Pension Protection & Asset Accumulation

This Dispatch will emphasize that there is no crisis in most state retirement systems, even according to the numbers of the researchers demanding state leaders take unneeded action to cut the incomes of retirees.  And despite the hype from a few carefully selected anecdotes of retirees gaming pension systems, the reality is that the overwhelming number of public employees receive pretty bare-bones benefits, in some cases not enough even to keep them out of poverty.

In an effort to stimulate local economic growth and free up credit markets, New Mexico Sen. Tim Keller and Rep. Brian Egolf introduced HB66, which would require the state to give preference to community banks and credit unions to manage the state's general fund operating cash depository account.  Currently, Bank of America holds the $1.4 billion account. 

As this Dispatch will highlight, the first step is to fund jobs that support long-term economic competitiveness, notably by investing in people and physical infrastructure.  While the economic climate for profit-making business opportunities is more limited, investments in education, health care, transit and energy efficiency can create immediate jobs while strengthening building blocks for long-term growth.

There will be 2.4 million foreclosures in 2009 along with 9 million foreclosures between 2009-2012, according to the Center for Responsible Lending (CRL).  CRL also estimates that 69 million homes will lose property value because of nearby foreclosures for a total property value loss of $502 billion.  As part of our Multi-State Shared Agenda, the Progressive States Network is working with its partners and leading experts to promote reforms to stem the foreclosure crisis and put in place reforms to discourage predatory lending practices in the future. 

Yesterday, the U.S. House Banking Committee defeated amendments that would have gutted provisions in law to restore state powers to protect consumers of national banks.  Instead, the Committee approved compromise language that, while not as expansive in the protection of state legislation as the Obama administration had urged, is still a significant victory overall against large financial interests.  By a vote of 29-38, the committee defeated a proposed amendment by Rep. Jeb Hensarling (R-Texas) that would have preempted all state regulation of national financial institutions.

The context of this call is that, in the wake of the financial meltdown that engulfed the country last year largely caused by fraud and predatory lending, Congress is now debating the Consumer Financial Protection Agency Act (CFPA Act, H 3126). The act would create a consumer product protection agency for financial products analogous to the Consumer Product Safety Board.

As the economic downturn progresses, American workers are facing a disturbing rise in employers using credit ratings to determine job worthiness.  According to a 2006 survey by the Society for Human Resource Management, the number of firms using credit histories to screen applicants rose from 25% in 1998 to 43% despite such inquiries often being discriminatory and even illegal. 

Whether out of circumstance or an emerging trend, where state authority was at issue, this term the U.S. Supreme Court overwhelmingly deferred to state decision makers-- a significant reveral from last year. 

According to The Wall Street Journal, "Fed and Treasury officials have identified the disease. It's called de-leveraging, or the unwinding of debt. During the credit boom, financial institutions and American households took on too much debt."  But let's not buy into a false equivalence of "financial institutions" and those "American households" borrowing beyond their means.

By one estimate, the federal government spent over $367 billion in 2005 aloneon subsidizing Americans' retirement savings and tax breaks to build upother assets like buying a home.  Unfortunately, those subsidies gooverwhelmingly to those Americans who already have high-incomes; almostnone of it goes to the poorest Americans who need the most helpbuilding the financial assets that can lead to long-term economicopportunities and security.