There are a lot of people asking me what I would do about pensions today. So here form 2010 is my answer: Finance for the Future, a partnership between me and fellow Green New Deal member and environmentalist Colin Hines, has published a new report this weekend. Entitled ‚ ‘Making Pensions Work’ it explores the reasons
Read the Rest…

The TUC was one of the sponsors of a new report on pensions out this week. I need to give this issue some more attention again, but one matter highlighted jumped out: Basic rate taxpayers make more than half of total pension contributions in the UK, but receive less than a third of pensions tax
Read the Rest…

As the FT notes this morning: UK companies reporting annual results for the year to March are expected to report an increase of more than £100bn in their aggregate pension scheme deficits, according to actuarial forecasts. This year’s reporting season is likely to expose larger, not smaller, pension shortfalls than existed a year ago, despite
Read the Rest…

In April 2008 I wrote a blog with the title ‘FTSE at 6,000 – is this madness‘. It was, of course. I was right. This is the FTSE since then from Yahoo this morning:  A crash was coming and my instincts were entirely right even though people did, of course, tell me I was wrong
Read the Rest…

A magazine called New Start has featured the following statement this week: A housing scheme in Manchester is the latest development to fuel debate over the use of council pension schemes to invest in local projects. Austin Macauley assesses whether it’s likely to open the floodgates The case for using England’s council pension funds to benefit local economies just got stronger…
Read the Rest…

I’m not involved in this, but it looks good, and so I thought I’d give it a mention. I like FairPensions as an organisation. TRAINING DAY: Saturday, 17th November 2012 (10am – 4.30pm) UNISON Centre, 130 Euston Road, London NW1 2AY FairPensions is running a day-long training for people who want to use the power of their pension
Read the Rest…

I note there are those griping on this blog and elsewhere that any change in pension rules by the government will make pensions even less affordable than now and undermine the credibility of our pensions arrangements. Let me be clear: this is wrong. Our current pension arrangements do not and can never work for reasons I explained in ‘Making Pensions Work’. In that report I said:
Read the Rest…

A commentator on this blog this morning has made an excellent point on pensions: It used to be the case that most employers’ pension schemes in the private sector were defined-benefit schemes. When that was the case, the pension beneficiaries didn’t get much of a say in the decisions made by the scheme’s trustees. Fair
Read the Rest…

Ian Fraser is a journalist for whom I have a lot of time, and respect. I warmly endorse a blog he wrote this weekend on the subject of this week’d edition of The Economist in which he wrote: I was surprised and disappointed when I opened my copy of The Economist on Friday morning. The magazine
Read the Rest…