Looks like some of the large pension funds want to make changes in their investment portfolios.  They want to focus on hedge funds and alternative investments.

Here's an update on New York's Pension Plan:

Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli yesterday said the pension fund grew by 2.6%, to $154 billion, in the fiscal year ended March 31. While some in the field say that performance is reasonably strong given the condition of the economy, it is nowhere near the 12.6% return that New York enjoyed the previous year, and they say the slowing growth may put a strain on the budget. Officials plan for 8% returns when formulating budgets, so the shortfall may force the government to make unexpected payments in order to meet its obligations to retirees.

In an effort to avert further pension shortfalls, Mr. DiNapoli said yesterday he wants legislators to allow him more flexibility in allocating the state's investments, a move that some have denounced as reckless. The law currently imposes a 25% limit on the amount of money he can put in "alternative investments," a category that includes real estate, commodities, private equity funds, and hedge funds.

All of the 23 developed nations in the MSCI World Index except for Canada have experienced bear-market plunges of 20 percent or more since September as credit losses surged and record commodity prices stoked inflation. Brazil last week became the 23rd out of 25 developing countries in the MSCI Emerging Markets Index to enter a bear market. Only Jordan and Morocco avoided such slumps.

The S&P 500 has declined as much as 22 percent since its October record as financial institutions worldwide posted $480 billion in writedowns and credit losses stemming from the collapse of the subprime mortgage market. Equities retreated as inflation increased, giving the U.S. consumer price index the steepest gain since 1991.

Courtesy of Bloomberg.com

Bank regulators closed a small Florida-based bank on Friday, the eighth U.S. bank to fail this year under pressure from a weak economy and a credit crisis precipitated by falling home prices.

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp said First Priority Bank had $259 million in assets and $227 million in deposits and its failure will cost the federal fund that insures deposits an estimated $72 million.

personality and Middle America "icon" won't just be throwing a party, he is a man with a mission.

The evening will be devoted to a new book, "Stop the Raid," by Dennison Smith and Peter Ferrara. Linkletter contributed a foreword to the book, which explains how the federal government has raided the Social Security trust fund over the years, using the money for other government spending.

For example, in 2007, 88 percent of total Social Security tax income was spent immediately for current benefits and expenses, leaving a surplus at $80.3 billion. What happened to that surplus money? The federal government borrowed it and spent it on general budget expenditures. In return, Social Security got Federal IOUs, which promise to pay the money back with interest. Over the next five years, from 2008 to 2012, the federal government will continue to raid (borrow) another $410 billion from the Social Security trust funds.

The problem is that the federal government has no assets or other cash to back these IOUs. When Social Security starts running deficits in 2017, the government will have to tax workers again to get the money to pay these IOUs back, so all Social Security benefits can continue to be paid.

The book reports that from 2017 to 2041, when the trust funds are currently projected to run out, taxpayers will have to shell out an additional $6 trillion, besides the payroll tax, because of the raid on the Social Security money, to cover all the IOUs.

Courtesy of a Jack Kemp editorial in the NiagraFallsReporter.com

Federal regulators shut down two national banks late Friday in the latest chapter of the credit crisis, and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. successfully protected all depositors by selling the accounts to Mutual of Omaha Bank.

The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, a division of the Treasury Department, revoked the charters of First National Bank of Nevada, based in Reno, Nev., and First Heritage Bank of Newport Beach, Calif. The FDIC was appointed receiver of both banks.

Seven banks have failed so far this year, including three having more than $1 billion of assets.

The number of failed banks this year has already surpassed the total from 2004 through 2007, but it is nowhere near the pace set during the savings and loan crisis in the 1980s and early 1990s, when several thousand banks failed.

Regulators have been preparing for more bank failures by adding staff, bringing on contractors, and intensifying training. The FDIC, which was created in 1933, has made a concerted push in recent months to educate bank customers about the deposit insurance rules. The FDIC insures accounts up to $100,000 per depositor, or $250,000 for some qualified retirement accounts.

The FDIC said Friday night's failures would likely cost the FDIC's deposit insurance fund roughly $862 million.

Courtesy of the Sunday edition of WSJ.com

A new tool is available to more accurately estimate what your Social Security benefits will be.

Social Security Commissioner Michael Astrue unveiled a new online calculator yesterday. The Retirement Estimator allows you to test out retirement options such as various retirement dates or expected future earnings. You can also calculate what your benefit will be if you begin collecting at age 62, wait until your full retirement age, or further delay claiming until age 70. The future benefit amount is adjusted for inflation.

Courtesy of usnews.com

Although Republican presidential candidate John McCain has called Social Security "a disgrace," he still cashes his own retirement check every month.

"I'm receiving the benefits, the system is broken and, unfortunately, my children and grandchildren, according to the trustees of the Social Security system, will not have the same benefits the present retirees have," McCain told reporters Thursday on his campaign bus.

McCain's 2007 tax return shows Social Security benefits of $23,157 for the year, an average of $1,929.75 a month. He said he started receiving the payments "whenever I was eligible."

The California Public Employees' Retirement System, the largest U.S. public pension fund, said it lost 2.4 per cent during the year ended June 30, as stock losses caused its worst performance in six years.

The performance of the fund, with $239 billion US in assets, compared with a 19 per cent gain in the previous fiscal year. Calpers, as the fund is known, said its stock portfolio lost 10.7 per cent.

The practice — called "double dipping" — lets tens of thousands of state and local workers retire, collect pension benefits and then keep working, often at the same job.

Double-dipping is legal in nearly every state under existing pension and hiring rules. It is especially common among educators, police officers and others who retire young after 20 to 30 years on the job.

States are limiting double-dipping in response to newspaper reports and audits. The St. Petersburg Times found that Florida has more than 8,000 double-dippers and 121 "triple-dippers" — workers enjoying two pensions and a salary. As the Florida Retirement System puts it, workers may "retire without terminating employment."