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| John Ralfe |
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 Updated: 20/1/2012
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Latest Articles
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Latest Articles
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MPs’ pension plan faces $1 billion shortfall, report finds Kenyon Wallace, Toronto Star, 19/1/2012
Summary: "Discussion of Canadian MPs’ pensions"
Thoughts on the end (or not) of the DB era John Ralfe, Financial Times FTfm, 9/1/2012
Summary: ""If DB pensions didn’t exist, would we invent them?""
Has the Government given up on pensions? Jim Moore, Independent, 6/1/2012
Summary: "John Ralfe tweaked the Government’s nose crunching some numbers on the effect of its planned reforms to public sector pensions.
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Pension age increase sees ’no saving’ BBC News, BBC website, 5/1/2012
Summary: "The government will make no savings by raising the public sector pension age to 67, a pensions consultant has said.
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Civil service pensions ’still gold plated’ Robert Peston, Peston Blog, 4/1/2012
Summary: "Analysis by John Ralfe shows the improvements in the benefits given to public sector workers at the higher retirement age offset the reduction in costs the higher retirement age
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Whole of Government Accounts 2010 HMT, HMT website, 29/11/2011
Summary: "The first consolidated accounts showing the whole public sector, including pensions"
Boots pursues pension changes despite regulator’s misgivings Richard Northedge, Independent on Sunday, 16/10/2011
Summary: "Company’s offer to workers risks mis-selling claims
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Section 89 Report on Polestar Pensions The Pension Regulator, TPR website, 15/10/2011
Summary: "Explanation by TPR of the Polestar Pensions debacle"
Judgement on Nortel & Lehman pension case Appeal Court, Website, 14/10/2011
Summary: "The High Court upholds the ruling that contribution notices issued by TPR after a company is insolvent have "super priority""
Long Run SE Voet: De-bunking the Mantra of the Equity Cult RJ Thomson, South African Actuarial Journal, 1/10/2011
Summary: "In the long run we are all dead - John Maynard Keynes"
Federal roles in dealing with State and Local Pensions Douglas J. Elliott, The Brookings Institution, 12/5/2011
Summary: "Policy options for US public sector pensions"
PPF Levy - A New Framework , PPF website, 1/5/2011
Summary: "Explanation of how the PPF will incorporate investment risk into its levy"
Letter sent to UK Chancellor George Osborne John Ralfe and 22 others, , 26/4/2011
Summary: "Letter to George Osborne asking him to re-consider his decision on the discount rate for public sector pensions"
Letter to Polestar Pension Scheme members Chairman of the Scheme, , 18/4/2011
Summary: "Explanation of the position of the scheme"
Economist Special Report on pensions Philip Coggan, Economist, 9/4/2011
Summary: "Falling Short"
The correct public sector pension discount rate John Ralfe, FTfm, 14/3/2011
Summary: "Public sector pensions are not discretionary government spending, like health or education, but deferred pay earned under a legally binding contract of employment, equivalent to giving ILGs to be redeemed at retirement."
Time to get real about pensions Ruth Sunderland, Daily Mail, 11/3/2011
Summary: "Encouraging people to work for longer is good for individuals and for the economy. Besides, in the public or the private sector, there is no alternative.
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Public-sector pensions lose platinum coat Robert Peston, Peston blog, 10/3/2011
Summary: "Public-sector workers would be left with a pension scheme worth around 15% of typical salaries. Which would still make many in the private sector feel just a bit envious.
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Can (US) State and Local Pensions muddle through? Alicia Munnell et al, CRR, Boston College, 1/3/2011
Summary: "Analysis of US State and Local pensions"
Final Hutton Report Lord Hutton, Website, 1/3/2011
Summary: "Lord Hutton’s Final Report on reforming public sector pensions"
Inflation-linked bonds still best option for pension savers Zvi Bodie, Charles Cowling, John Ralfe, Cliff Speed & Ian Sykes, FT Letters, 7/2/2011
Summary: "Response to Jeremy Siegel that pension savers should hold equities"
The Economics of State and Local Pensions Jeffrey Brown et al, NBER Working Paper 16792, 1/2/2011
Summary: "Analyses the financial aspects of US state and local pensions"
Current pension policies are misguided Robert C. Merton & Jan Snippe, FTfm, 24/1/2011
Summary: "Restrictions on asset allocation may cause low-risk allocations to be disqualified"
Robbing Peter to pay Paul’s pension John Ralfe, FTfm, 24/1/2011
Summary: "If USS operates as "cash-in, cash-out" it is a massive pyramid selling scheme, relying on contributions for new pension promises to pay current pensions"
Forecasting the public finances Office for Budget Reponsibility, , 15/1/2011
Summary: "Methodology of the OBR"
Improving Sweden’s automatic pension adjustment mechanism Nicholas Barr & Peter Diamond, Centre for Retirement Research, Boston College, 2/1/2011
Summary: "Sweden’s notional DC arrangements need some modification"
?100bn hole in local government pensions Robert Peston, Robert Peston blog, 15/12/2010
Summary: "Mr Ralfe says that the LGPS will show a much smaller official actuarial deficit, because it will not be using the FRS17 valuation method imposed on the private sector.
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Guidance on Transfer Incentives Consultation Report The Pensions Regulator, TPR website, 15/12/2010
Summary: "Discussion of transfers from pension schemes"
Local government pension deficit ?totals ?100bn? BBC, BBC News, 15/12/2010
Summary: "The deficit in the Local Government Pension Scheme in England may have more than doubled in the past three years to ?100bn, research suggests.
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Pension measure leads to nonsensical conclusions John Ralfe, Financial Times letters, 26/11/2010
Summary: "Reforming public sector pensions requires a robust and common understanding of costs to allowed informed debate and necassary hard decisions to be taken."
Restricting pensions tax relief Mark Hoban MP (Treasury Minister), Written Commons Statement, 14/10/2010
Summary: "Statement on reducing Annual Allowance and Life Time Allowance"
Technical Bulletin Restricting Pensions Tax Relief Government Acturay’s Department, GAD website, 14/10/2010
Summary: "Discussion of changes to Annual Allowance and Life Time Allowance"
Lord Hutton’s Interim Report Lord Hutton, Website, 7/10/2010
Summary: "Interim Report on public sector pension reforms"
Making auto-enrolment work DWP, DWP website, 1/10/2010
Summary: "Independent Report commissioned by the DWP"
Royal Mail: A hedge fund that delivers letters Robert Peston, Robert Peston blog, 23/9/2010
Summary: "The Royal Mail Pension Fund accounts show it had ?5bn of exposure to UK and overseas shares via futures contracts, not disclosed in the RM accounts.
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Long Term Funding Strategy Pension Protection Fund, PPF website, 15/8/2010
Summary: "Discussion of how the PPF intends to be fully funded"
Statement on the impact of moving to CPI for pension increases The Pensions Regulator, TPR website, 20/7/2010
Summary: "Guidance on responding if pension liabilities are reduced by moving to CPI"
Statement on moving to CPI as the measure of price inflation DWP, DWP website, 12/7/2010
Summary: "Comment on the move to increase pensions in line with CPI not RPI"
Time to talk real public sector pension costs John Ralfe, FTfm, 28/6/2010
Summary: "The Treasury, under Gordon Brown, fiddled the annual cost of new public sector pension promises to the tune of £120bn to £150bn."
Why Governments should issue longevity bonds David Blake et al, The Pensions Institute, 12/3/2010
Summary: "Arguments for governments to issue longevity bonds"
The Church’s reckless investment gamble John Ralfe, FTfm, 8/2/2010
Summary: "The Church Commissioners are in denial about the real pension liability"
Financial planners and Do no Harm Zvi Bodie, Journal of Financial Planning, 1/2/2010
Summary: "Our idea of financial literacy is to transfer risk from the corporate sector to the consumer."
Pensions Commissions Report was flawed John Ralfe, FTfm, 7/9/2009
Summary: "Ignoring equity risk overstates the income personal pension accounts will generate and is wishful thinking on a grand scale."
Pension pothole on GM’s road to recovery John Ralfe, FTfm, 6/7/2009
Summary: "Maintaining GM’s pensions is a hidden transfer of $3.5bn a year from the federal government"
Public and private pensions - Worlds apart , The Economist, 12/6/2009
Summary: "Britain’s pensions apartheid looks unsustainable"
Behind BT’s deep, dark pension deficit John Ralfe, FTfm, 25/5/2009
Summary: "BT’s fundamental approach since privatisation seems to be "keep betting on equities and hope for the best""
Political pensions - the real scandal Sue Cameron, Financial Times, 29/4/2009
Summary: "Never mind MPs’ expenses - the real scandal is their pensions."
Switching to gilts is short-sighted Clr Roy Olham, FT letters, 31/3/2009
Summary: "As chair of the Greater Manchester Local Government Pension Fund for more than 20 years, which is among the most successful in local government, I find John Ralfe’s ideas both unacceptable and an intrusion into the free working of local government."
A refusal to pass on the deficit offers scant comfort John Thurston, Financial Times Letters, 27/3/2009
Summary: "John Healey’s response seemed to be denial exemplified and makes John Ralfe’s case"
Council tax will not rise to meet public pension deficit John Healey, Minister for Local Government, FT letters, 25/3/2009
Summary: "The LGPS remains solvent and well placed to meet its liabilities"
In denial over public pensions John Ralfe, FTfm, 23/3/2009
Summary: "Neither local authorities nor central government recognise the size of the LGPS deficiy and thus have no plan to address it"
Pension calculations have ignored equity risk John Ralfe, Financial Times Letters, 10/2/2009
Summary: "Personal pension accounts will fail because the Pensions Commission?s underlying analysis is fundamentally flawed and misrepresents the economics of holding equities."
Nortel outlay to reveal cracks in PPF John Ralfe, FTfm, 26/1/2009
Summary: "Because the PPF was not set up to charge an economic rate, it was always going to be under pressure"
Looking Out for the Next Bailout Alan B. Krueger, New York Times, 22/12/2008
Summary: "When the stock market falls P.B.G.C. gets hit by a double whammy.
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Public sector pensions debate requires clarity on costs John Ralfe, Financial Times Letters, 2/12/2008
Summary: "Getting clarity on public sector pension costs is technically easy, but politically difficult."
Snouts and trotters in the trough Sue Cameron, Financial Times, 12/11/2008
Summary: "The cheating classes just do not get it, do they?"
Clare and present danger Buttonwood, The Economist, 6/11/2008
Summary: "There is a flaw in the belief, widely held in the 1990s, that all one has to do is buy and hold equities to ensure a handsome return in the long run."
Clare is taking calculated risk Norman Cumming, Financial Times Letters, 3/11/2008
Summary: "Clare is taking a risk, but a calculated risk, to which the governing body gave much thought."
Did Clare fellows ask the cost of insuring deal? John Ralfe & Prof Alasdair Smith, Financial Times Letters, 30/10/2008
Summary: "The expected long-term outperformance of equities is not a reward for patience or a "loyalty bonus", but no more or less than a reward for risk."
New PPF rules needed to protect taxpayers John Ralfe, FTfm, 27/10/2008
Summary: "If we do not grasp the pension nettle now we will store up bigger problems for the future with an eventual taxpayer bail-out."
Treasury?s basic mistake about public pensions John Ralfe, Financial Times Letters, 21/7/2008
Summary: "The Treasury doggedly refuses to recognise that public sector pensions are government debt, the same as issuing index-linked gilts to public sector workers."
Public sector pensions - at what future cost? John Ralfe, FTfm, 14/7/2008
Summary: "The huge payments to government and members from the Coal Board pension schemes are being made from fictitious surpluses."
Statement on use of extended powers The Pensions Regulator, , 25/4/2008
Summary: "Reassurance from TPR that the new powers will be used sparingly"
Letter to Congress on PBGC US Congessional Budget Office, , 24/4/2008
Summary: "CBO’s analysis of the PBGC’s controversial decision to move back into equites"
Sir Humprey’s Legacy: An Update Neil Record, Institute of Economic Affairs, 2/1/2008
Summary: "Analysis of UK unfunded public sector occupational pensions"
Towards a Conceptual Framework : Consultation Paper Board For Actuarial Standards, , 15/11/2007
Summary: "Consulation by the BAS, which now sets actuarial standards"
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