• Postal Worker Commits Suicide at Waukegan, IL post office

    Updated: 2011-06-30 19:46:38
    An employee of the U.S. Postal Service in Waukegan died in a gruesome act of suicide that began at a downtown Waukegan post office Tuesday night. Waukegan police responded to a 911 call from the post office at 326 N. Genesee St. at 7:40 p.m. Tuesday, arriving just after Stephen Specht, 44, of Mundelein, apparently [...]

  • How expecting inflation could lead to more strikes

    Updated: 2011-06-30 14:19:54
    When inflation is high for any extended period, people start to expect it to remain so. The latest (June) Citi/YouGov inflation tracker shows the public expecting inflation of 3.9 per cent over the next twelve months. Apart from a large downward blip in April 2011 (to 2.9 per cent), this figure has been rising fairly [...]

  • How much would you need to save to buy a public sector pension?

    Updated: 2011-06-30 08:17:20
    Ordinary mortals may stretch their eyes at calculations that public sector employees earning £32,000 a year are retiring with pension pots worth £500,000. Even with today’s historic low interest rates – and correspondingly low annuity yields – and the high value of an inflation-proofed pension that few can now afford in the private sector, can it [...]

  • Things worth reading: 30th June 2011

    Updated: 2011-06-30 05:29:00

  • APWU: Postal Jobs, Pay, Benefits Threatened by Congress

    Updated: 2011-06-30 03:38:45
    House Resolution 1351 A bill introduced by Rep. Stephen Lynch (MA), the ranking Democrat on the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, would address the cause of the USPS financial crisis without cutting pay and benefits, eliminating collective bargaining rights, or slashing service. H.R. 1351 would: Allow the USPS to use billions of dollars in [...]

  • GAO Study: Complexity of Tax Code is Costly

    Updated: 2011-06-29 19:57:03
    : CRFB.org Stimulus.org US Budget Watch Peterson-Pew Commission E-mail list sign up : Subscribe Unsubscribe Search : Home Documents Blog News Events About Contact Recent Posts GAO Study : Complexity of Tax Code is Costly Senators Lieberman and Coburn Release Medicare Proposal CRFB's Maya MacGuineas Says U.S . Must Raise Debt Ceiling The Consequences of Default CBO Makes the Case for Strict Pay-As-You-Go PAYGO Rules MY VIEW : Erskine Bowles Alan Simpson Line’ Items : Columbo Edition The Economic Effects of High Debt By month June 2011 54 May 2011 48 April 2011 55 March 2011 68 February 2011 55 January 2011 59 December 2010 46 November 2010 60 October 2010 53 September 2010 41 August 2010 43 July 2010 60 All Archives By Keyword Budget 197 CBO 100 Congress 224 Deficits and Debt 350 Economy

  • Taxman admits 4.7m PAYE errors: are you a winner or a loser?

    Updated: 2011-06-29 07:52:48
    HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) has discovered that 1.2m paid an average of £600 less tax than they should have done last year, while up to 3.5m are due refunds worth an average of £340. Are you a winner or a loser from these errors in the Pay As You Earn (PAYE) system? People who began [...]

  • Things worth reading: 29th June 2011

    Updated: 2011-06-29 06:31:52

  • OWCP announces final rule updating procedures for Federal Workers’ Compensation Act claims

    Updated: 2011-06-29 04:16:23
    Agency issues first major regulation updates since 1999 WASHINGTON — The U.S. Department of Labor’s Office of Workers’ Compensation Programs today released a final rule that revises and modernizes the procedures used in administering claims under the Federal Employees’ Compensation Act. The rule, published in the June 28 Federal Register, modernizes those procedures to increase [...]

  • USPS Announces Nonbargaining Employees Promotional Salary Increase Policy Change

    Updated: 2011-06-28 20:13:40
    The National Association of Postmasters released the following information: USPS Executive Vice President of Labor Relations, Anthony J. Vegliante today announced promotional salary increase limits for nonbargaining employees.  Mr. Vegliante said “The fiscal health of the Postal Service continues to be at risk and, as a result, we must remain focused on opportunities to encourage [...]

  • Gift Cards On Sale At Select Post Offices Starting Today

    Updated: 2011-06-28 20:13:39
    Customers can now purchase gift cards — “the most-requested holiday gift” — at more than 1,800 Post Offices beginning today. The new line of “open-loop” gift cards — redeemable at any merchant that accepts the card brand — is part of a two-year market test and is being sold at Post Offices that also sell [...]

  • Bail-ins were once unthinkable. Now they're all the rage

    Updated: 2011-06-28 16:42:30
    Many commentators still cling to the idea that in 2008 and 2009 there was no credible alternative to bailing out the banks with taxpayer recapitalisation schemes. Indeed, many declare these bailouts a “success” despite the fact that they led to the worst year of recession in the UK since 1921, a contraction of Irish nominal [...]

  • How 'fairer pensions for women' will make millions of men worse off

    Updated: 2011-06-28 08:01:44
    You might think that Government plans to raise Britain’s meagre basic state pension from £102.15 a week to a new flat rate of £140 would be a thoroughly good thing but new calculations by the Pensions Policy Institute (PPI) show that millions of men will be worse off when pensions are made fairer for women. According [...]

  • Things worth reading: 28th June 2011

    Updated: 2011-06-28 05:59:28

  • U.S. Postal Service Resumes Accepting Mail to Canada

    Updated: 2011-06-28 04:08:36
    Global Express Guaranteed Service Still Best Option to Avoid Delays  WASHINGTON — The U.S. Postal Service will resume accepting mail for Canada starting Tuesday, June 28, as a result of legislation passed yesterday by the Canadian government requiring Canada Post employees to return to work tonight. Mail that was held in the U.S. Postal Service [...]

  • CBO Makes the Case for Strict Pay-As-You-Go (PAYGO) Rules

    Updated: 2011-06-27 21:06:44
    CRFB.org Stimulus.org US Budget Watch Peterson-Pew Commission E-mail list sign up : Subscribe Unsubscribe Search : Home Documents Blog News Events About Contact Recent Posts The Consequences of Default CBO Makes the Case for Strict Pay-As-You-Go PAYGO Rules MY VIEW : Erskine Bowles Alan Simpson Line’ Items : Columbo Edition The Economic Effects of High Debt A Solution for the Debt Ceiling Debate Spending and Revenue in the Long Term Outlook Health Care Versus Aging By month June 2011 51 May 2011 48 April 2011 55 March 2011 68 February 2011 55 January 2011 59 December 2010 46 November 2010 60 October 2010 53 September 2010 41 August 2010 43 July 2010 60 All Archives By Keyword Budget 197 CBO 100 Congress 224 Deficits and Debt 350 Economy 133 Fiscal News 121 Health Care 128 National Debt 111

  • A little-noticed milestone: This week, house prices will have fallen over 30 per cent in real terms

    Updated: 2011-06-27 15:22:26
    Unless something odd happens, this week is likely to see an interesting but under-announced milestone: falls in house prices, in real terms, from their 2007 peak, exceeding 30 per cent (on the well-known Halifax measure). In cash terms, house prices peaked in August 2007, and fell 22 per cent to March 2009. After picking up [...]

  • Common Retirement Plan Deduction Pitfalls

    Updated: 2011-06-27 14:30:09
    Most large retirement plans don’t worry about the maximum pension deduction limit because the plan benefits (and related contributions) are often well below the IRS limits. However, small- and medium-sized retirement plans can unknowingly run into the limits. This post summarizes important deduction pitfalls to be aware of. Self-employment “earned income” limit [§404(a)(8)]. For self-employed [...]

  • Pensions apartheid gets worse as public sector prepares to strike

    Updated: 2011-06-27 08:24:53
    The gap between public sector and private pension provision is growing wider, new evidence shows as 750,000 teachers, lecturers and civil servants prepare to strike. Saving toward retirement has become a minority special interest among the self-employed, in particular, as many struggle to make ends meet each month. Office for National Statistics (ONS) figures show that [...]

  • Senator McCain Files Amendment to Presidential Bill To Make it Easier to Close Post Offices

    Updated: 2011-06-27 03:21:39
    Senate Post Office Closing Amendment and House Financial Services Appropriations Bill This week, Sen. John McCain filed an amendment to S. 679, the Presidential Appointment Efficiency and Streamlining Act of 2011, which would have made it easier for the Postal Service to close Post Offices. Senate Amendment 488 was filed and printed in the Congressional [...]

  • A Solution for the Debt Ceiling Debate?

    Updated: 2011-06-24 16:01:35
    CRFB.org Stimulus.org US Budget Watch Peterson-Pew Commission E-mail list sign up : Subscribe Unsubscribe Search : Home Documents Blog News Events About Contact Recent Posts The Economic Effects of High Debt A Solution for the Debt Ceiling Debate Spending and Revenue in the Long Term Outlook Health Care Versus Aging CBO's Elmendorf to Testify Before House Budget Committee at 10am Today The Differences Between the Two Baselines The CBO Long Term Outlook Is Here Yes , Fix the SGR , But Pay for It Too By month June 2011 47 May 2011 48 April 2011 55 March 2011 68 February 2011 55 January 2011 59 December 2010 46 November 2010 60 October 2010 53 September 2010 41 August 2010 43 July 2010 60 All Archives By Keyword Budget 197 CBO 100 Congress 224 Deficits and Debt 350 Economy 133 Fiscal News 121

  • Greece is going to be kicked out of the eurozone whatever happens

    Updated: 2011-06-24 10:09:26
    David Cameron may have won his battle to keep Britain out of a second EU bail-out for Greece – but that doesn’t alter the long-term inevitability of Greece’s departure from the eurozone. There are two claims I hear repeated about Greece that I’d like to take this opportunity to knock down. The first myth is that [...]

  • Things worth reading: 24th June 2011

    Updated: 2011-06-24 06:53:24

  • Health Care Versus Aging

    Updated: 2011-06-23 18:50:16
    CRFB.org Stimulus.org US Budget Watch Peterson-Pew Commission E-mail list sign up : Subscribe Unsubscribe Search : Home Documents Blog News Events About Contact Recent Posts Health Care Versus Aging CBO's Elmendorf to Testify Before House Budget Committee at 10am Today The Differences Between the Two Baselines The CBO Long Term Outlook Is Here Yes , Fix the SGR , But Pay for It Too Leon Panetta Confirmed By the Senate CRFB Outlines Dos and Don'ts for Budget Negotiations Elmendorf to NY Fed : We Can't Repeat the Past' By month June 2011 44 May 2011 48 April 2011 55 March 2011 68 February 2011 55 January 2011 59 December 2010 46 November 2010 60 October 2010 53 September 2010 41 August 2010 43 July 2010 60 All Archives By Keyword Budget 197 CBO 100 Congress 224 Deficits and Debt 350 Economy

  • Why Clegg's bank shares giveaway is a sick joke

    Updated: 2011-06-23 08:13:19
    Millions of small shareholders in Britain’s battered banks could be forgiven for feeling that Nick Clegg, the Deputy Prime Minister’s proposal to distribute free shares is a sick joke. Many, including your humble correspondent, may wish they were not already shareholders after the way senior management’s madness and government gullibility combined to destroy that portion of [...]

  • Are payments infrastructures fit for purpose?

    Updated: 2011-06-23 07:00:00

  • Things worth reading: 23rd June 2011

    Updated: 2011-06-23 06:14:29

  • Things worth reading: 22nd June 2011

    Updated: 2011-06-22 06:33:36

  • IRS Releases 2009 Form 8955-SSA and Extends Filing Due Date

    Updated: 2011-06-21 19:46:26
    The IRS finally released the 2009 Form 8955-SSA used for reporting participants with deferred vested pension benefits. They also extended the deadline for the 2009 and 2010 filings from August 1, 2011 to January 17, 2012.  Here are links to: 2009 Form 8955-SSA (fill-in the box version) Instructions for Form 8955-SSA Employee Plans News with [...]

  • Things worth reading: 21st June 2011

    Updated: 2011-06-21 06:01:24

  • Things worth reading: 20th June 2011

    Updated: 2011-06-20 06:31:30

  • Better Late Than Never: IRS Releases 2010 Form 5500-EZ

    Updated: 2011-06-15 22:20:12
    The 2010 Form 5500-EZ (with instructions) is now available for “one-participant” retirement plans. Sponsors and practitioners have waited months for the release of these forms. The filing deadline is July 31, 2011 (without extensions) for calendar year plans, or 2 1/2 months later with extensions. The documents are available here: 2010 Form 5500-EZ 2010 Form [...]

  • Pension Plan Termination Investment Strategies

    Updated: 2011-06-08 17:29:04
    During the plan termination process, one issue often overlooked is the consequences of investment risk prior to paying out benefits. This can lead to disastrous results. Benefits may be fully-funded when the termination decision is made, but significant contributions will be required if assets are not invested conservatively and a market downturn occurs prior to [...]

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