Feds pressure American Airlines to save pensions

[SIG600]

Not fair to have the taxpayers pay for YOUR retirement. If you want to retire then save your money!

You're right, however that was never the intention of the employees. Can't fault them for the crooks in the front office for doing what they're doing.

The last decade however should be a case study in taking care of yourself though. No one is looking out for you, but you. Military retirements are next, mark my words.

 

[waveflyer]

You're right, however that was never the intention of the employees. Can't fault them for the crooks in the front office for doing what they're doing.

The last decade however should be a case study in taking care of yourself though. No one is looking out for you, but you. Military retirements are next, mark my words.

True, but that's too apathetic- ithe last 25 years are a case study in lobbying and legalized corruption and theft.
Fighting and rolling back corruption will be my generation's biggest accomplishment or largest failure. We simply cannot keep turning a blind, propagandized eye to theft of the middle class.

Ps- you vote for Romney and fail to elect Obama- that's a failure. Open your eyes.

 

[Lear70]

I'd settle for consistent 7-8% annual return in a heartbeat. What do you realistically want it to be? Just curious. Sorry for the thread hijack.

Somewhere closer to 10%...

The funds we have to choose from at AirTran have, consistently over the years, sucked. If I diversify enough to feel comfortable being more aggressive in half of my portfolio, a good 25-30% of my funds never do better than 3-4%, bringing down the other investments.

If I can make 4% just leaving my money in a SWA FCU account, then I expect normal growth in my 401(k) to be close to double that (which is about what I get now), and aggressive growth a little more than the normal 7-8 I've been getting..

 

[nwaf16dude]

Wave, thanks for the book recommendation. Agree that it's a must-read.

 

[SIG600]

True, but that's too apathetic- ithe last 25 years are a case study in lobbying and legalized corruption and theft.
Fighting and rolling back corruption will be my generation's biggest accomplishment or largest failure. We simply cannot keep turning a blind, propagandized eye to theft of the middle class.

Ps- you vote for Romney and fail to elect Obama- that's a failure. Open your eyes.

Obama is an empty suit, give me a break. He's a dismal failure and a perpetuator of the problem. I won't even comment on Romney, because I don't like him either.

I'll support the candidate with the most consistent track record, fiscally responsible, and arden't supporter of the Constitution.

 

[Lear70]

You're probably not going to get much of a chance after the results from Florida Monday night... Pick one.

 

[Rick James]

Ps- you vote for Romney and fail to elect Obama- that's a failure. Open your eyes.

If it were only that simple. The current administration has shown it's true colors with Solyndra, Corzine, Jack Lew, Fast and Furious, 6.5 trillion in additional debt, 92+ rounds of golf, demonizing private jets from the steps of AF1, etc., etc., etc.. It's sad that some people buy into this black and white, good candidate vs. bad candidate mantra. The reality is they all are liars and are motivated only by greed and power. The true "failure" is that so many voters fail to realize those simple facts.

 

[HalinTexas]

I'd settle for consistent 7-8% annual return in a heartbeat. What do you realistically want it to be? Just curious. Sorry for the thread hijack.

"Like"

 

[HalinTexas]

The problem isn't that they were borrowing from their pension funds throughout the late 80's and 90's, the problem is that they were using the run-up in dot-com stocks and other over-inflated stocks to cash out huge payouts to senior management in the form of bonuses.

Then, when the market adjusted, as everyone knew it eventually would, there was a huge shortfall that couldn't be recouped because of the literally hundreds of millions of $$$ that had been sucked out of the pension funds.

This happened at many airlines, and what helped put the icing on the cake was 9/11, which allowed the airlines a real "out" financially to file bankruptcy, dump the pensions on the PBGC, and laugh all the way to the bank.

History... like Moulder said, "The truth is out there". Which reminds me, can anyone at Southwest shed a little light on your 401(k) funds? Ours suck, been stuck at 7-8% returns for a long while and was wondering how your funds are performing over the last couple years? Rumor has it you guys had one of the best fund managers in the biz working for you guys. Feel free to PM me if you don't want to thread hijack.

Back to the thread topic, oh yeah, American (management) sucks. From TWA to this... just not a good example of real leadership in the last 10 or so years there.

I'm not going to disagree with the first part, so much, because that's how the system worked! Companies were allowed to "make" money off of the pension funds. Like the dot-coms, ENRON and real estate, there was lots of money to be made with no end in sight. That was there incentive to create them in the first place. When it's finally found out to be a scam and a liability, they want out of them. The only way they work is growth, growth, growth, which is an impossibility. If you want stability I'm sure you can find a treasury with a 2.5% return.

 

[jonjuan]

Ps- you vote for Romney and fail to elect Obama- that's a failure. Open your eyes.

If your mentor gets 4 more years, kiss economic growth in this country, and your airline, goodbye.