Company Pensions in Peril as Shortfalls Hit Record

Demand leakages…

Company pensions in peril as shortfalls hit record

By Jeff Cox

July 31 (CNN) &#8212 Young workers may want to start counting on something other than company pensions to fund their retirements.

It turns out that the plans of S&P 500 companies are underfunded to the tune of $451.7 billion, a number that has grown some 27 percent in just the last year alone, according to data released Wednesday by S&P Dow Jones Indices.

While firms have plenty of cash to cover older workers currently on the payroll or in pension plans, that may not be the same once the younger generation gets ready to stop working.

US economy should be growing at 3-4%: Former Fed governor

Says problem is not enough drilling!

US economy should be growing at 3-4%: Former Fed governor

By Katie Holliday

July 31 (Bloomberg) — The U.S. economy has the ability to grow at a rate of 3-4 percent if policy makers removed the constraints obstructing its potential, former Federal governor Robert Heller told CNBC on Thursday.

Heller’s comments follow better-than-expected gross domestic product (GDP) figures on Wednesday, which showed the world’s largest economy expanded 1.7 percent growth in the second quarter from the year before, exceeding expectations of a 1 percent rise and an increase on the first quarter’s downwardly revised 1.1 percent.

“We may be out of the woods, but we are [still] walking in a mud field,” said Heller, who served on the Fed’s board from 1986 to 1989 under President Reagan.

“We are stuck in a range of 1-2 percent growth, which is not where we should be. If you would take some of the constraints off the U.S. economy, it could be growing a lot faster at 3-4 percent,” he added.

Heller said one of the key constraints was restrictions on drilling activity on government-owned land which has prevented oil and gas companies from expanding at the pace they should be.