Author Archives: Leo Kolivakis

Guest Post: A Private Equity Quagmire?

Submitted by Leo Kolivakis, publisher of Pension Pulse. Bloomberg reports pension plans’ private equity cash depleted as profits shrink: U.S. pension funds contributed to the record $1.2 trillion that private-equity firms raised this decade. Three of the biggest investors, state pensions in California, Oregon and Washington, plunked down at least $53.8 billion. So far, they […]

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Guest Post: The Nuclear Option For Pensions?

Submitted by Leo Kolivakis, publisher of Pension Pulse. The FT reports that the decline of final salary pension scheme set to accelerate: Half of UK companies whose defined benefit pension schemes are still open to existing members expect to have closed them to all employees by 2012, according to a survey by pension consultants Watson […]

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Guest Post: FARMing Out The Housing Crisis?

Submitted by Leo Kolivakis, publisher of Pension Pulse. On Wednesday, The Sceptical Market Observer, Luc Vallée, posted a piece on his blog, a simple bailout plan for housing and US economy. Luc cites Martin Feldstein’s article, “How to Save an ‘Underwater’ Mortgage“, published in the Wall Street Journal last Friday: “Here is an alternative: Make […]

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Guest Post: CPPIB Posts 7% Quarterly Return

Submitted by Leo Kolivakis, publisher of Pension Pulse. The Globe and Mail reports that CPPIB rides market rebound: The Canada Pension Plan Investment Board bounced back in the first quarter, posting a 7.1-per-cent rate of return thanks to soaring global markets. The rebound, combined with steady inflows from contributions, boosted assets as of the June […]

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Guest Post: Beware of Bulls?

Submitted by Leo Kolivakis, publisher of Pension Pulse. Bloomberg reports that U.S. stocks rose for a fourth week, pushing the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index above 1,000 for the first time since November, as better-than-estimated employment, manufacturing and home sales data boosted confidence that the worst slump since the Great Depression is ending: Bank of […]

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Guest Post: Supreme Injustice?

Submitted by Leo Kolivakis, publisher of Pension Pulse. The Financial Posts reports that the Supreme Court rules on treating pension surpluses: A Supreme Court of Canada ruling on how employers deal with surpluses in a defined-benefit pension plan has company lawyers cheering and employee lawyers jeering. In a 5-2 ruling, Canada’s top court held that […]

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Guest Post: A Summit On Pensions?

Submitted by Leo Kolivakis, publisher of Pension Pulse. Canada’s premiers met in Regina on Thursday, talking tough about the “Buy American” policy in the United States, pledging to equip Prime Minister Stephen Harper with provincial backing for his meeting with President Barack Obama next week. But the premiers also discussed another important issue, the pension […]

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Guest Post: "Big Money" Betting on Beta?

Submitted by Leo Kolivakis, publisher of Pension Pulse. On Monday I reported that some UK pension schemes are shifting assets into bonds. On Tuesday Reuters carried an article, Dow rally for real? “Big Money” thinks so: Pension managers and mutual fund houses have been among the biggest buyers of the Dow Jones industrial average .DJI […]

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Guest Post: The Royal Rumble?

Submitted by Leo Kolivakis, publisher of Pension Pulse. Reuters reports that British pension funds have begun exerting pressure to change proposed European Union rules that would impose new regulations on the hedge fund and alternative investment sector: The National Association of Pension Funds (NAPF) and a director at Hermes, manager of Britain’s largest corporate scheme, […]

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