While America Aged

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While America Aged: How Pension Debts Ruined General Motors, Stopped the NYC Subways, Bankrupted San Diego, and Loom as the Next Financial Crisis (eBook) Pub. Date: 5/1/2008 Publisher: Penguin Group (USA)
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While America Aged Pub. Date: 4/28/2009 Publisher: Penguin Group (USA) Incorporated
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While America Aged: How Pension Debts Ruined General Motors, Stopped the NYC Subways, Bankrupted San Diego, and Loom as the Next Financial Crisis Pub. Date: 5/1/2008 Publisher: Penguin Group (USA) Incorporated

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While America Aged: How Pension Debts Ruined General Motors, Stopped the NYC Subways, Bankrupted San Diego, and Loom as the Next Financial Crisis Pub. Date: 5/1/2008 Publisher: Penguin Group (USA) Incorporated

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Overview

The retirement crisis facing America-and the road map for a way out-from The New York Times bestselling author of Origins of the Crash

In the last several decades, corporations and local governments made ruinous pension and healthcare promises to American workers. With these now coming due, they threaten to destroy twenty-first- century America's hopes for a comfortable retirement. With his trademark narrative panache, bestselling author Roger Lowenstein analyzes three fascinating case studies-General Motors, the New York City subway system, and the city of San Diego-each an object lesson and a compelling historical saga that illuminates how the pension crisis developed. Cumulative retirement deficits are approaching $1 trillion, and Lowenstein warns that these are only the first. Retirement pensions will continue to be a critical issue as the country ages, and While America Aged is the urgent call to action and prescription for reform.

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9780143115380
Publisher: Penguin Group (USA) Incorporated
Publication date: 4/28/2009
Pages: 288
Sales rank: 699,464
Product dimensions: 5.60 (w) x 8.50 (h) x 0.67 (d)

Meet the Author

Roger Lowenstein, author of the bestselling Buffett: The Making of an American Capitalist and When Genius Failed: The Rise and Fall of Long-term Capital Management, reported for the Wall Street Journal for more than a decade and wrote the Journal’s stock market column “Heard on the Street” and also its “Intrinsic Value” column. He now contributes articles and reviews to the Journal and the New York Times Magazine and is a columnist for SmartMoney Magazine. He lives in Westfield, New Jersey.

While America Aged Introduction

Part One: Who Owns General Motors?

1. Walter Reuther and the Treaty of Detroit
2. The Anti-Reuther

Part Two: The Public Freight

3. An Entitled Class
4. On Strike!

Part Three: Debacle in San Diego

5. Finest City
6. Pension Plot
7. The Bill Comes Due

Conclusion: The Way Out Acknowledgments Notes Index

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TulaneGirl

Posted February 8, 2009

I Also Recommend:

The Future of America Paying the Price for The Present . . .

How did government spending get so outrageous? Well unsupportable pensions along with a hedonistic mentality certainly didn't hurt. In an effort to increase their campaign funds state congressional leaders have sold out their constituency to the elite few - the government worker. It's outrageous that the average taxpayer, foots the bill for the outstanding pensions that the government worker receives upon retirement. Although in no way begrudging the worker security in the future, they have taken advantage of government weakness. True labor negotiations demand fair worker rights that will not kill the employer. That is because without the employer there is no employment. In government, however, our congressional leaders don't feel the direct pain of giving in to every demand. Consequences are deferred and the money isn't being fully subsidized by them. Lowenstein does an excellent job of exposing the true cost of irresponsible pensions.

The first third of his book is dedicated to how exuberant pensions has accelerated GM's troubles. Although incredibly interesting, there is less outrage in that section simply because it's a private company that forgot its dedication to the shareholders. It was for the shareholders to hold the company accountable for its actions. The second and third part of the book are about government pensions - in the New York Transit System and San Diego County. These are more appalling because its an incredible eye opener as to how much debt and how many problems Americans are leaving to their future. In our effort to appease the worker today we have screwed over the worker of tomorrow. I truly do think that this book should be required reading for every taxpayer.
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Sir_Cumference

Posted December 10, 2008

If you want to understand how Detroit's Big 3 got to this point....

This book is a real eye-opener. With a handful of true-life examples, it explains the longstanding penchant that unions have for demanding more and more, and management's acceding to union demands as long as the day of reckoning is pushed off well into the future. As someone who is not a union member, I was appalled at the absurdly generous retirement benefits that employers (both public and private) have agreed to over the years--benefits that anyone can see are unsupportable in the long run. See for yourself. This should be required reading for every single member of Congress.
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