text:
Dan Maas of Coto de Caza wants to sell his second home in Capistrano Beach and put the money toward a weekend getaway near Snow Summit. He's hoping a wave of rising home prices will help him make the switch.
Maas bought his oceanfront beach house in June for $2.45 million. In January, he listed it for sale at just under $2.7 million.
"We miss our seasons, and we want to spend more time up in the mountains," said Maas, owner of a road construction company and an avid snow skier, as he stood on his deck overlooking the Pacific Ocean on a recent cloudy day. "And along with that, all I'm hearing from people is how the market has significantly picked up. We've been seeing the uptick."
Maas is among many people ready to make a move – and a profit.
Orange County homesellers, who in recent years have consistently cut their asking prices, are now raising them. Some homes are hitting the market at higher sums than recent sales. Other sellers are hoisting their list prices incrementally, even as the homes sit on the market awaiting buyers.
The shortage of listings is a big reason for the boost in asking prices. More buyers are competing for fewer properties and driving up sales prices. As those homes sell for more money, they create new comparables. Real estate agents then set higher prices for homes on the market.
In addition, some properties that sold as short sales or foreclosures are coming back on the market for more money.
In January, asking prices around the nation jumped nearly six percent from January 2012, according to a Trulia.com year-over-year analysis. It showed listing prices rose in 86 of the largest 100 metropolitan areas.
In Orange County, asking prices were up 12 percent year-over-year in January, Trulia reported, with south county showing a 16 percent increase and north county listing prices up 9 percent.
The hikes suggest sales prices are likely to climb this year, said Jed Kolko, chief economist at Trulia, because asking prices are an indicator of where property values are heading.
Others, however, say the future is unclear.
Not so 'crazy' after all
Whether the property is a starter home in Santa Ana or a bayfront house in Newport Beach, sellers are demanding more money.
Real estate agents say prices are escalating so quickly appraisals aren't keeping up. And when investors pay cash for a home there's no lender in the picture to demand an appraisal, which can reign in spiraling values. In 2012, one in three homebuyers paid cash in Orange County, DataQuick reported last week.
"If that (sale) works out, you will have a new comp with a very high price, and that will make the next Realtor take a look," said Tommy Weiser of First Team Real Estate.
"You think, 'These people are crazy' when you see what they're asking for," he said. "The next thing you see, they sold it."
Weiser recently upped the asking price on a three-bedroom Santa Ana home by $10,000, to $395,000. Otherwise, he said, "By the time you list your property and it's about to close, it's become cheap."
In Capistrano Beach, home sales also have picked up recently, especially on the oceanfront strip, said Realtor Ken Ross of Luxre Realty in Dana Point, who represents 33-year-old Dan Maas, the beachfront homeowner hoping to buy a cabin in the mountains.
"Coastal Property lagged the rest of the market a few years ago when prices dropped and are taking a little longer to turn the corner as there was quite a large inventory along the coast the past three to five years," Ross said.
He noted that eight properties sold on Beach Road in 2012, reducing the inventory by half. "So 2013 should see list and selling prices start to rise as demand continues to increase."
Listing prices are as simple as supply versus demand, said Cheryl Coleman, a real estate agent with Star Real Estate in Huntington Beach. "Buyers are afraid interest rates will go up so there is the mad rush to buy a home right now, yet very few homes (are) available for sale.
"All my listings in the last six months have been the highest sale in those neighborhoods in years," she said.
Real estate agent Donna Dostalik of Re/Max is the listing agent on a three-bedroom live/work loft in Brea that's seen two asking price bumps in the past year. The property, now offered at $638,000, is up from $628,000 in September and $618,000 in March.
Dostalik doesn't think asking prices will rise indefinitely. "I predict that the values will stay constant, with a leveling off in May once homeowners list more inventory as the end of the school year approaches," she said.
The limited number of homes on the market is apparent even in the upper brackets, said real estate agent Mike Bryant of T.N.G. Real Estate Consultants Sales are brisk for houses on the Balboa Peninsula in Newport Beach priced at less than $2 million, he said.
Bryant said the low inventory isn't the only factor driving higher prices. He said he's spoken to some homeowners who bumped up their asking prices to try to offset the additional money they'll have to pay as a result of the fiscal cliff deal, which included a capital-gains tax increase, and other recent tax changes.
The wrong idea?
Orange County housing analyst Steve Thomas says some homesellers may have a false impression of how quickly home prices are rising overall. The number of properties that sold in upper price ranges recently has skewed median home prices in the county, he said.
For instance, the median price of Orange County homes sales in December 2012 was $470,000, up from $400,000 in December 2011, according to DataQuick figures.
But he noted, home prices did not go from $400,000 to $470,000 — 17.5 percent – throughout the county.
In December 2011, 148 homes sold for more than $1 million, or 6.5 percent of all sales, he said. In December 2012, 300 homes went for more than $1 million, or 11 percent of all sales. That difference alone accounts for the higher median sales price, he said in a recent entry on ReportOnHousing.com.
"It is so frustrating to hear reports of a gigantic increase in the median sales price right now because I know how homeowners will react," Thomas said. "They assume that their homes appreciated 17.5 percent.
"My biggest concern is the number of overpriced listings that are already coming on the market," he said. "Many homeowners are way too zealous and are pricing their homes at ridiculous levels … Proper pricing is crucial in capitalizing on the market."
In addition to the trend in asking prices, the Trulia analysis also looked at the relative health of housing markets around the country.
"Booming markets have big price increases and healthy market fundamentals," Kolko wrote in his blog. "Their price gains are supported by strong job growth, and future foreclosures are unlikely to threaten today's price increases."
San Francisco, Seattle, Denver, San Jose, and Salt Lake City are the best examples of booming markets, he said.
Kolko said struggling markets have neither strong market fundamentals nor big price gains and haven't benefitted much from the housing recovery. He cited Newark, Chicago, and Albuquerque as examples.
Orange County's economic health puts it in the middle of the pack, at No. 52 of the 100 markets, Kolko said. The county had slightly above average job growth in the past year and low housing vacancy rates, but a higher than typical foreclosure inventory.
With investors and other cash buyers gobbling up properties, some industry observers have expressed concerns about a new housing bubble. Others say that's unlikely.
"We're not concerned about a bubble at this point," said Adam Artunian, senior research analyst at John Burns Real Estate Consulting in Irvine. "The fundamentals are there for more price growth in the coming years."
He cited pent-up demand for first-time and move-up buyers alike, as well as so-called boomerang buyers, those who've been through foreclosures, have been repairing their credit and want to buy again.
"The unfortunate truth is that the tea leaves don't clearly suggest any particular path for prices, either up or down," wrote Yale finance and economics professor and housing analyst Robert Shiller in a recent New York Times op-ed piece.
The upswing in prices between 1997 and 2006 was an anomaly that later almost completely reversed itself, Shiller said. He cited predictions by various economists of "modest increases for the next half-decade," perhaps, adjusted for inflation, one or two percent annually.
His bottom line for homeowners: "Don't stay up worrying about home prices any more than you do about stock prices."
Related: The lowdown on low inventory
Contact the writer: email@example.com


text:
To end 2012, more Americans fell behind on their credit card bills while racking up more debt, a new report found. But both figures remain well below alarming levels.
The percentage of credit card holders who were 90 days late or more on their payments rose to 0.85 percent in the fourth quarter last year from 0.75 percent in the third quarter, according to report released Wednesday by credit reporting bureau TransUnion. The delinquency rate was also a tick higher than in the fourth quarter of 2011, when it stood at 0.78 percent.
The average credit card debt per borrower also increased to $5,122 from $4,996 during the same period. However, the average debt was lower than a year earlier.
Overall, the delinquency rate and average debt are lower than the 10-year fourth-quarter averages, which are 1.06 percent and $5,389, respectively. The quarter-over-quarter increase for both figures are likely seasonal, says Linda Sherry, director of national priorities at consumer watchdog Consumer Action.
"Certainly in the fourth quarter, there is more use of credit cards because people are charging holiday purchases or are planning their spring travel," she says.
Thirty-nine states experienced an increase in delinquency rates, while nine saw decreases. Two states remained unchanged.
The report also found that credit card companies were less aggressive in giving out new cards. New accounts fell by 2.4 percent in the third quarter of 2012 from the year before. The third quarter stats were the most recent available. Lending to riskier borrowers was also slightly less than in 2011. The share of new accounts that went to subprime consumers was 30.51 percent in the third quarter, compared with 30.63 in 2011.
"Assessing the risk of a cardholder is risky business because there are so many ways that a person can lose their income these days," Sherry says. "There are things going on in this economy that makes everybody a risk."
Follow me on Twitter: @JannaHerron

subset: commoncrawl


text:
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Topic: Retirement, pensions, social security, and related matters (Read 10500 times)
Power User
Posts: 41084
Retirement, pensions, social security, and related matters
September 16, 2012, 10:44:43 AM »
Kicking this thread off with, of all things, an editorial from Pravda on the Hudson
The Road to Retirement
Published: September 15, 2012 120 Comments
Even before the Great Recession, Americans were not saving enough, if anything, for retirement, and policy experts were warning of a looming catastrophe. The economic downturn and its consequences including losses in jobs, income, investments and home equity have made that bad situation much worse.
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And yet, judging by the presidential campaign, this clear and present danger is a political nonissue.
Medicare, of course, is an issue. But Social Security, a critical source of income for most retirees, is barely mentioned, though the parties have sharply different views on how to improve it. The Democratic platform correctly acknowledges that it can be strengthened and preserved, implying that a modest mix of tax increases and benefit cuts is needed. The Republican platform vows to give workers control over, and a sound return on, their investments. That sounds like privatization, which would be cruel folly.
Neither side, however, is grappling with the fact that the nations retirement challenges go well beyond both programs, and that most Americans, by and large, cannot afford to retire.
The crux of the problem is that as traditional pensions have disappeared from the private sector, replacement plans have proved woefully inadequate. Fewer than half of the nations private sector workers have 401(k) plans, and more than a third of households have no retirement coverage during their work lives, according to the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College.
The center also found that among people ages 55 to 64 who had a 401(k), the recession and slow recovery left the typical worker with just $54,000 in that account in 2010, while households with workers in that age group had $120,000 in all retirement accounts on average. That is not nearly enough.
Nor do most Americans have significant wealth in other assets to fall back on. According to Federal Reserve data, median net worth declined by a staggering 40 percent from 2007 to 2010, to $77,000; for households near retirement, ages 55 to 64, the decline was 33 percent, to $179,000. Home equity, once thought of as a cushion in retirement, has been especially devastated. The bursting of the housing bubble has erased nearly $6 trillion in equity, and left nearly 13 million people owing a total of $660 billion more on their mortgages than their homes are worth, according to Moodys Analytics.
A separate study by AARP has found that as of December 2011, people ages 50 and older accounted for 3.5 million underwater loans, with 1.2 million in or near foreclosure. That is on top of the more than 1.5 million older Americans who have already lost their homes in the bust since 2007.
Many people who are coming up short take refuge in the notion that they can continue working. But can they?
Working longer can help to rebuild savings, and, more important, allow one to delay taking Social Security, which improves the ultimate payout. As a practical matter, however, keeping a job is no sure thing. Workers ages 55 to 64 have been less likely than younger ones to lose their jobs in recent years; their jobless rate has averaged 6.1 percent in the past year, compared with 7.3 percent for workers ages 25 to 54. But when older workers become unemployed, they are much more likely to be out of work for long periods and less likely to find new jobs, while those who do become re-employed usually take a big pay cut.
More saving is clearly needed, along with ways to protect retirement savings from devastating downturns. The question is how. In addition to strengthening and preserving Social Security, the nation needs new forms of retirement coverage, along the lines of the Automatic Individual Retirement Accounts that President Obama has proposed in recent budgets, which would require companies that did not offer retirement plans to automatically divert 3 percent of an employees pay into an I.R.A., unless the employee opted out. A similar plan was recently proposed by Senator Tom Harkin, Democrat of Iowa.
The proposals are not cure-alls, but they could be important steps toward an ultimate aim of expanding retirement coverage and reducing reliance on 401(k)s, which have proved far too vulnerable to investing mistakes and market downturns to be the core of a retirement plan.
Millions of Americans are headed for insecure retirements, but with new policies, millions more could escape that fate.
Power User
Posts: 41084
BO going after retirement accounts?
Reply #1 on:
April 06, 2013, 08:14:22 AM »
Power User
Posts: 41084
Kessler: The ROR Fantasy
Reply #2 on:
April 09, 2013, 09:50:35 PM »
Andy Kessler: The Pension Rate-of-Return Fantasy
Counting on 7.5% when Treasury bonds are paying 1.74%? That's going to cost taxpayers billions..
By ANDY KESSLER
It has been said that an actuary is someone who really wanted to be an accountant but didn't have the personality for it. See who's laughing now. Things are starting to get very interesting, actuarially-speaking.
Federal bankruptcy judge Christopher Klein ruled on April 1 that Stockton, Calif., can file for bankruptcy via Chapter 9 (Chapter 11's ugly cousin). The ruling may start the actuarial dominoes falling across the country, because Stockton's predicament stems from financial assumptions that are hardly restricted to one improvident California municipality.
Stockton may expose the little-known but biggest lie in global finance: pension funds' expected rate of return. It turns out that the California Public Employees' Retirement System, or Calpers, is Stockton's largest creditor and is owed some $900 million. But in the likelihood that U.S. bankruptcy law trumps California pension law, Calpers might not ever be fully repaid.
So what? Calpers has $255 billion in assets to cover present and future pension obligations for its 1.6 million members. Yes, but . . . in March, Calpers Chief Actuary Alan Milligan published a report suggesting that various state employee and school pension funds are only 62%-68% funded 10 years out and only 79%-86% funded 30 years out. Mr. Milligan then proposedand Calpers approvedraising state employer contributions to the pension fund by 50% over the next six years to return to full funding. That is money these towns and school systems don't really have. Even with the fee raise, the goal of being fully funded is wishful thinking.
Pension math is more art than science. Actuaries guess, er, compute how much money is needed today based on life expectancies of retirees as well as the expected investment return on the pension portfolio. Shortfalls, or "underfunded pension liabilities," need to be made up by employers or, in the case of California, taxpayers.
In June of 2012, Calpers lowered the expected rate of return on its portfolio to 7.5% from 7.75%. Mr. Milligan suggested 7.25%. Calpers had last dropped the rate in 2004, from 8.25%. But even the 7.5% return is fiction. Wall Street would laugh if the matter weren't so serious.
And the trouble is not just in California. Public-pension funds in Illinois use an average of 8.18% expected returns. According to the actuarial firm Millman, the 100 top U.S. public companies with defined benefit pension assets of $1.3 trillion have an average expected rate of return of 7.5%. Three of them are over 9%. (Since 2000, these assets have returned 5.6%.)
Who wouldn't want 7.5%-8% returns these days? Ten-year U.S. Treasury bonds are paying 1.74%. There is almost zero probability that Calpers will earn 7.5% on its $255 billion anytime soon.
The right number is probably 3%. Fixed income has negative real rates right now and will be a drag on returns. The math is not this easy, but in general, the expected return for equities is the inflation rate plus productivity improvements plus the expansion of the price/earnings multiple. For the past 30 years, an 8.5% expected return was reasonable, given +3%-4% inflation, +2% productivity, and +3% multiple expansion as interest rates plummeted. But in our new environment, inflation is +2%, productivity is +2% and given that interest rates are zero, multiple expansion should be, and I'm being generous, -1%.
So what to do? I recall a conversation from 20 years ago. I was hoping to get into the money-management business at Morgan Stanley MS 0.00%. I wanted to ramp up its venture-capital investing in Silicon Valley, but I was waved away. It was explained to me that investors wanted instead to put billions into private equity.
One of the firm's big clients, General Motors, GM -0.22%had a huge problem. Its pension shortfall rose from $14 billion in 1992 to $22.4 billion in 1993. The company had to put up assets. Instead, Morgan Stanley suggested that it only had an actuarial problem. Pension money invested for an 8% return, the going expected rate at the time, would grow 10 times over the next 30 years. But money invested in "alternative assets" like private equity (and venture capital) would see expected returns of 14%-16%. At 16%, capital would grow 85 times over 30 years. Woo-hoo: problem solved. With the stroke of a pen and no new money from corporate, the GM pension could be fully fundedactuarially anyway.
Things didn't go as planned. The fund put up $170 million in equity and borrowed another $505 million and invested inI'm not kiddinga northern Missouri farm raising genetically engineered pigs. Meatier pork chops for all! Everything went wrong. In May 1996, the pigs defaulted on $412 million in junk debt. In a perhaps related event, General Motors entered 2012 with its global pension plans underfunded by $25.4 billion.
In other words, you can't wish this stuff away. Over time, returns are going to be subpar and the contributions demanded from cities across California and companies across America are going to go up and more dominoes are going to fall. San Bernardino and seven other California cities may also be headed to Chapter 9. The more Chapter 9 filings, the less money Calpers receives, and the more strain on the fictional expected rate of return until the boiler bursts.
In the long run, defined-contribution plans that most corporations have embraced will also be adopted by local and state governments. Meanwhile, though, all the knobs and levers that can be pulled to delay Armageddon have already been used. California, through Prop 30, has tapped the top 1% of taxpayers. State employers are facing 50% contribution increases. Private equity has shuffled all the mattress and rental-car companies it can. Buying out Dell is the most exciting thing they can come up with. Expected rates of return on pension portfolios are going down, not up. Even Facebook FB -0.96%millionaires won't make up the shortfall.
Sadly, the only thing left is to cut retiree payouts, something Judge Klein has left open. There are 12,338 retired California government workers receiving $100,000 or more in pension payments from Calpers. Michael D. Johnson, a retiree from the County of Solano, pulls in $30,920.24 per month. As more municipalities file Chapter 9, the more these kinds of retirement deals will be broken. When Wisconsin public employees protested the state government's move to rein in pensions in 2011, the demonstrations got uglybut that was just a hint of the torches and pitchforks likely to come.
Meanwhile, it's business as usual. California Gov. Jerry Brown released a state budget suggesting a $29 million surplus for the fiscal year ending June 2013 and $1 billion in the next fiscal year. Actuarially anyway.
Or as Utah Rep. Jason Chaffetz told Vermont Gov. Peter Shumlin, upon learning at a 2011 House hearing about that state's unrealistic pension assumptions: "If someone told me they expected to get an 8% to 8.5% return, I'd say they were probably smoking those maple leaves."
Mr. Kessler, a former hedge-fund manager, is the author most recently of "Eat People" (Portfolio, 2011).
Power User
Posts: 41084
CA city on brink of bankruptcy due to pensions
Reply #3 on:
December 29, 2013, 12:18:34 PM »
Power User
Posts: 41084
POTH: Pensions are fuct
Reply #4 on:
April 14, 2014, 04:31:47 PM »
Scott Grannis:
The multiemployer plans' problems do look real and serious. One common denominator jumps out: all the plans with problems have unions among the participants. Unions tend to get in bed with politicians, and both have a penchant for over-promising benefits and attaching government guarantees which encourage pension managers to do stupid things. When hard times hit, the poor management of the fund and its under-funded status collide to produce massive losses. Now they want the taxpayers to make up the losses. These problems are acute in places like Los Angeles and other municipalities where there exists an unholy alliance between unions and politicians. The losses are massive, too big for the taxpayers to swallow. From the perspective of society we need failures to be recognized. From the perspective of the individuals who will lose their promised benefits, this is of course a tragedy. No easy way out.
Lots of private plans are already protected by the government.
As to your comment that all the plans that appear to be in trouble have unions involved, I would argue that there are many non-union plans that are also ripe for failure.
Friday, April 11, 2014 8:05 PM
Reader Question on the Inevitable Los Angeles Bankruptcy; What About Chicago?
In response to LA Commission Studies Pension Crisis, Recommends New Commission; Bankruptcy Inevitable reader Daniel writes ...
Hello Mish,
Can you please explain why a home owner in a place like Los Angeles would be concerned with their city's future bankruptcy?
Will whatever happens not be short lived?
I understand that city workers will be affected and that unions and union workers will be affected as well, but how would your typical resident/homeowner be affected in such a situation?
Thanks for your wonderful blog!!
Tax Hikes Coming
Hello Daniel
In a futile attempt to prevent the inevitable, the first thing LA politicians are likely to do is raise taxes, all kinds of taxes. They will probably invent new ones too.
Please compare LA's setup to Chicago.
Comparison to Chicago
Via email, Ted Dabrowski at the Illinois Policy Institutes writes ...
Gov. Pat Quinn is in a bind.
Hes being asked to sign a Chicago pension bill that he knows has no real reforms and no way to pay for itself. By signing the bill, Quinn will give Mayor Rahm Emanuel his blessing to raise Chicago property taxes by $750 million over five years.
But thats just the beginning.
If the Legislature uses the same blueprint to fix the city and Cook Countys other pension funds, Quinn will be blessing billions more in tax hikes.
The problem for Quinn is that he promised property tax relief to all Illinoisans in his state budget address just two weeks ago. Heres what he said:
My comprehensive tax reform plan starts with providing every homeowner in Illinois with a guaranteed $500 property tax refund every year.
In Illinois, more is collected in property taxes every year than in the state income tax and state sales tax combined. In fact, Illinois has one of the highest property tax burdens on homeowners in the nation more than 20 percent above the national average. The property tax is not based on ability to pay. The property tax is a complicated, unfair tax, hitting middle-class families the hardest.
For too long, Illinois has overburdened its property taxpayers.
By signing a pension bill that helps Emanuel raise property taxes, Quinn will break yet another promise. The governor has already asked the Legislature to make the 2011 tax hike permanent, even though he originally promised it would be temporary.
But Quinn has a way out of his predicament. Besides the obvious political reasons to oppose the bill, Quinn has three good policy reasons not to sign it:
1. Property tax hikes wont solve Chicagos pension problem. Emanuel needs more taxes because his plan doesnt reform the broken pension system. Instead, it just props up a failed system run by the same politicians who bankrupted it in the first place.
What Emanuel and supporters of his pension bill wont tell you is that theyll be back for even more tax hikes. Emanuels current plan calls for additional city contributions (above what the city pays today) to the municipal pension fund totaling $4.1 billion through 2025. But his proposed property tax hikes will raise only an additional $2.25 billion during that time period.
That means the mayors tax hike will be $1.9 billion short of the extra contributions needed through 2025. Without real reforms, hell be back for more.
2. People and businesses will flee. Avoiding real reforms and raising taxes is a failed strategy. People and businesses will flee Chicago, just as theyve been doing for years. Taxpayers will leave because theyll be paying more money for fewer services.
Each Chicago household is already on the hook for more than $61,000 in future taxes to pay down the massive long-term debt more than $63 billion in bonds and pension shortfalls that their city and county governments have racked up.
Tax hikes mean fewer people will stick around to pay a growing bill.
3. There is a plan to fix Chicago without tax hikes. The Illinois Policy Institute offers a reform plan that avoids tax hikes and immediately cuts Chicagos pension shortfall in half. The core of its solution is a hybrid retirement plan for city workers that gives them a self-managed plan and fixed, monthly Social Security-like benefits at retirement.
The plan makes the tough choices necessary to bring about real retirement security for Chicagos city workers.
Quinn and Emanuels goal must be to end Chicagos pension crisis and to preserve Chicagos status as a world-class city.
Massive property tax hikes will do just the opposite and push Chicago further in the direction of Detroit.
Ted Dabrowski
Vice President of Policy
Everyone Affected
No one should assume they are unaffected by the pension crisis, even if they do not live in troubled cities. For starters, more cities are affected than admitted.
For discussion, please see 85% of Pension Funds to Fail in Three Decades.
Secondly, and equally important, Democrat controlled states like California and Illinois are dominated by union sympathizers. Of course that is precisely why those states are in serious trouble.
So even if you live in an unaffected city, states controlled by unions are also highly likely to raise all sorts of taxes to protect union interests.
Mike "Mish" Shedlock
Read more at
Power User
Posts: 15164
Social Security debt bomb
Reply #5 on:
July 31, 2014, 03:27:34 AM »
But it's a very popular program!
Power User
Posts: 15164
The pension bomb
Reply #6 on:
August 05, 2014, 07:46:44 AM »
Power User
Posts: 41084
WSJ: Calpers Play for Pay
Reply #7 on:
August 26, 2014, 02:43:13 PM »
Calpers's Play for Pay
Jerry Brown wanted to stop 'pension spiking.' So much for that.
Updated Aug. 26, 2014 3:12 p.m. ET
When one door closes, government unions crack open a window. So it was last week when the labor-controlled board of the California Public Employees' Retirement System (Calpers) approved counting 99 categories of supplemental pay toward workers' pension calculations.
One objective of the de minimis reforms Gov. Jerry Brown signed in 2012 was to curb egregious abuses such as "pension spiking." Defined-benefit pensions in California are calculated as a percentage of the average of workers' highest compensation over three years multiplied by the numbers of years worked. Many employees have goosed their pensions by loading up on overtime and cashing out vacation and other add-ons during their final working years. In one famous example, a fire chief in Northern California who made $186,000 retired after 26 years with an annual pension of more than $230,000.
Mr. Brown's reforms ostensibly closed these loopholes by defining "pensionable compensation" as "base pay" for "services rendered on a full-time basis during normal working hours." The law explicitly bars overtime as well as unused vacation and sick leave.
Calpers has now tried to end run the law by including 99 other salary boosters such as "incentive pay" for "local safety members, school security officers and California Highway Patrol officers who meet an established physical fitness criterion."
Public-safety officers can earn up to $1,600 annually for taking annual physicals. Employees earn "longevity pay" for merely sticking around for more than five years, which comes on top of "step" increases and annual raises. Workers can also boost their salaries by up to 10% if they are "required to obtain a specified degree" such as a bachelor's and for "maintaining a license required by government or regulatory agencies to perform their duties."
Some governments even award extra pay to firefighters "who are routinely and consistently assigned to administrative work" and to prison guards who are given the onerous job of "responding to questions from the public." Police are paid premiums for handing out parking tickets and patrolling streets. Librarians can earn more if they have to "provide direction or resources to library patrons." If only journalists could earn bonuses for writing.
Calpers did graciously exclude from its list pay boosts for public-safety officers who wear their uniforms and the monthly allowance they receive for keeping their clothes clean. But it's inevitable that government unions will soon find ways to exploit these 99 other pay bumps to pad their pensions. For instance, they could negotiate greater "longevity pay" or larger "physical fitness" premiums for workers over age 50.
Gov. Brown has chastised Calpers for undermining the reforms and asked his staff to "determine what actions can be taken to protect the integrity of the Public Employees' Pension Reform Act." The truth is that government unions and Calpers will always find ways to manipulate defined-benefit plans that are run by their political allies. The only way to protect taxpayers is with 401(k)-style plans that are individual property that can't be politically exploited.
Power User
Posts: 41084
The Dutch do it without smoke and mirrors
Reply #8 on:
October 12, 2014, 11:37:35 AM »
Imagine a place where pensions were not an ever-deepening quagmire, where the numbers told the whole story and where workers could count on a decent retirement.
Imagine a place where regulators existed to make sure everyone followed the rules.
That place might just be the Netherlands. And it could provide an example for Americas troubled cities, or for states like Illinois and New Jersey that have promised more in pension benefits than they can deliver.
The rest of the world sort of laughs at the United States how can a great country like the United States get so many things wrong? said Keith Ambachtsheer, a Dutch pension specialist who works at the University of Toronto specifically at its Rotman International Center for Pension Management, a global clearinghouse of information on how successful retirement systems work.
Going Dutch, however, can be painful. Dutch pensions are scrupulously funded, unlike many United States plans, and are required to tally their liabilities with brutal honesty, using a method that is common in the financial-services industry but rejected by American public pension funds.
"Everybody wants safety and everybody wants an affordable system, and you cant have both. Its become a major public debate in the Netherlands, said Keith Ambachtsheer, a Dutch pension specialist.
The Dutch system rests on the idea that each generation should pay its own costs and that the costs must be measured accurately if that is to happen. After the financial collapse of 2008, workers and retirees in the Netherlands took the bitter medicine needed to rebuild their collective nest eggs quickly, with higher contributions from workers and benefit cuts for pensioners.
The Dutch approach bears little resemblance to the American practice of shielding the current generation of workers, retirees and taxpayers while pushing costs and risks into the future, where they can metastasize unseen. The most recent data suggest that public funds in the United States are holding just 67 cents for every dollar they owe to current and future pensioners, and in some places the strain is palpable. The Netherlands, by contrast, have no Detroits (no cities going bankrupt because pension costs grew while the population shrank), no Puerto Ricos (territories awash in debt but with no access to bankruptcy court) and nothing like an Illinois or New Jersey, where elected officials kicked the can down the road so many times that it finally hit a dead end.
About 90 percent of Dutch workers earn real pensions at their jobs. Their benefits are intended to amount to about 70 percent of their lifetime average pay, as many financial planners recommend. For this and other reasons, the Netherlands has for years been at or near the top of global pension rankings compiled by Mercer, the consulting firm, and the Australian Center for Financial Studies, among others.
Accomplishing this feat solid workplace pensions for most citizens isnt easy. For one thing, its expensive. Dutch workers typically sock away nearly 18 percent of their pay, most of it in diversified, professionally run pension funds. That compares with 16.4 percent for American workers, but most of that is for Social Security, which is intended to provide just 40 percent of a middle-class workers income in retirement.
Dutch employers contribute to their system, too, but their payments are usually capped. While that may seem a counterintuitive way to make sure that pensions are well funded, it actually encourages companies to stick with pension plans. If the markets drop, Dutch employers do not receive urgent calls to pump in more money the kind of cash calls that have prompted so many American companies to stop offering pensions. In the private sector, only 14 percent of Americans with retirement plans at work have defined-benefit pension plans the ones that offer the most security compared with 38 percent who had them in 1979. And if the markets rally and a Dutch pension fund earns more than it needs, the employers are not allowed to touch the surplus. In the United States, companies have found many ways to tap a pension surplus. The problem today is that there usually is no surplus left.
Dutch companies, as well as public-sector employers, typically band together by sector in big, pooled pension plans, then hire nonprofit firms to invest the money. Terms are negotiated sectorwide in talks that resemble American-style collective bargaining.
This vast collaborative process may sound too slow, too unwieldy and maybe even too socialist for American tastes. But standing guard over it is a decidedly capitalist watchdog, the Dutch central bank. More than a decade ago, after the dot-com collapse, a director of the central bank warned of a looming pension funding crisis. In response, the central bank in 2002 began to require pension funds to keep at least $1.05 on hand for every dollar they would have to pay in future benefits. If a fund fell below the line, it had just three years to recover.
American public pension funds have no such minimum requirement, and even if they did, there is no regulator to enforce it. Company pensions are bound by federal funding rules, but Congress has a tendency to soften them.
The Dutch central bank also imposed a rigorous method for measuring the current value of all pensions due in the future. Pensions are not supposed to be risky, so the Dutch measure them the same way the market prices very safe bonds, like Treasuries that is, by discounting the future payments to todays dollars with a very low interest rate. This method shows that a stable lifelong benefit is very valuable, and therefore very expensive to fund.
Notably, the Dutch central bank prohibited the measurement method that virtually all American states and cities use, which is based on the hope that strong market gains on pension investments will make the benefits cheaper. A significant downside to this method is that it lets pension systems take advantage of market gains today, but pushes the risk of losses into the future, for others to cope with. We had lengthy discussions about this in the Netherlands, said Theo Kocken, an economist who teaches at the Free University in Amsterdam and is the founder of Cardano, a risk analysis firm. But all economists now agree. The expected-return approach is a huge economic offense, hurting younger generations.
He explained that in the Netherlands, regulators believe that basing the cost of benefits today on possible investment gains tomorrow is the same as robbing tomorrows workers to pay for todays excesses.
"The expected-return approach is a huge economic offense, hurting younger generations, said Theo Kocken, a Dutch economist.
Most public pension officials in the United States reject this view, saying governments can wait out bear markets because governments, unlike companies, dont go out of business.
For years, economists have been calling on American cities and states to measure pensions the Dutch way. And, in fact, Californias big state pension system, Calpers, sometimes calculates a citys total obligation by that method. When Stockton went bankrupt, for instance, Calpers recalculated and found that the city owed it $1.6 billion. Of course, Stockton is insolvent and does not have an extra $1.6 billion, but Christopher Klein, a bankruptcy judge, has said that federal bankruptcy law permits it to walk away from the debt. Calpers disagrees, setting up a clash that seems destined for the United States Supreme Court.
But most of the time, when someone in the United States calls for Dutch-style measurements, pension officials suspect a ploy to show public pensions in the worst possible light, to make them easier to abolish.
They want to create a false report, to create a crisis, said Barry Kasinitz, director of government affairs for the International Association of Fire Fighters, after members of Congress introduced a bill to require the Dutch method.
The Dutch say their approach is, in fact, supposed to prevent a crisis the crisis that will ensue if the boomer generation retires without fully funded benefits. Their $1.05 minimum is really just a minimum; pension funds are encouraged to keep an even bigger surplus, to help them weather market shocks. The Dutch sailed into the global collapse of 2008 with $1.45 for every dollar of benefits owed, far more than they appeared to need. But when the dust settled, they were down to just 90 cents. The damage was so bad that the central bank gave them a breather: They had five years to get back to the $1.05 minimum, instead of the usual three.
American public plans emerged from the crisis in worse shape, on the whole, and many allowed themselves 30 years to recover. But 30 years is so long that the boomer generation will have retired by then, and the losses will have been pushed far into the future for others to repay.
Its a recipe for disaster if the employer happens to be a city like Detroit. The citys pension system used a 30-year schedule to cover losses but reset it at Year 1 every year, a tactic employed in a surprising number of places. In Detroit, it meant the city never replaced the money that the pension system lost. When Detroit finally declared bankruptcy last year, an outside review found a $3.5 billion shortfall, one of the biggest claims of the bankruptcy. Manipulating the 30-year funding schedule had helped to hide it.
This happening in the Netherlands is totally out of the question, Mr. Kocken said.
While the Netherlands has a stellar reputation for saving, that doesnt mean pensions have been without controversy there; in fact, a loud, intergenerational debate is occurring about how to manage pensions. The financial crisis raised new calls for reform, Mr. Ambachtsheer said. Retirees were shocked and angry to have their pensions cut by an average of 2 percent after the crash. That had never happened before, and many had no idea that cuts were even possible. A new political party, 50Plus, sprang up to defend the interests of older citizens and won two seats in the national Parliament.
But something else happened: Dutch young people found their voice. No matter their employment sector, they could see that their pension money was commingled with retirees money, then invested that way by the outside asset management firms. In the wake of the financial crisis, they realized that they and the retirees had fundamentally opposing interests. The young people were eager to keep taking investment risk, to take advantage of their long time horizon. But the retirees now wanted absolute safety, which meant investing in risk-free, cashlike assets. If all the money remained pooled, young people said, the aggressive investment returns they wanted would be diluted by the pittance that cashlike assets pay.
Now the question is, How do you resolve this dilemma? Mr. Ambachtsheer said. Everybody wants safety and everybody wants an affordable system, and you cant have both. Its become a major public debate in the Netherlands.
Its a debate that is rarely, if ever, heard in the United States.
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Re: Retirement, pensions, social security, ... Dutch system
Reply #9 on:
October 14, 2014, 03:51:17 PM »
We are in Europe now and had lunch with a young Dutch college girl who is a friend of my daughter. She said she knows she will work until (exactly) 67. A public system like that is not for me, but it is solvent when all the facts are out in the open and all sides keep their promises.
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Public Pensions gulping billions in tax raises
Reply #10 on:
January 13, 2015, 01:05:53 PM »
The Pension Sink Is Gulping Billions in Tax Raises
Remember that temporary tax hike for California schools? Most is now going to public worker retirements.
Steve Malanga
Jan. 12, 2015 6:50 p.m. ET
California Gov. Jerry Brown sold a $6 billion tax increase to voters in 2012 by promising that nearly half of the money would go to bolster public schools. Critics argued that much of the new revenue would wind up in Californias severely underfunded teacher pension system. They were right.
Last June Mr. Brown signed legislation that will require school districts to increase funding for teachers pensions from less than $1 billion this year in school year 2014-15, which started in September, to $3.7 billion by 2021, gobbling up much of the new tax money. With the states general government pension fund, Calpers, also demanding more money, California taxpayer advocate Joel Fox recently observed that no matter what local politicians tell voters, when you see tax increases, think pensions.
Californians are not alone. Although fiscal experts have warned about the worsening condition of government pension systems for years, many taxpayers felt little impact from the rising debtuntil now.
Decades of rising retirement benefits for workerssome of which politicians awarded to employees without setting aside adequate fundingand the 2008 financial meltdown have left American cities and states with somewhere between $1.5 trillion and $4 trillion in retirement debt. Even with the stock markets rebound, the assets of Americas biggest government pension funds are only 1% above their peak in 2007, according to a recent study by Governing magazine.
Under growing pressure to erase some of this debt, governments have increased pension contributions to about $100 billion in 2014 from $63 billion in 2007, according to the Census Bureaus quarterly survey of state and local pension systems. But the tab keeps growing, and now it is forcing taxes higher in many places.
A report last June by the Pennsylvania Association of School Administrators found that nearly every school district in that state anticipated higher pension costs for the new fiscal year, with three-quarters calculating their pension bills would rise by 25% or more. Subsequently, 164 school districts received state permission to raise property taxes above the 2.1% state tax cap. Every one of the districts cited rising pension costs.
Meanwhile, the deeply troubled Philadelphia school systems pension tab increased to $159 million in the current school year, which started in 2014 and goes to mid-2015, from $55 million in 2011. To bail it out, the Pennsylvania legislature crafted a special deal to increase cigarette taxes in the city by about $60 million annually.
In West Virginia, where local governments also face big pension debts, the legislature recently expanded the states home rule lawwhich governs how municipalities can raise revenuesto allow cities to impose their own sales taxes. The states biggest city, Charleston, with $287 million in unfunded pension liabilities, has already instituted a $6 million-a-year local sales tax devoted solely to pensions, on top of the $10 million the city already contributes annually to its retirement system. At least five more cities applying to raise local sales taxes, including Wheeling, also cited pension costs.
In April two-dozen Illinois mayors gathered to urge the state to reform police and fire pensions, which are on average 55% funded. The effort failed, and municipalities subsequently moved to raise taxes and fees. The city of Peorias budget illustrates the squeeze. In the early 1990s it spent 18% of the property-tax money it collected on pensions. This year it will devote 57% of its property tax to pension costs. Reluctant to raise the property levy any more, last year the city increased fees and charges to residents by 8%, or $1.2 million, for such items as garbage collection and sewer services.
Taxpayers in Chicago saw the first of what promises to be a blizzard of new taxes. The citys public-safety retirement plans are only about 35% funded, though pension costs already consume nearly half of Chicagos property-tax collections. Strong opposition forced Mayor Rahm Emanuel to temporarily table a proposed a $250 million property-tax increase to help pay off pension debt. Instead, as a stopgap measure Chicago instituted a series of smaller tax and fee hikes, including a boost in cellphone taxes, to raise $62 million. But the citys pension bill will double next year to more than $1 billion, so a massive property tax hike is still on the table.
Chicago residents also face an enormous state retirement bill. The Civic Committee of the Commercial Club of Chicago recently estimated that if the Illinois Supreme Court sustains a lower-court decision overturning 2013 pension reforms, Illinois taxpayers will pay $145 billion in higher state taxes over the next three decades.
Burdened by so much debt, taxpayers in some places are unlikely to see relief soon. When California passed its 2012 tax increases, Gov. Brown and legislators promised voters the new rates would expire in 2018. But school pension costs will keep increasing through 2021 and then remain at that elevated level for another 25 years to pay off $74 billion in unfunded teacher liabilities. Public union leaders and sympathetic legislators are already trying to figure out how to convince voters to extend the 2012 tax increases and approve who knows what else in new levies, says taxpayer advocate Mr. Fox. Its a reminder that in some places the long struggle to pay off massive government pension debt is just starting.
Mr. Malanga is a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute.
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WSJ: Calpers gets schooled
Reply #11 on:
February 09, 2015, 03:10:15 PM »
Calpers Gets Schooled
A judge says public pensions can be impaired as part of bankruptcy.
Feb. 8, 2015 6:43 p.m. ET
Federal judges tend to be impatient with bullies. Behold judge Christopher Klein s opinion last week confirming the city of Stocktons bankruptcy exit plan, which is as incisive in its rebuke of the California Public Employees Retirement System (Calpers) as it is instructive about U.S. bankruptcy law.
Stockton, California's City Hall ENLARGE
Stockton, California's City Hall Photo: Reuters
Stockton declared Chapter 9 bankruptcy in 2012, and it has since rewritten labor contracts and asked creditors for writedowns. Yet after being browbeaten by Calpers, the giant public-pension fund, the city held pensions harmless. Calpers argued that the California constitutions guarantee of contracts shielded pensions from cuts in bankruptcy. The fund also asserted sovereign immunity and police powers as an arm of the state, including a lien on municipal assets.
Judge Klein upheld Stocktons bankruptcy plan but not before effectively throwing Calpers out of court. It is doubtful that CalPERS even has standing, he writes. It does not bear financial risk from reductions by the City in its funding payments because state law requires CalPERS to pass along the reductions to pensioners in the form of reduced pensions.
As the judge explains, CalPERS has bullied its way about in this case with an iron fist. Calperss arguments are constitutionally infirm in the face of the exclusive power of Congress to enact uniform laws on the subject of bankruptcy under Article I, Section 8, of the U.S. Constitutionthe essence of which laws is the impairment of contractsand of the Supremacy Clause.
The Supremacy Clause holds federal law superior to state statutes as long as the feds dont violate state powers under the Constitution. The judge notes that states act merely as gatekeepers to Chapter 9 bankruptcy. Once states authorize municipalities to file for bankruptcy, they hand over custody to federal courts. Thus, as a matter of law, the Citys pension administration contract with CalPERS, as well as the City-sponsored pensions themselves, may be adjusted as part of a chapter 9 plan.
What all this means is that Calpers cant stop cities from modifying pensions in bankruptcy. This has ramifications across the U.S. because unions are trying to make public pension benefits inviolable as a matter of constitutional law. If that view prevails, then politicians can make irresponsible deals to get elected that no future politicians can rescind even if they become unaffordable. Illinois is currently ground zero in this showdown.
Judge Klein also noted that Californias Supreme Court has recognized an unusually inflexible vested right in public employee pension benefits that stands in contrast to the U.S. Supreme Courts less rigid view of the extent of a vested right in retiree benefits, as delivered in last months M&G Polymers v. Tackett ruling. Judge Klein adds that California courts interpretation of vested rights encourages dysfunctional strategies to circumvent limitation and peculiarities in California public finance.
You can say that again. The judge seems to be inviting a legal challenge to Californias vested-rights doctrine, and someone should take him up on it. Meantime, Calpers would do better by raising its investment returns rather than going to court to raid taxpayers.
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Look out! Here comes the Feds!
Reply #12 on:
March 01, 2015, 02:50:37 PM »
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SCOTUS holds bennies for retired public workers can be reduced
Reply #13 on:
March 02, 2015, 12:59:31 PM »
Debt-Saddled Municipal Budgets Get a Lifeline
A unanimous Supreme Court held that health benefits for retired workers can be renegotiated or reduced.
Robert C. Pozen And
Ronald J. Gilson
March 1, 2015 5:32 p.m. ET
While underfunded public-employee pensions capture the headlines, health-insurance benefits for retired state and local workers are also a huge problem. But a recent ruling by the Supreme Court may help state and local governments scale back these benefits.
Unlike public pension plans, retiree health benefits arent funded in advance; they are typically paid out of current tax revenues, so they compete with other budget priorities like schools and police. This competition will only grow more intense, as unfunded retiree health benefits are close to $1 trillion, according to a recent study in the Journal of Health Economics.
Photo: Getty Images
Several cities and states have tried to reduce the scope of retiree health-care services, or to increase the portion of the premiums paid by retired workers going forward. Public unions have frequently sued, claiming the benefits are vested for liferoughly parallel to the legal arguments the unions have made against efforts to curb future pension costs.
In late January, however, the Supreme Court issued an unanimous decision that will increase the chances of local governments winning such lawsuits. While the case involved a private business and its union, the principles should generally apply to public-sector agreements.
M&G Polymers vs. Tackett involved a collective-bargaining agreement that provided certain retirees, along with their surviving spouses and dependents, with a full company contribution toward the cost of their health-care benefits for the duration of [the] Agreement. The contract was subject to renegotiation after three years, but the critical legal question was whether the retirement health-care benefits continued even after the agreement expiredin effect whether the intent was to vest these benefits for life.
The union argued that the contract did vest these benefits for life and the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals agreed. The Supreme Court reversed, noting that to prevail, the plaintiffs, in this case the union, had to supply concrete evidenceaffirmative evidentiary supportthat lifetime vesting of retiree health benefits was what both parties to the agreement intended.
Normally, the explicit terms of a contract are taken to reflect the parties intentions; only when a contracts language is ambiguous does a court look to the parties intent. Here the Supreme Court followed a traditional rule of contract law: If a contract is ambiguous, proof requires evidence of what the parties intended, not what a courtin this case the appellate courtmight infer from the ambiguous contract.
Two principles in Tackett should be especially relevant to reductions in retiree health-care benefits where the duration of these benefits is often unclear. The court, Justice Clarence Thomas wrote, supported the traditional principle that courts should not construe ambiguous writings to create lifetime promises. Similarly, he wrote that the court endorsed the traditional principle that contractual obligations will cease, in the ordinary course, upon termination of the bargaining agreement.
This is where the Supreme Courts decision is particularly significant for the public sector. There must be explicit proof that a collective-bargaining agreement intended long-term commitments to bind a city or state long past the incumbency of the public officials who signed the agreement.
Today elected officials trade generous retiree benefits in the future for current wages. By doing so, they avoid having to take responsibility for current cutbacks in state and municipal services that would accompany wage increases.
The Supreme Courts ruling in Tackett means that lifetime benefits cannot be inferred but must be made explicit. As a result, if public officials now attempt to revise the benefits in a current or new collective agreement, unions will doubtless demand that any long-term promises be made explicit. But public officials who make these promises explicit send a strong signal that they are putting potentially enormous burdens on future taxpayers and elected officials. This makes it harder for current officials to make such promises. That is a step forwardnot just in interpreting contracts but also in enhancing political accountability.
Mr. Pozen is a senior lecturer at Harvard Business School and a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution. Mr. Gilson is a professor of law at Columbia and Stanford law schools.
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WSJ: Chicgo teachers average $77K in retirement
Reply #14 on:
May 14, 2015, 03:58:44 PM »
Illinoiss domination by public unions has the state dancing on the edge of fiscal freefall. The state Supreme Court ruled last week that Springfield cant alter pension benefits, prompting Moodys this week to downgrade the debt of the city, its public schools and park district all to junk status. Now the Chicago Teachers Union wants to make another contribution to the collapse.
In May the union filed an unfair labor practice complaint with the Illinois Educational Labor Relations Board, accusing the school district of failing to bargain in good faith and rejecting mediation to reach a new contract. The unions complaint? The school district wants teachers to chip in more for their pensions. The horror.
The dispute goes back to 1981, when in lieu of larger pay raises the district agreed to pick up seven percentage points of the teachers contribution of 9% of their salaries to their pensions. This is on top of the districts own contribution. Teachers have since become accustomed to paying only 2% of their salaries for pensions, about $1,496 a year on average.
Many current teachers werent in the school system in 1981, but they like the perk of paying a fraction of their pension cost. Who wouldnt? The 2% contribution is far less than the 9% contributions made by many other public employees in Illinois, let alone the 6.2% payroll tax for Social Security or what private workers pay into 401(k)s.
Teachers are also comparatively well compensated. The Illinois State Board of Education says the average Chicago teacher salary is about $71,000 a year. That compares to Chicagos median salary of $47,270 in 2009-2013, according to the Census Bureau. The average starting pension for a Chicago teacher retiring in 2011 after a public-school career was $77,496, according to the Illinois Policy Institute. The city will pay a teacher who retired in 2011 some $2.4 million during retirement, up from $1.35 million a decade earlier.
Union President Karen Lewis called the citys proposal reactionary and retaliatory because the union backed incumbent Rahm Emanuels challenger in the recent mayoral race. The better description is inevitable. The district faces a $1.1 billion deficit in the next fiscal year, the citys teachers pension has an unfunded liability of $9.6 billion, and the district will have to make a roughly $700 million pension payment for teachers in fiscal 2016. Maybe Ms. Lewis can get one of Chicagos teachers to do the math for her.
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Re: Retirement, pensions, social security, and related matters
Reply #15 on:
May 14, 2015, 04:07:31 PM »
Chiraq will be joining Detoilet in becoming tangible lessons on democrat governance.
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Pension crisis hard truths
Reply #16 on:
January 26, 2016, 11:40:14 AM »
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Re: Pension crisis hard truths
Reply #17 on:
March 18, 2016, 12:00:53 PM »
Quote from: G M on January 26, 2016, 11:40:14 AM
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The Coming Public Pension Apocalypse
Reply #18 on:
May 19, 2016, 01:23:19 PM »
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Illinois pensions
Reply #19 on:
May 20, 2016, 07:54:58 PM »
Illinois State Workers, Highest Paid in Nation, Demand 11.5 to 29% Hikes
18WednesdayMAY 2016
POSTED BY MISHGEA | May 18, 2016 6:28:10 | ECONOMICS
Illinois state workers, are the highest paid in the nation. Yet, despite the fact that Illinois is for all practical purposes insolvent, the AFSCME union demands four-year raises ranging from 11.5 to 29 percent, overtime after 37.5 hours of work per week, five weeks of vacation and enhanced health care coverage.
AFSCME workers already get platinum healthcare benefits that would make nearly everyone in the country green with envy.
This is a guest post from Ted Dabrowski at the Illinois Policy Institute, of which I am a senior fellow.
For years, Illinois taxpayers havent been represented at the bargaining table between Illinois largest government union and the state. Illinois former governors cared more about appeasing the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees than protecting the taxpayers the governors were supposed to represent. Thats how AFSCME workers have become some the highest-compensated state workers in the nation.
Now the union is working overtime to remove Gov. Bruce Rauner who actually represents taxpayers interests from labor contract negotiations. The union supports House Bill 580, which would strip the governor of his ability to negotiate. AFSCME wants the current contract dealings turned over to unelected arbitrators who are likelier to decide in the unions favor.
AFSCME wants to remove the governor from contract negotiations because union officials know Rauner will not agree to outrageous demands. Union leaders are demanding $3 billion in additional salary and benefits for union members in a new contract. Theyre seeking four-year raises ranging from 11.5 to 29 percent, overtime after 37.5 hours of work per week, five weeks of vacation and enhanced health care coverage. Those additional demands would come on top of the costly benefits that AFSCME workers already receive.
Here are four facts about state-worker compensation the union doesnt want taxpayers to know:
1. Illinois state workers are the highest-paid state workers in the country
Illinois state workers are the highest-paid state workers in the country when adjusted for cost of living. Illinois pays its state workers more than $59,000 a year, far more than its neighbors and nearly $10,000 more than the national average. Moreover, state AFSCME workers have received salary increases not matched in Illinois private sector. Median AFSCME worker salaries increased more than 40 percent from 2005 to 2014, reaching more than $62,800. During that same period, median private-sector earnings in Illinois remained virtually flat.
2. AFSCME workers receive Cadillac health care benefits
In addition to paying state workers the highest salaries in the nation, Illinois taxpayers also subsidize a majority of AFSCME workers Cadillac health care benefits. The average AFSCME worker receives the ObamaCare equivalent of platinum-level benefits, but only pays the equivalent of bronze-level insurance premiums. That forces a vast share of AFSCME workers health care costs onto state taxpayers. AFSCME workers pay for just 23 percent of their health care costs, or $4,452 a year. State taxpayers pay the remaining 77 percent, or an average of $14,880 per worker.
3. Most state workers receive free retiree health insurance
The state also subsidizes 100 percent of the health insurance costs for state retirees who spent 20 or more years working for the state. Such a benefit is almost unheard of in the private sector. This benefit costs taxpayers $200,000 to $500,000 per state retiree. An ordinary worker in the private sector thus would need to have $200,000 to $500,000 in the bank before retirement to purchase the insurance most retired state workers get for free.
4. Career state retirees on average receive $1.6 million in pension benefits
Thanks to unrealistic pension rules, career state workers meaning those who work 30 or more years will average $1.6 million in benefits over the course of their retirements. Thats on top of Social Security benefits, which nearly all state workers receive. In addition, over half of state workers end up retiring in their 50s.
Its not fair that Illinois residents, struggling with stagnant incomes in one of the nations weakest economies, continue to subsidize AFSCME benefits to such an extent. Many other unions that contract with the state have recognized that taxpayers cant afford higher taxes to fund even greater pay and benefits for state workers. Officials from more than 17 unions, including the Teamsters, understood the depth of Illinois fiscal crisis and agreed to affordable contracts with the state.
AFSCME, which represents a mere 0.5 percent of Illinois total labor force (35,000 state workers out of a total 6.5 million workers), is putting undue pressure on the state and its finances. The General Assembly needs to allow the governors veto of HB 580 to stand. Instead of increasing benefits as AFSCME has demanded, the state should work to bring its employees total compensation more in line with what the private sector can afford.
Ted Dabrowski
Vice President of Policy
Question of Fairness
The AFSCME seeks fairness.
I wholeheartedly agree. Here is my eight-point proposal.
1. Cut AFSCME salaries an average of 40%
2. Make AFSCME employees contribute 50% to health care plans.
3. Drop AFSCME retiree health benefits entirely. Put them on Medicare.
4. Put caps on pension pay.
5. Kill defined benefit pension plans entirely for new hires.
6. Pass right-to-work legislation.
7. Allow municipalities to go bankrupt.
8. Kill all prevailing wage laws,
Mike Mish Shedlock
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Re: Retirement, pensions, social security, and related matters
Reply #20 on:
May 21, 2016, 01:56:52 PM »
How does 0.5% of the work force have such power over legislatures? Because they are together lumped in with other unions as part of a union coalition in with Democrat pols?
Something is missing in the equation in this article.
The state employees alone are not mega donors. It must be because they are part and parcel part of a bigger machine.
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Re: Retirement, pensions, social security, and related matters
Reply #21 on:
May 21, 2016, 10:40:38 PM »
When the individuals representing government negotiate with public unions they know that the unions will be supporting or opposing them in the next elections with both money and manpower.
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Re: Retirement, pensions, social security, and related matters
Reply #22 on:
May 23, 2016, 08:41:27 AM »
Quote from: Crafty_Dog on May 21, 2016, 10:40:38 PM
When the individuals representing government negotiate with public unions they know that the unions will be supporting or opposing them in the next elections with both money and manpower.
Going back a century, unions were justified in their bargaining power because one greedy capitalist in a town could have unfair and disproportionate negotiating power over all the workers in a town or an industry. Collective bargaining equalized that advantage. In the case of public sector unions, the alleged evil, completely unfair force is the will of the people.
Market forces apply just fine to public employee compensation. If a city hall or county office offers too little in pay or benefits, that position would go unfilled until they make the adjustment. Our local elementary school had one thousand applicants for every open teaching position. Underpaid? I don't think so.
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Re: Retirement, pensions, social security, and related matters
Reply #23 on:
May 23, 2016, 09:14:03 AM »
"Market forces apply just fine to public employee compensation"
Exactly !
Jeb Bush did mention civil service reform as an initiative.
I don't know the details but I am not aware of any other candidate who proposed this. But he was on the money on this point.
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CalPers actual rate of return
Reply #24 on:
July 19, 2016, 10:52:08 AM »
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SS benefits
Reply #25 on:
July 23, 2016, 10:18:53 AM »
Last Edit: July 30, 2016, 04:26:56 PM by Crafty_Dog
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CALPERS lowers projected returns
Reply #26 on:
December 22, 2016, 09:25:27 AM »
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Pension Collapse in Big D
Reply #27 on:
December 22, 2016, 09:55:35 AM »
Pension Collapse in Big D
The retirement fund for Dallass public-safety workers is nearly ruined.
Steven Malanga
December 13, 2016 Texas
Economy, finance, and budgets
When Detroit filed for bankruptcy in 2013, the citys emergency-financial team said that high levels of retirement debt could prevent them from rescuing the Motor Citys finances. Detroit had been in economic decline for decades, and the pension problemincluding billions of dollars in bonuses handed out while the city was hurtling toward insolvencywas just one part of the depressing financial picture. Dallas, by contrast, has been one of the fastest-growing American cities in recent years. Becoming a magnet for investment and opportunity, however, hasnt protected the Texas city from experiencing its own Detroit-style financial crisis. Dallass retirement system for cops and firefighters combines many of the features that have nearly sunk state and local pension plans around the country. Things got so dire over the summer that retirees began pulling their money out of the system. Its the first run on a government pension plan in recent memory.
Dallas created the police and fire plan in 1916. The systems trustees eventually persuaded the state legislature to allow employees and pensioners to run the plan. Not surprisingly, the members have done so for their own benefit and sent the tab for unfunded promisesnow estimated at perhaps $5 billionto taxpayers. Among the features of the system is an annual, 4 percent cost-of-living adjustment that far exceeds the actual increase in inflation since 1989, when it was instituted. A Dallas employee with a $2,000 monthly pension in 1989 would receive $3,900 today if the systems annual increases were pegged to the consumer price index. Under the generous Dallas formula, however, that same monthly pension could be worth more than $5,000. No wonder the ship is sinking.
The system also features a lavish deferment option that lets employees collect pensions even as they continue to work and earn a salary. Moreover, the retirement money gets deposited into an account that earns guaranteed interest. Governments originally began creating these so-called DROP plans as an incentive to encourage experienced employees to keep working past retirement age, which in job categories like public safety can be as young as 50. In Dallas, the pension system gives workers in the DROP plan an 8 percent interest rate on their cash, at a time when yields on ten-year U.S. Treasury notes, a standard for guaranteed returns, are stuck at less than 2 percent. According to the city, some 500 employees working past retirement age have accumulated more than $1 million in these accountson top of the pensions that they will receive once they officially stop working.
To make all of this seem reasonable, the state legislature placed a cap on contributions. Under the cap, cities can budget up to 28 percent of payroll to funding pensions every year. Its a high price, but not nearly high enough to fund Dallass generous plan, whose officials lately predicted that investment returns would stay above 8 percent forever. Trying to hit that crazy target, the systems trustees began investing in increasingly risky assets. At one point, a startling 50 percent of the funds money was invested in private equity, real estate, and other volatile assets. Since 2010 alone, the pension system has had to write off nearly $200 million in bad bets, and the systems funding level has slipped below the mark that experts say dooms a pension plan.
Recently, fiscal experts and city officials began mentioning the possibility of bankruptcy. What officials didnt count on, apparently, is that participants in the system, who have the right to withdraw their savings, would actually start doing so once they heard such dire warnings. Retirees have withdrawn nearly half a billion dollars since late summer, sending the systems funding levels plummeting to a dangerous 36 percent. The systems liquid assetsthat is, money it can draw on to pay benefitsis down to just $729 million, not much more than the $600 million it needs to keep on hand to assure that it can meet its obligations. Thats forced the system to halt withdrawals. Its officially a run.
Fixing this mess without serious reform is almost unimaginable. Even a 40-year plan to pay off the pension debt (twice as long as the Society of Actuaries recommends) would require the city to spend the equivalent of 75 percent of its payroll on pensions alone. Finding the money to do that would require Dallas to more than double property taxes. Even so, a four-decade plan would expose the city to future market crashes that could undermine any recovery. Instead, the city is looking at a host of unpopular changes to the current pension plan, including cutting back cost-of-living adjustments and asking employees to forgo some of the interest theyve earned on their DROP accounts. State legislators, who crafted a system they didnt have to fund, would need to approve any changes. Things could get complicated: Republicans dominate the legislature, while Democrats control the city. Still, the prospect of an insolvent Dallas should focus some minds.
Plenty of state and municipal pension systems around the country are in the same situation, but Dallas is the only one facing an immediate drain on its funds. Plans in Chicago, Philadelphia, New Jersey, Kentucky, Illinois, and Connecticut are all less than 50 percent funded. Many have features similar to the Dallas police and fire plan. More than half of large state and local pension boards, for instance, are dominated by employees and retirees, who get to make crucial decisions that taxpayers must fund. Like Dallass plan, many funds are veering into risky investments in a desperate attempt to improve their finances. Also like Dallas, many of these funds saw such steep declines in their assets after the 2008 financial meltdown that even the second-longest bull-market in American history hasnt dramatically improved their prospects.
During the last year, as the nation has been consumed by a presidential election focused on issues like immigration and trade, our government-employee pension woes have continued to fester. Though its developed largely out of view, this crisis threatens to undermine our fiscal future. Dallas is a reminder that no magical incantations exist that can make insane pension math suddenly rational.
Power User
Posts: 41084
CA teacher pension fund issues
Reply #28 on:
February 10, 2017, 03:19:26 PM »
Power User
Posts: 7423
Ecuadorians getting a taste of what some here feel
Reply #29 on:
June 08, 2017, 09:16:57 AM »
"65 percent of the native Cuencan population is under 35, and many are frustrated that they must pay taxes and invest in the welfare state that foreign retiree migrants are now abusing"
I never knew Ecuadorians are bigots, americanaphopes, gringophobes
They should welcome the foreigners with open arms . The foreigners are good for their economy!
Power User
Posts: 15164
Re: Ecuadorians getting a taste of what some here feel
Reply #30 on:
June 08, 2017, 09:26:59 AM »
Quote from: ccp on June 08, 2017, 09:16:57 AM
"65 percent of the native Cuencan population is under 35, and many are frustrated that they must pay taxes and invest in the welfare state that foreign retiree migrants are now abusing"
I never knew Ecuadorians are bigots, americanaphopes, gringophobes
They should welcome the foreigners with open arms . The foreigners are good for their economy!
Racists! Xenophobes! Who knew Ecuador was so full of hate?
Power User
Posts: 7423
Re: Retirement, pensions, social security, and related matters
Reply #31 on:
June 08, 2017, 09:54:50 AM »
And I should emphasize most of the retirees are *professors* who are in the group making the demands.
I thought professors are so tolerant of other peoples.
Most are liberals from what I read. Don't liberals professors know what is best on how everyone else should live?
Does this mean they are arrogant Americans after all?
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Supplement Intake in Infertile Men;the Effect on Sperm Parameters,Fertilization Rate and Embryo Quality
The recruitment status of this study is unknown. The completion date has passed and the status has not been verified in more than two years.
Verified January 2012 by Hillel Yaffe Medical Center.
Recruitment status was: Not yet recruiting
Recruitment status was: Not yet recruiting
Hillel Yaffe Medical Center
Information provided by (Responsible Party):
Hillel Yaffe Medical Center
ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier:
First received: January 14, 2012
Last updated: January 25, 2012
Last verified: January 2012
- Full Text View
- Tabular View
- No Study Results Posted
- Disclaimer
- How to Read a Study Record
Detailed Description:
The vitamin,minerals and amino acid supplementation for 3 months will improve the semen parameters,fertilization rate and embryo quality in subfertile men undergoing IVF treatment
|Dietary Supplement: Vitamale
|Study Type:
|Study Design:
|Allocation: Randomized
Intervention Model: Parallel Assignment
Masking: Triple (Participant, Care Provider, Investigator)
|Official Title:
|Vitamins ,Minerals and Amino Acids Supplement Intake in Infertile Men;the Effect on Sperm Parameters,Fertilization Rate and Embryo Quality. A Double Blind Randomized Controlled Trial
Resource links provided by NLM:
MedlinePlus related topics: Dietary Supplements Infertility Minerals
Drug Information available for: Amino acidsU.S. FDA Resources
Further study details as provided by Hillel Yaffe Medical Center:
Primary Outcome Measures:
- Sperm parameters [ Time Frame: 3 months of treatment ]Men suffering from a "male factor" problem and after one failed IVF treatment will be given the supplement for 3 months after which the sperm parametrs will be evaluated and compared to pre-supplement data and later the embryo quality and fertilization rate will reviewed analyzed and compared
|Estimated Enrollment:
|Study Start Date:
|January 2012
|Estimated Study Completion Date:
|January 2016
|Estimated Primary Completion Date:
|January 2014 (Final data collection date for primary outcome measure)
|Assigned Interventions
|Active Comparator: vitamale
Dietary Supplement: Vitamale
men will receive the vitamale dietary supplement compared to a sham pill
Other Name: amino acid minerals and vitamin supplement
|Placebo Comparator: sham pill
Dietary Supplement: Vitamale
men will receive the vitamale dietary supplement compared to a sham pill
Other Name: amino acid minerals and vitamin supplement
Detailed Description:
With the supplement intake containing amino acids, vitamins and minerals designed to improve sperm parameters, the couples undergoing IVF treatment will benefit as the change and improvement of sperm parameters will increase the fertilization rate and improve the embryo quality thus allowing shorter time for pregnancy achievement and less frustration with long duration of treatments
|Ages Eligible for Study:
|20 Years to 50 Years (Adult)
|Sexes Eligible for Study:
|Accepts Healthy Volunteers:
Inclusion Criteria:
- healthy male age 20-50
- at least one IVF cycle without pregnancy
- sperm parameters:
- Oligospermia 5-20*106
- Teratospermia 6-14% normal forms
- Asthenospermia <30% motility
Exclusion Criteria:
- female factor infertility
- age > 50 or under 20
- testicular problem on physical examination
- history of malignancy and /or chemotherapy
- usage of antiandrogen/testosterone
- history of drug abuse/alcohol
- a known endocrinological problem
- current STD or genitourinary infection
- Retrograde Ejaculation
- Y chromosome microdeletion
- Karyotype abnormalities
Contacts and Locations
Choosing to participate in a study is an important personal decision. Talk with your doctor and family members or friends about deciding to join a study. To learn more about this study, you or your doctor may contact the study research staff using the Contacts provided below. For general information, see Learn About Clinical Studies.
Please refer to this study by its ClinicalTrials.gov identifier: NCT01520584
Please refer to this study by its ClinicalTrials.gov identifier: NCT01520584
|Hillel Yaffe Medical Center
|Hadera, Israel, 38101
Sponsors and Collaborators
Hillel Yaffe Medical Center
|Principal Investigator:
|Dana Irge, DR
|Hillel Yaffe Medical Center
More Information
Additional relevant MeSH terms:
ClinicalTrials.gov processed this record on September 21, 2017
|Responsible Party:
|Hillel Yaffe Medical Center
|ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier:
|NCT01520584 History of Changes
|Other Study ID Numbers:
|Study First Received:
|January 14, 2012
|Last Updated:
|January 25, 2012
Additional relevant MeSH terms:
Infertility, Male
Genital Diseases, Male
Growth Substances
Physiological Effects of Drugs
ClinicalTrials.gov processed this record on September 21, 2017


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Posted 5 years ago
(476 items)
Wooden Avro Shackleton 120 Squadron. This is an exact copy of one of the aircraft my dad used to fly, (see previous posts) hand painted in the exact colours, and made of wood by a British company that makes almost any aircraft to order. Got this for his birthday a few years ago.


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Avocados aren't just for guacamole anymore.
Avocados From Mexico is centering its new marketing campaign around the idea that avocados offer so much more.
The marketing agency, jointly formed and financed by the Mexican Hass Avocados Importers Association and Mexican Avocado Producers & Packers, will draw upon a $36 million budget this year to launch the organization's first fully integrated U.S. campaign.
The effort's overall goal is to make avocados a sought-after fruit, grow the Avocados From Mexico brand, and elevate the overall category, chief marketing officer Kathleen Triou said in an e-mail.
Consumer campaigns
The agency also designed its campaign to differentiate Mexican avocados from those grown in other regions by emphasizing freshness, flavor and year-round availability.
The consumer and retail programs tie into several sports and holiday promotions, such as football season, the Winter Olympics, spring brunch and Cinco de Mayo.
The agency also scheduled sonsumer public relations programs to support in-store promotions.
Avocados From Mexico also has a strong foodservice program, complete with a new advertising campaign, public relations, video series and event marketing.
The new consumer campaign focuses on expanding Avocados From Mexico's target audience further into the millennial generation — those younger than 30. It also encourages consumers who are already eating avocados to increase their consumption habits.
To do that, the campaign is rooted in education and will showcase health benefits, cooking options and creative recipes using fresh avocados.
Marketing efforts are aimed at medium to heavy avocado users, which represent about 61% of all avocado consumers, according to MRI data. The two segments eat 22 to 78 avocados per year and share many of the same perceptions and behaviors, such as seeking out fresh ingredients, paying attention to health and nutrition, and loving to cook.
"The goal of our program is to move the avocado from an occasional treat to an everyday essential in the minds of the medium and heavy avocado consumers," Triou said. "This mind shift is more in line with the way super-heavy avocado users already perceive fresh avocados in their lifestyle and dietary selections."
While the super-heavy segment comprises only 24% of all users, super-heavy users purchase an average of 172 avocados per year, accounting for 57% of overall volume.
Focusing on events
Avocados From Mexico timed the inaugural marketing campaign kickoff to coincide with post-season baseball. The Avo All-Stars campaign was to activate during the fall, just as avocados from Mexico increase in supply and other avocado sources decline.
The campaign also will focus on other key events during the late fall and winter, including Christmas/Feliz Navidad and New Year's, as well as college and National Football League playoffs.
Avocados From Mexico plans to take a similar approach with key late spring and summer events, including Cinco de Mayo, Triou said.
During the Feliz Navidad campaign later this fall, for example, Avocados From Mexico will partner with Modelo beer in joint retail displays.
Point-of-sale materials will include display bins and signs with coupon tear pads good for a $3 savings on a 12-pack of Modelo if the shopper buys three avocados from Mexico. In lieu of a beer purchase, the coupon offers $2 instant savings on any fresh pork purchase of $5 or more with the purchase of three Mexican avocados.
The football and winter sports campaign seeks to position fresh avocados as part of the ultimate game-day spread. It involves retail partnerships with Mission chips & tortillas and Cholula hot sauce, as well as sweepstakes and coupon offers.
Much like earlier programs, the winter sports and football effort will include themed display bins and POS materials. Participating retailers can also opt into six weeks of in-store radio announcements planned for 10,000 stores. Additionally, Avocados From Mexico plans 30 retail display contests.


text: Since professional skater Keith Hufnagel founded it as a small boutique in 2002, HUF has grown from a single retail location selling other manufacturers' products into a go-to brand for fans of skate culture-influenced shoes, hats, tees, winterwear, and accessories. Based in the Bay Area, HUF aims to capture the personality unique to the skateboard lifestyle. HUF believes skateboard culture is in essence a positive force that transcends petty prejudices based on race and social structure, and instead seeks to celebrate a diverse population of creative individuals. HUF products strike the right balance between vintage design, classic craftsmanship, and modern detail, leaving no doubt as to why skateboarders and individuals influenced by counterculture continue coming back for more. Check out HUF socks, snapbacks and more and get into it!


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All-natural aquarium additive contains multiple vitamins and minerals. Daily use stimulates fish appetite, restores coloration, and helps replenish essential minerals necessary for healthy, vibrant saltwater fish. For fish-only marine aquariums. Fish Solution is not for use in reef aquariums. Use 1 capful for 50 gallons of aquarium water.
Please click on "More Information" for directions for use.


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I haven't played in 12 years, and since then I've had some pretty bad injuries. Destroyed my left ACL and haven't gotten it repaired. I've also had some severe lower back problems (herniated discs) that required cortisone and rehab. But at this point, at age 35, I'm pretty much cautiously functional.
Recently, though, I went to a party where someone had a basket and a couple discs in the backyard, and I just tossed a few, and my heart leapt! I forgot how much I love the game! So I'm looking to come back to it, but I want to do it safely. Any advice on how I should modify/play the game given my medical history? I used to be all about backhand power with the viper as my go-to driver. From what I understand, the game has changed, at least driver-wise, it seems.
I'd like to have fun, be competitive and be safe.


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Houttuynia Herb
Veterinarian Reviewed on June 14, 2012 by Paulina Nelega, RH
Posted in Uncategorized
Houttuynia Herb
Houttuynia Herb (Houttuynia cordata) is also known as pinyin in Chinese or "fishy-smell herb" and in English it is known as Lizard Tail, chameleon plant and also as Bishop's Weed. Houttuynia Herb is a flowering perennial herb which is native to Japan, Korea, Southeast Asia and also in mainland China. Houttuynia Herb favors places where it has a lot of moisture and shade.
The Houttuynia Herb grows between 20 to 80 cm in height, has many roots and the distal roots grow vertically. The leaves of the Houttuynia Herb are heart-shaped with lovely white flowers that grow during the summer time.
History and Origin
Houttuynia Herb has been used as a leaf vegetable especially in Vietnamese cuisine. The name 'fishy-smell herb' has, of course, been derived from the unusual smell and taste of the Houttuynia Herb when used as a food garnish. It is used as a Chinese ancient folk medicine because of its diuretic properties and also because of its ability to fight viruses and bacteria.
Ancient Uses
During ancient times the Houttuynia Herb was used mainly as a vegetable garnish. Its unique taste and smell made it one of the most used herbs for cooking during ancient times. The medicinal capabilities of the Houttuynia Herb were later discovered after it was useful in treating lung disorders and pneumonia.
Modern Uses
Houttuynia Herb in modern times is also used for its antiviral and antibacterial properties. It is effective in the treatment of pneumonia and many types of upper and lower respiratory tract infections. Houttuynia Herb is also being considered in the treatment of SARS.
The Houttuynia Herb has also antileukemic properties as well. This herbal remedy is a very popular health tonic in Japan, which makes it quite useful in increasing energy and virility. There is a Japanese beverage called Dokudami Cha which is made from the infusion of the leaves of Houttuynia Herb and then mixed in with other herbal remedies. The Houttuynia Herb has also made its way in the market as an anti obesity product with many fat control supplements containing its extracts either as a whole or combined with other herbs for a more effective fat-free dose.
Side Effects
There are no known side effects of Houttuynia Herb and if you want to use this herb for the treatment of your illness then it is best to consult your naturopathic doctor or herbalist regarding the use and dosage of Houttuynia Herb. The use of this herb for your illness may cause adverse effects with your current medications so a doctor's advice is always the best. The use of Houttuynia Herb is contraindicated for pregnant and breastfeeding women. If you wish to use this supplement for weight loss, it is best to consult your doctor or a dietician about the best weight loss treatment for you. It is best to combine exercise and proper diet with Houttuynia Herb weight loss supplements to get optimum results with your diet regimen.
Houttuynia Herb has been known as an invasive herb in the United States and in Australia where it can invade garden plants if not attended to and controlled at once.
Our Expert
Paulina Nelega, RH, has been in private practice as a Clinical Herbalist for over 15 years. She has developed and taught courses in herbal medicine, and her articles on health have appeared in numerous publications. She is very passionate about the healing power of nature. Ask Dr. Jan


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Superjet International insists that it will meet its commitment to deliver the first of its Superjet 100s to Aeroflot and Armavia before year-end despite another short projected delay in completing Russian certification in October, as opposed to September. A breakthrough for the delayed program came less than a month ago on June 23 when the airliner's SaM146 engine achieved certification by the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA). The powerplant (see related article on page 36) is now set to complete the Russian approval process before the end of this month.
One of the four development Superjets built so far is making an appearance here at the Farnborough airshow. At the end of this week, the aircraft will be heading to Italy to undergo noise, precision landing and intensity radiation tests at Alenia Aeronautica's Caselle factory near Turin. Superjet International is a joint venture between Alenia and Sukhoi Civil Aircraft Co. (SCAC).
The four prototypes have logged more than 1,750 flight hours. EASA certification for the aircraft is expected by mid-2011, which will trigger the first deliveries to Western operators. In fact, Aeroflot also has insisted that the Superjet be certified to European standards, since it is used to operating Airbus aircraft–as is Armavia–and both carriers have made it clear that they are expecting Western standards of after-sales support for the twinjet.
This is where Venice-based Superjet International comes in. The company has signed an agreement with Lufthansa Logistic for its main spares warehouse to be run out of Frankfurt, Germany. Plans are already in place to establish spares inventory in the Far East and also in the U.S.–possibly in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, where Lufthansa Logistic already has a facility. Another spares storehouse will be located in Moscow to support the Aeroflot fleet.
"We are offering different types of support scheme, which goes from the acquisition of spares and autonomous maintenance to full repair schemes, some of them including up to the APU and landing gear," explained Superjet International CEO Alessandro Franzoni. Similar schemes are being proposed also by Powerjet for the SaM146 engine.
For maintenance, repair and overhaul operations, Superjet International has already been certified to work on the A320 family. Franzoni explained that it made this move to get approved for another, potentially rival, airliner because it didn't want to be making a cold start to getting MRO certification for the Superjet. Also, there are significant similarities in terms of powerplant and avionics between the new Russian narrowbody and the ubiquitous A320. So Superjet International already holds EASA 145 and 147 maintenance approvals and their Russian equivalents.
The Aeroflot contract includes line maintenance covering the Superjet for the first six months in service, as most of the airline's own mechanics will be busy supporting its existing A320 fleet. In this period, Superjet technicians will also train their Aeroflot counterparts.
This activity in the field will allow the aircraft manufacturer to get first-hand operational feedback that will be made available to all the other customers. The 24/7 after-sales operation will be carried out from Venice, and customers will be able to order and track spares availability online. The Superjet spares system is interfaced with that of Lufthansa Logistic, which allows the manufacturer to verify online parts availability and repair status.
Two Training Centers
Two Superjet training centers are being established, one in Moscow and the other in Venice. Each following identical systems in term of syllabus, procedures and training equipment.
An emergency evacuation trainer is undergoing acceptance in the UK and will be installed in Venice in late July. A Level 2 flight training device will be installed in Moscow before year-end, while the full flight simulator will follow in mid-2011, at which time the Venice center will get these two simulators. The Venice training center is initially being installed in a rented hangar; however, Superjet International plans to build a new structure at the Venezia Tessera Airport, which will also be the company's new headquarters.
From late 2011 the company plans also to acquire control of part of the former Alenia Aeronavali facility, where maintenance operations will be carried out. The training center in Moscow is being created at the Zhukovsky air base, where operations are due to start this fall–three months before the first aircraft deliveries.
Superjet is qualifying numerous MRO companies to carry out maintenance on the aircraft, without operators having to fly long distances. The planned network is already fairly well defined, but not announced, in Europe and is being improved in North America and the Far East.
"We currently have 122 firm orders for the Superjet 100," Franzoni said, adding that this does not include 30 aircraft ordered by Hungarian flagcarrier Malev, for which the contract was delayed due to airline restructuring.
Now Superjet is focusing its marketing efforts in Latin America and Africa. In the former region, some good results are expected in the second half of this year. The African market is more fragmented, but Superjet is identifying emerging clusters of demand in all four corners of the continent.
"We offer an aircraft smaller than the A319, which can provide similar levels of comfort and amenities, and with considerable space for hand luggage," Franzoni stressed, stating that the Russian aircraft's luggage volume is greater than that in the A319/320 and the seats are wider than those of the A320.
Superjet claims that its aircraft's operating costs will be at least 10 percent lower than those of its rivals. It also projects that the twinjet will have a more competitive break-even rate on at least some routes.