James Klein Quotations

More and more companies are discovering that defined-benefit plans are not well-suited to their business realities, their future and the nature of their work force management. We've had a lot of companies terminating for quite some time, and freezing activity has gathered steam as well.

From our perspective, all savings is good, and I'm loathe to criticize it until we see detailed plans. But the main question it raises is to what extent does this encourage or discourage long-term savings?

I don't think that many people in Congress would be quite so indifferent to the demise of the defined-benefit plan if they didn't have such a robust plan themselves.

It is important that they keep working on it. There is still time to get it done,

Survey after survey finds people are underestimating what they need for a financially secure retirement.

The American Benefits Council, representing companies that either directly sponsor or provide services to retirement and health plans covering more than 100 million Americans, believes that it is critical that pension reform legislation be enacted this year,

What precipitated the S&L crisis (is that) depositors had the right to go into the S&L and demand their deposits back today. The (agency's) deficit would be paid out decades into the future. A retiree can't go to the (agency) and say, 'Give me my money today in a lump sum,'

You have a series of legal complications that may or may not come up over the next month or so, which is why no one is willing to speculate about what is going to happen.

There's going to be a lot of back and forth, charges and counter-charges. There's going to be a number of legal battles over the legitimacy of the elections. So there are just so many issues that have not been answered, it's very difficult to see what's going to happen in the future.

These rigid percentage caps on stock create all kinds of problems. You're discouraging employer matching, and you're imposing rules on how individuals should invest their money.

These rigid percentage caps on stock create all kinds of problems.

Companies want to be able to plan and budget for their pensions, and that's been hard in the current environment.

This is just a continuation of a trend amongst many companies that have moved away from defined-benefit plans as a principal source of retirement income.

At this time it's not legally possible for him to step down as caretaker prime minister. He's gone on leave technically. But legally that's all he can do.

I fully expect that Congress will iron out the differences. With Social Security reform a bust, pension reform is a must.