Poilievre Walks a Tightrope over Alberta’s Pension Uproar

In an obvious effort to inoculate himself against being identified as an enemy of the Canada Pension Plan, federal Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre Friday inserted himself into the open-letter uproar over the Alberta government’s plan to force the province’s citizens out of the CPP with a statement of his own.

On Thursday, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau sent a forceful open letter to Alberta Premier Danielle Smith vowing to defend the CPP and Canadians’ pensions. Smith responded with an open letter of her own, accusing the PM of fear-mongering and warning of unspecified “serious legal and political consequences.”

Danielle Smith’s Pension Scam Claims Its First Victim

What a pathetic coda to the respectable if not quite illustrious political career of Jim Dinning!

Once the whiz kid and heir apparent of Alberta’s Conservative establishment, Dinning has resurfaced years later as, in my view, chief snake oil salesman for the scam artists and would-be separatists dreaming of hijacking half the Canada Pension Plan’s investment fund.

Dinning may not have gotten to be the premier of Alberta in 2006, when he was widely seen as front-runner in what was supposed to be not much more than a two-horse race with another former Progressive Conservative finance minister Ted Morton.

Danielle Smith’s Pension Trickery: Why Voters Might Just Fall for It

There is absolutely no way Albertans will fall for it.

Unless they do.

And if they do, every Canadian will feel the impact.

Premier Danielle Smith’s push for an Alberta pension plan is based on so much wishful thinking, imaginary numbers and outright chutzpah you’d think it’s surely doomed to failure.

Russia's Putin softens pension reforms after outcry

Russian leader Vladimir Putin has softened planned pension changes following angry protests and a slump in his approval rating.

He said the retirement age for women would be increased from 55 to 60 instead of to 63. But a five-year increase for men, to 65, would stay.

Why Putin's approval rating is falling

According to a survey conducted by the state-funded Russian Public Opinion Research Center (VCIOM), public trust in President Vladimir Putin has dropped significantly. The July 1 poll found that just 37.9 percent of respondents trusted the president on taking decisions on issues of national importance. Right after the March 18 election, that number stood at 53.6 percent.

The semi-official Public Opinion Fund (FOM) registered a similar drop. Their weekly survey looking into voter confidence found that just 49 percent would vote for Putin if elections were held today, down from 68 percent in late March.

Russian old age pension furor cuts sharply into Putin's popularity

Russian President Vladimir Putin ought to be enjoying a tidal wave of popularity about now.

The World Cup is going on across the country, and unexpected wins by the home team are generating moments of national euphoria not seen since the end of the Second World War. At the same time, he can look forward to a one-on-one summit with his admirer U.S. President Donald Trump on July 16 in Helsinki.

Russians protest over pension age rise announced during World Cup

Russians demonstrated in cities across the country on Sunday in protest at a rise in the pension age. The rallies, organised by an unusually broad group of opposition forces, drew crowds of up to 3,000 in dozens of towns and cities across the country, opposition leaders said.

No protests were held in World Cup host cities due to a regulation banning protest in the cities for the duration of the tournament, and also out of a desire not to overshadow it.

Backlog in military pensions won't be cleared until end of year

It will be the end of the year before the enormous backlog of military pension payment files is cleared up, National Defence officials say, and it will likely be October before a similar stockpile of outstanding severance payment claims are rectified.

Both of these long-standing logjams have left an increasing number of newly retired military members in a financial lurch.

Work until you're 75 - or even 81 - under Government review of state pension age

Millions of people could be forced to work until they are 75, the Government has hinted as details of a review into the state pension age were published.

Ministers have announced a radical review of the pensions regime amid concerns that he current system is not "affordable in the long-term".

In Exchange For Cutting Benefits, This Bankrupt Coal Company Agreed To Pay Executives Millions

A bankrupt coal company last month unveiled a plan to pay top executives up to $11.9 million in bonuses over six months as an apparent reward for slashing benefits for workers and dodging environmental clean-up obligations during bankruptcy proceedings. The company, Alpha Natural Resources, is one of the four largest coal companies in the U.S. and filed for bankruptcy last year.

Millions face 'retirement crisis' over pensions tax raid

Millions of middle-class workers will face a "retirement crisis" if George Osborne pushes ahead with a multi-billion pound raid on pensions, a new analysis has found.

The Chancellor is considering plans to end more generous rebates for higher rate taxpayers on pension contributions and replace them with a flat rate of relief which could be as low as 20 per cent.

20,000 Pensioners Lose Critical Health and Drug Benefits Due to Harper's U.S. Steel Sellout

TORONTO, Oct. 9, 2015 /CNW/ - The federal Conservative government must accept its responsibility for 20,000 pensioners who are immediately losing critical health benefits and prescription drug coverage, the United Steelworkers (USW) says.

"There will be 20,000 pensioners waking up tomorrow without health benefits and prescription drug coverage, because of the Harper government's secret deals with U.S. Steel. It's a disgrace," said USW Ontario Director Marty Warren.

Retirees say pensions slashed by as much as 75% after miscalculation

Some former government employees are being forced to take a massive cut to their pensions years after retiring, because of what the organization in charge of calculating and administering the benefits says was a mistake that led to overpayments.

Alberta Pensions Services (APS), the government corporation that oversees the pensions of more than 330,000 Albertans, cut the monthly amounts for 22 pensioners and encouraged those retirees to sign a document agreeing not to talk about it.

Chris Christie Maintained State Pension Investments In Prudential After Top Official Gave Contributions By

Republican Gov. Chris Christie's administration has over the past five years paid at least $6.5 million in taxpayer fees to Prudential Financial to manage New Jersey pension funds, even after company officials made substantial contributions to Christie's 2009 gubernatorial campaign, International Business Times has learned. One of the Prudential officials was Christie's top fundraiser, adviser and donor. Christie appointees nonetheless maintained investment contracts with Prudential despite state rules that require such contracts to be canceled when executives at firms managing pension money donate to or raise money for state lawmakers.

Bucking the trend: Manitoba defends workers' pensions

Each day Canadian newspapers carry a version of the same story: working Canadians are not prepared for retirement. Statisticians and economists who look at the problem conclude that about half of middle-class baby boomers will experience a steep drop in living standards when they retire.

They also show that with each successive generation of retirees subsequent to the boomers, this problem is projected to get worse. We used to be told that after a career of hard work all workers deserved to retire with dignity and security. Now with decent and secure retirements harder and harder to come by, this important part of middle-class life seems ever more out of reach.

Judge: Chris Christie Broke His Own Law By Cutting Pension Contributions

NEW YORK - A New Jersey judge on Monday ruled that Governor Chris Christie broke his own law when he decided to cut $1.6 billion of contributions from its public pension system, dealing a blow to the expected 2016 Republican Presidential contender.

Christie had proposed the cuts last May to try to plug a $2.7 billion revenue shortfall projected through fiscal 2015.

Wall Street’s Takeover of American Pensions: ‘A Policy Justified Entirely on Ignorance’

A key part of Wall Street’s $300 million expenditure on the recent midterm elections is the goal of moving as much of working Americans’ $3 trillion that sits in unguarded government pension funds into “privately managed, high-fee investments” as possible, Murtaza Hussain writes at The Intercept.

Can We Defend Our Pensions Without Challenging Financialized Capitalism?

Unrelenting employer attacks on workplace based pension plans are intensifying, and the struggle to defend them is becoming more challenging right across the country.

One recent development appears to be an important partial victory. Some 900 workers at Bombardier’s Thunder Bay production facility, represented by Unifor, launched an eight-week strike on July 14, and the dispute centred on an employer demand to eliminate the secure, “defined benefit” type pension plan with an individualized “defined contribution” savings scheme for all new hires. Bombardier’s proposal was hardly a new idea – private sector employers without unions have been unilaterally imposing just that for a number of years, and it’s the model that has sparked a series of important battles at unionized private sector employers such as Vale-Inco, Air Canada, the Big Three Automakers, U.S. Steel, and many others. Even highly profitable companies have been dumping or restructuring their pension commitments to workers – all workers where possible, new hires only if necessary.

A Pension Jackpot for Wall Street

Most consumers understand that when you pay an above-market premium, you shouldn’t expect to get a below-average product. Why, then, is this principle often ignored when it comes to managing billions of dollars in public pension systems?

This is one of the most significant questions facing states and cities as they struggle to meet their contractual obligations to public employees. In recent years, public officials have shifted more of those workers’ pension money into private equity, hedge funds, venture capital and other so-called “alternative investments.” In all, the National Association of State Retirement Administrators reports that roughly a quarter of all pension funds are now in these “alternative investments”—a tripling in just 12 years.

Jeff Bezos Makes Big Cuts To Washington Post Benefits

Washington Post owner Jeff Bezos will make significant cuts to its retirement plans for both union and nonunion employees, the newspaper said in a letter to staffers on Tuesday.

From the Post's report on the cuts, which slash medical and pension plans for staffers:

The changes will hit hardest at employees hired before 2009 who could plan on receiving pension payments based on their income and years of service. Each of those employees could see scores — or hundreds — of thousands of dollars less over the course of a retirement. More recent hires do not have traditional pension plans.