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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 | 
| Author: Roger Lowenstein
Publisher: Penguin Press HC, The
Category: Book
List Price: $25.95
Buy New: $17.13
You Save: $8.82 (34%)
Rating:  20 reviews
Sales Rank: 6946
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 288
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.1
Dimensions (in): 9.3 x 6.1 x 1.1
ISBN: 1594201676
Dewey Decimal Number: 331.25240973
EAN: 9781594201677
Publication Date: May 1, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
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Product Description
From the bestselling author of Buffett, When Genius Failed, and Origins of the Crash, a wake-up call to the pension and retirement crisis facing America and the road map for a way out
In While America Aged, bestselling author Roger Lowenstein explains how corporations and governments ran up ruinous pension and health-care promises to workerspromises that are now coming due and that will hit America like a tsunami if nothing is done.
Negotiating high benefits means gambling with future financesand when the farm gets sold out from underneath major corporations or public institutions, it affects all of us, and in ways we might not imagine. With his trademark narrative panache, Lowenstein unravels the truth about how pensions work in America and illuminates the impending crisis. While America Aged is comprised of three fascinating case studies each an object lesson and a compelling historical saga. The first goes back to the early days of the United Auto Workers and its crusading leader, Walter Reuther, to tell the story of how pensions and health-care obligations destroyed the American auto industry, in particular General Motors.
Lowenstein then shifts the scene to New York City to tell the story of the rise of public pensions and public sector unions through the vehicle of the Communist-led Transport Workers Union. Once again, justifiable benefits were followed by outrageous ones, such as the right to retire at age fifty. The saga reached a dramatic climax in 2005, when workers responded to proposed pension cutbacks with a massive strike that brought New Yorks subways and buses to a screeching halt days before Christmas.
In the concluding episode, Lowenstein visits a metropolis even more reckless in doling out benefitsSan Diego. Desperate not to impose higher taxes, city officials in this highly conservative enclave cut a series of deals with unions to short-change the retirement system and use pension funds to run the city. A massive scandal ensuedtwo mayors resigned, officials were indicted, and San Diego lost its bond rating. Lowenstein warns that the pension wars that erupted in Detroit, New York City, and San Diego are only the first. But he also recognizes that workers are entitled to decent security in their retirementa critical problem as the country ages. While America Aged explains how we came to this crisis, and it also proposes a way out. Arming readers with knowledge of the consequences of doing nothing, While America Aged, first and foremost, a call to action.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 15 more reviews...
 The Collapse of America's Pension System May 2, 2008
28 out of 38 found this review helpful
The nation's pension system is collapsing at the same time its population is aging. In the late 1960s, 60% of Americans were covered by a pension plan; today it is under 20% of those in private employment. Pension funds in the private sector are $350 billion in deficit, and many employers (IBM, Sears, etc.) are freezing their plans to keep obligations from growing further. Similarly, states and localities are hundreds of billions behind on funding, and Lowenstein declines to even get into Social Security's status or obligations for health care to retired public employees. (In another source Lowenstein estimates a $1 trillion deficit for retired public employees - presumably this also includes health care.)
"While America Aged" covers how we went from almost no pensions in the early 1900s (most worked on farms, and 'retirement' consisted of working less while relying more on family members), to a high proportion of coverage (more workers were in industry), to unsustainable benefit levels, using three case studies (G.M., the New York City subway system, and San Diego municipal employees).
In each case, management officials were lulled (and sometimes forced through long strikes) into acceptance by the delayed impact involved. At first few, if any workers were retired, and they were supported by a very large employee base.
In G.M.'s case, the firm also benefited by being the dominant force in the industry - 50%+ market share. Then autoworkers aged, Japanese autos reduced G.M.'s market share, cheap money to encourage home ownership and consumer spending undermined G.M.'s ability to attain adequate pension-fund earnings, and G.M. dug itself in even deeper with unrealistic assumptions on fund earnings and further benefit increases. Thus, from 1991-2006 it poured $55 billion into its pension funds, and only paid $13 billion in dividends.
To date, most corporations continue to minimize the problem, or pass off pension obligations to the government through bankruptcy, especially steel and airline companies. Unfortunately, the PGBC program is in deficit as well, and not designed to also take the burden of municipal pension funds.
New York City's transit, teachers, sanitation, firemen, and police public employee unions engaged in a "leapfrog" contest during the 1960s. Between them they steadily increased pension benefits through lowering the age of retirement, the proportion of "ending" salary paid upon retirement, changing "ending" salary to just the last year and including overtime (a extra $76 in overtime pay during a retirees final year created $1,100+ in pension liabilities), adding an inflation index provision, and reducing/eliminating employee contributions. These escalating costs for the MTA were hidden through deferred maintenance, state and federal aid, a soaring stock market, actuarial manipulation, and increased taxes. Mayoral egos bent on higher office often facilitated these additions. All this on top of high pay - in 2005 the average high-school educated NYC worker earned $29,000, vs. a public bus driver at $63,000.
Similarly, San Diego in 2005 found itself with a public employee pension fund deficit of $1.7 billion ($6,000/family of our), no audited financials, and a reputation as the "Enron-by-the-Sea." It had fallen into this through Proposition 13, mayoral candidates aspiring to higher office (eg. Pete Wilson), and union influence on elections and decision-making.
Finally, a 5/19/08 USAToday article contends that state and local retirement obligations total $3.6 trillion, out of a total government retirement debt of $61.7 trillion ($541,472/household), on top of $13.8 trillion in personal debt (mortgages, credit cards, etc.), for a total of $650,644/household.
 Three Good Anecdotes Don't Tell a Complete Story June 16, 2008
20 out of 21 found this review helpful
Although Lowenstein is a talented writer and the topic of retirement in America is an important one, the narrow focus of this book makes it hard to recommend. Lowenstein skillfully recounts in detail the pension plan difficulties faced by General Motors, the New York City subway system and San Diego.
However, these three stories seem to exist in isolation. He doesn't spend enough time putting them in the context of other government and private pension and 401(k) plans. Lowenstein seems to have focused on making sure the three stories are easy to read and in this he has succeeded. But in doing so, he has not provided the hard data that a reader needs to really understand the issue. There is not a single chart of table in the book. There are virtually no benchmarks in the book - it's hard to judge the appropriateness of the pay and pensions described in the book without details of the payroll and benefit costs of other American workers.
Although the stories were good, after reading 230 pages I didn't feel that I had learned anything significant that I did not know before.
Economic and political history May 16, 2008
18 out of 19 found this review helpful
Roger Lowenstein is the author of my favorite books "Buffett" and "When Genius Failed". His ability to collect the historical facts is amazing: the author gives 575 references to other sources throughout the book. I like this approach very much. This book is also timely and accurate: it is not only a spell-binding economic and political history, the origin and the problems of IRAs, 401(k) and other mechanisms - it is an urgent call to action and a prescription for reform. You will also find what do the precedential candidates of 2008 campaign think about this issue. Besides that, Lowenstein, a regular contributor to many financial periodicals, proposes his own solution. The author recognizes that the workers are entitled to decent security in their retirement - a critical issue as the country ages. He warns that the pension wars that erupted in Detroit, New York and San Diego are only the first. Government and corporations across the country used pensions as a seemingly easy way to curry favor with unions (easy because the expense would be deferred until a later generation). But now, with cumulative retirement deficits approaching $1 trillion, the day of reckoning has arrived.
The author declares that pensions are perfect vehicle for procrastination; in the financial world, they are the most long-enduring promises that exist. The only rival is the federal Social Security system - but there, surprisingly, the commitment is no so airtight. Congress, if it chose, could reduce or cancel Social Security benefits tomorrow. Pensions are forever.
There is a noteworthy example in the book: the young men who went to work for General Motors after World Word II, when GM ruled the roost of American business, were promised pensions and health care benefits that remained in force for half a century. One GM retiree, who died at 111 in 2006, had been collecting pension and retiree health benefits for forty-eight years. When he first went to work, in 1926, GM's managers could not have had the faintest conception of what the company could or would be paying in benefits eighty years later.
I do also recommend the other books by Roger Lowenstein in addition to his book.
Not up to Lowenstein standard May 8, 2008
8 out of 14 found this review helpful
I love Roger Lowenstein's books. I have read both Buffett and When Genius Failed many times: they are interesting, informative, and insightful.
I had problem finishing up While America Aged. The book isn't particularly interesting, the information (such as GM's over generous pension system) widely known, and the message nothing new. This book is miles away from previous Lowenstein books.
 Not a balanced book , June 10, 2008
8 out of 17 found this review helpful
The main message from this book is that unions demanded outrageous pensions which caused all these crises. In the three cases the author presents, the common denominator was negligent management. GM purposely underfunded it's pension system to inflate the value of GM stock which made their stock options much more lucrative to their executives. In the case of New York and San Diego, it was again bad management by government officials who were allowed to willfully underfund their pensions. The fact is that almost every fire and police department in America has a defined pension system and most are working fine. The author also gives scant mention to the looming 401k crisis which is going to be much more of a disaster for middle-class America than the present pension system problem, as most corporations ditched their pensions for the 401k a long time ago. See Jeff Madrick's book review of this book in the New York Times for an in depth review of this book's faults. The author missed on this one by quite a bit.
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