Author Archives: Leo Kolivakis

Submitted by Leo Kolivakis, publisher of Pension Pulse. Steven Pearlstein writes in the Washington Post, Regulatory Reform That Falls Far Short of It: What does it tell you when banks, investment houses, insurance companies and derivatives traders are so pleased with their regulators that they are prepared to pull out all the stops to keep […]

Submitted by Leo Kolivakis, publisher of Pension Pulse. Speaking to a parliamentary committee Thursday morning, Nortel Networks Corp. chief executive Mike Zafirovski defended the decision to pay court-approved bonuses to “key” executives and employees while it denied severance payments to workers the insolvent company let go. You can read Mr. Zafirovski’s official transcript by clicking […]

Submitted by Leo Kolivakis, publisher of Pension Pulse. President Barack Obama wants to strengthen the government’s authority over financial institutions in a sweeping attempt to modernize a regulatory latticework that failed to detect early signs of a worldwide crisis: The president was to detail the administration’s overhaul plan on Wednesday, recommending new powers for the […]

Submitted by Leo Kolivakis, publisher of Pension Pulse. Jack Dean of PensionWatch sent me this article by Larry Brown of NUPGE, A convenient untruth about public pension plans: Our popular media has been filled lately with rote repetition of a convenient untruth: that public sector workers have a huge advantage over most others because they […]

Submitted by Leo Kolivakis, publisher of Pension Pulse. On Monday, the Washington Post published an op-ed piece by Tim Geithner and Lawrence Summers, A New Financial Foundation: Over the past two years, we have faced the most severe financial crisis since the Great Depression. The financial system failed to perform its function as a reducer […]

Submitted by Leo Kolivakis, publisher of Pension Pulse. I am going to follow-up on my previous post on the perils of linear projections by posting Jonathan Nitzan and Shimshon Bichler’s paper Contours of Crisis III: Systemic Fear and Forward-Looking Finance: This is the third installment in our series about the current crisis. The first article […]

Submitted by Leo Kolivakis, publisher of Pension Pulse. This past Thursday evening I attended the annual forecast dinner of the Montreal CFA Society. I typically avoid these events but I enjoyed meeting some former colleagues and spending time with my new co-workers. The event was moderated by Jean-Luc Landry, President of Landry Morin, and the […]

Submitted by Leo Kolivakis, publisher of Pension Pulse. The Guardian recently ran a story, When hedge funds lose their mojo: We’re not quite there yet, but hedge fund managers may soon need to start giving away toasters — or perhaps plasma TVs — to woo new investors. Forcing the funds to eat a little humble […]

Submitted by Leo Kolivakis, publisher of Pension Pulse. A ‘Perfect Storm’ of demographic, individual and financial elements is poised to derail people’s retirement plans unless they prepare properly now, a global survey from HSBC Insurance revealed on Wednesday: A ‘PERFECT STORM’ of demographic, individual and financial elements is poised to derail people’s retirement plans unless […]

Submitted by Leo Kolivakis, publisher of Pension Pulse. I want to follow-up on my previous post, Full Steam Ahead? I looked at what the trading experts I track have to say about this market. Tim Knight of Slope of Hope writes that the market still seems very shortable. He also writes about his favorite ETFs […]

Submitted by Leo Kolivakis, publisher of Pension Pulse. Consultant Luc Vallée, the former chief economist at the Caisse de dépôt, started writing his own blog which he aptly calls The Sceptical Market Observer. In his first post, Luc asks: Are we out of the woods yet? Don’t count on it! and concludes by stating the […]

Submitted by Leo Kolivakis, publisher of Pension Pulse. Sydney Freedberg and Connie Humburg report that Florida stands to lose $1 billion because of Lehman Brother’s bankruptcy: A price tag is now emerging for what last year’s collapse of investment giant Lehman Brothers could cost the state of Florida: more than $1 billion. The losses could […]

Submitted by Leo Kolivakis, publisher of Pension Pulse. Global Pensions reports that hedge fund managers will see some US$50bn coming their way this year with flows coming primarily from pension funds looking to redeploy cash, according to a new report by Barclays Capital: Pension funds and family will also depose foundations and endowments as the […]

Submitted by Leo Kolivakis, publisher of Pension Pulse. It’s time to revisit global pension tension. Here are some of the stories covering the global assault on pensions: CPP reforms will squeeze early retirees: Big changes to Canada Pension Plan benefits, announced last week, were overshadowed by news of a larger-than-expected federal deficit. N..B. Investment Management […]

Submitted by Leo Kolivakis, publisher of Pension Pulse. Canadian Finance Minister Jim Flaherty said he has asked all government-owned companies, including the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, to review compensation practices: Mr. Flaherty said leaders of the Group of Twenty countries agreed in April with principles on executive compensation set out by the Financial Stability […]