For some months now, social security contributions have been insufficient to pay for pensions, and it doesn’t look like the recovery in the economic cycle will correct the problem. Faced with a problem of these dimensions, the political parties have come up with various alternatives.
A group of top international experts recently gathered in Madrid to analyse a problem politicians do not want to talk about as they are afraid of losing votes: are we facing a global pensions’ crisis.
LONDON | June 10, 2015 | By Antonio Garcia Pascual and Nikolaos Sgouropoulos (Barclays) | We think there are at least two critical issues outstanding: 1) agreeing on credible fiscal measures to achieve a primary surplus of c. 1% of GDP; and 2) fast-track pension reforms to reduce costs and increase the effective retirement age (currently 59).
NEW YORK | By Robert Johnson via Next New Deal | The pensions crisis has far-reaching implications for the future of the U.S. economy: the state and local government sector is about 14 percent of the American workforce. What broke the system, and how do we fix it? Beyond the economic crisis, which put enormous pressure on state and municipal budgets, poor decision-making and the influence of big money interests has led to the underfunding of some state and city public pensions.
MADRID | By Tania Suárez | The Spanish Economic and Social Council (ESC) recently received the Government’s draft of the public pension system reform, which is causing lots of controversy since many retirees may lose their only income. In that sense, a group of Spanish economists and jurists have signed a manifesto to explain why the reform is not such a good idea.
MADRID | By JP Marin Arrese | The Spanish government is about to reform the pension system so as to improve the budgetary balance. However, the current policies will not yield results in the short or medium-term and they won’t prevent deficits from emerging.
Wages decline has put Spain back in the beginning of the century. But the warning sign for the country are citizens’ pensions: crucial for the most defenseless. Both President Mariano Rajoy and the Spanish society have an enormous stake in social welfare.
What is threatening the Spanish pension system, Francisco Martín Seco says, is not a longer life expectancy or the population pyramid but policies that drive the entire economy into a permanent recession, like reforms to make the tax system more regressive.
NEW YORK | Times are tough for pensions. Retirement plans are not golden anymore. After the crisis, U.S. companies started to get rid of many pension funds or are allocating less money for them. And while the market has substantially recovered from the 2009 low, pension funds portfolios as well as supplemental savings and retirement accounts for individuals remain significantly smaller than they were at their peak. Last year, Standard…
LONDON | The future is an economic frightening sight for the younger generations in the UK. Up to 79% of Britons anticipate their income as pensioners will be too low or inflation will erode their savings. Only 26% of people believe they will be better off than their parents when they retire. A survey released Wednesday by Vision Critical shows that more than 17.2 million of British people think their personal finances…