Retirement Finance in the Wake of the Bubble and Longer-Term Implications
Alex J. Pollock, Andrew G. Biggs
May 06, 2009
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The deflated credit bubble has brought huge losses and tensions to retirement finance. It has caused severe underfunding of corporate pensions and a deepening crisis among state and municipal pension plans. In addition, in an ill-advised move, the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation shifted its asset allocation toward equities just in time for the market crash, and Social Security's annual surplus has all but disappeared.

Are the 1950s ideas of "retirement" and its financing viable fifty years later? What long-term reforms are required? These and other questions will be discussed by retirement finance experts, including former Social Security Administration principal deputy commissioner Andrew G. Biggs, now at AEI; labor economist Gary Burtless and Douglas J. Elliott, former principal researcher for the Center on Federal Financial Institutions, both from the Brookings Institution; and David C. John of the Heritage Foundation, codeveloper of the automatic individual retirement accounts proposal. AEI's Alex J. Pollock will moderate.

About the Author

 

Alex J.
Pollock
  • Alex Pollock joined AEI in 2004 after thirty-five years in banking. He was president and chief executive officer of the Federal Home Loan Bank of Chicago from 1991 to 2004. He is the author of numerous articles on financial systems and the organizer of the “Deflating Bubble” series of AEI conferences. In 2007, he developed a one-page mortgage form to help borrowers understand their mortgage obligations. At AEI, he focuses on financial policy issues, including housing finance, government-sponsored enterprises, retirement finance, corporate governance, accounting standards, and the banking system. He is a director of the CME Group, the Great Lakes Higher Education Corporation, the International Union for Housing Finance, and the chairman of the board of the Great Books Foundation.

    CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD ALEX POLLOCK'S ONE-PAGE MORTGAGE FORM
  • Phone: 2028627190
    Email: apollock@aei.org
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Andrew G.
Biggs
  • Andrew G. Biggs is a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute in Washington, DC. Prior to joining AEI he was the principal deputy commissioner of the Social Security Administration (SSA), where he oversaw SSA's policy research efforts and led the agency's participation in the Social Security Trustees working group. In 2005 he worked on Social Security reform at the National Economic Council and in 2001 was on the staff of the President's Commission to Strengthen Social Security. Andrew’s work at AEI focuses on Social Security reform, state and local government pensions, and comparisons of public and private sector compensation. His work has appeared in academic publications as well as outlets such as the Wall Street Journal, New York Times and Washington Post, and he has testified before Congress on numerous occasions. He holds a Bachelors degree from the Queen's University of Belfast, Masters degrees from Cambridge University and the University of London and a Ph.D. from the London School of Economics.
  • Phone: 202-862-5841
    Email: andrew.biggs@aei.org

  • Assistant Info

    Name: Rohan Poojara
    Phone: 202-862-5852
    Email: rohan.poojara@aei.org
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