more-severe moves, such as Rhode Island's decisions to suspend cost of living raises until the pension plan is financially healthy and shifting workers into a system that combines a traditional pension with a 401(k)-style account.
Gangnam Style and K-Pop rarely fade from the entertainment media anymore, but over here on the news side, the Korean peninsula has to work a little harder to occupy the main stage.
At the eastern edge of the Gold Coast, about 25 miles from Great Neck, this 24-room Spanish-style estate was home to William K Vanderbilt II, great-grandson of the famed railroad industrialist Cornelius Vanderbilt.
With an old-style 401(k) you get to deduct the amount put in but owe income tax on all withdrawals.
State and local governments should be pushed to shift toward a federal-style 401(k) pension system (but without grandfathering politicians into lifetime pensions as Congress did for itself).
This fall Kellogg is rolling out more premium-style products like Special K Vanilla Almond.
The music video was produced by the same team behind "Gangnam Style, " and will feature K-pop girl group member Ga-In of Brown Eyed Girls.
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Just like Brits embraced the hamburger, they want a U.S.-style automatic disclosure by foreign banks and tax authorities on U.K. citizens.
In doing so, the court set back efforts to import U.S.-style mass litigation, despite the fond reception it would receive from some U.K. regulators.
He says Congress had always rejected a U.K. style Official Secrets Act, and that it was the role of the press to disclose wrong-doing by government officials.
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