Whitney fills us in on a story missing from mainstream media: what the recent plunge in stock prices really mean for the pensions of retired people and those looking forward to retirement.The practice of gambling with pension funds is only another illustration of the predatory nature of capitalist class rule that hides behind a pseudo-democratic facade.
Corporations are taking the retirement savings of elderly public employees and using them to inflate their stock prices so wealthy CEOs and their shareholders can enrich themselves at the expense of their companies. And it’s all completely legal. Under current financial regulations, corporate bosses are free to repurchase their own company’s shares, push stock prices into the stratosphere, skim off a generous bonuses for themselves in the form of executive compensation, and leave their companies drowning in red ink.
Even worse, a sizable portion of the money devoted to stock buybacks is coming from “massively underfunded public pension” funds that retired workers depend on for their survival.