American Airlines will use its bankruptcy as a $10B bailout by kicking its pensions to taxpayers

it looks like amr (parent company of american airlines) is going to use the leverage of bankruptcy to kick its pensions over to the pbgc taxpayers just like united airlines did in 2005...

Taxpayers May Have To Pay AMR Pension Bill

US firms or taxpayers could end up paying for the bankruptcy of American Airlines if the carrier abandons its pension plans as part of a restructuring drive, US pension insurers told the online edition of the Financial Times.

Taking on the airline's pension plans would widen the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation's (PBGC) financial deficit and could require the insurer to charge higher premiums, director Joshua Gotbaum, head of the federal agency that insures private pensions, told the newspaper.

Tom Horton, the new chief executive of American Airlines and its parent company AMR said the fact the company had filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection did not mean its pension plans would definitely move to the PBGC, but he indicated it was a real possibility, according to the article.

"The pensions in particular are very expensive, it is a very big part of our cost disadvantage relative to the rest of the industry. And so, given our plans to reduce costs to a more sustainable level, we are going to have to look at those costs," he is quoted as saying.

The PBGC said on Tuesday that American's four traditional pension plans covering 130,000 workers and retirees collectively report USD$8.3 billion in assets to cover roughly USD$18.5 billion in promised benefits.

so far, i haven't seen any stories putting this in the context of a "bailout" although that's certainly what it would be...

Submit To Propeller
Tweet

[Permalink] 0 comments

It's a Saturday

and an absolutely gorgeous late summer afternoon here in the high desert...

unfortunately, the rain of shit shows no signs of stopping...

House Republicans Whittle Down $447 Billion American Jobs Act to $11 Billion

S&P’s Chambers Sees One-in-Three Chance of Another U.S. Credit Downgrade

Obama: All Americans must pay fair share to cut deficit

that last one is a real hoot... we should ALL be expected to pay a "fair share" of the mess we've been dragged into by appallingly expensive, illegal wars based on lies, a bloated defense budget that is beyond shameful supporting an empire of 800 military bases around the globe, banksters who have been repeatedly been rewarded for defrauding the global economic system through a never-ending round of rip-offs, mega-corporations that have artfully abdicated any responsibility for contributing to the common good by paying no taxes, and a health care system that worships obscene profit and has nothing to do with "health"...? i don't think so...

other than all that, it's still a gorgeous saturday...

Submit To Propeller
Tweet

[Permalink] 0 comments

Of COURSE the mortgage giants are sticking it to us even more than we thought...!

why would we think for a moment that they would do otherwise...? privatize profits, socialize costs - that's the american way of capitalism... bend over and grab your ankles...

Mortgage Giants Leave Legal Bills to the Taxpayers

Since the government took over Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, taxpayers have spent more than $160 million defending the mortgage finance companies and their former top executives in civil lawsuits accusing them of fraud. The cost was a closely guarded secret until last week, when the companies and their regulator produced an accounting at the request of Congress.

The bulk of those expenditures — $132 million — went to defend Fannie Mae and its officials in various securities suits and government investigations into accounting irregularities that occurred years before the subprime lending crisis erupted. The legal payments show no sign of abating.

of COURSE it was "a closely guarded secret"... why make a big deal out of announcing that our routine screwing is even more painful than we already thought...?

Submit To Propeller
Tweet

[Permalink] 0 comments