Suchergebnisse

The retirement puzzle -- Capitalist crisis and pension insecurity -- Reconversion and the origin of bargained plans -- Turning labor into finance capital -- Toward the 401(k) ownership society -- Conclusions

How can finance be durably democratized? In the centers of financial power in both the United States and the United Kingdom, proposals now circulate to give workers and the public more say over how flows of credit are allocated. This article examines five democratization proposals: credit union franchises, public investment banks, sovereign wealth funds, inclusive ownership funds, and bank nationalization. It considers how these plans might activate worker and public engagement in decision making about finance by focusing on three modes of public participation: representative democracy, direct democracy, and deliberative minipublics. It then considers the degree to which democratization plans might be resilient to de-democratization threats from business. It argues that of the five, bank nationalization goes furthest in guarding against de-democratization threats but is still pocked with pitfalls if it relies solely on representative democracy. It argues that two criteria appear necessary for democratically durable alternatives: the active direct participation of workers and citizens and the weakening of businesses' capacity for democratic retrenchment.

This article explores union attempts to control pension fund investment for the debate on financial restructuring in the United States. It puts popular control of finance into comparative and historical perspective and argues that laws and politics help explain why the flow of finance is corporate controlled. First, changes in the legal regime—the Taft-Hartley Act of 1947 and the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) of 1974—put constraints on labor's ability to influence investment decisions. This is evident when comparing single- and multi-employer plans, where the laws had different consequences. Second, attempts to reform these laws failed. Had they been successful, Carter's proposed economic revitalization plan in the run-up to his failed reelection in 1980 would have created new ways for unions to control and redirect retirement investment for social purposes. The reform failure is treated as a "suppressed historical alternative" through a comparison with a successful reform in Quebec, Canada, which gave unions broad controls over the Solidarity Fund in 1983. The findings suggest, somewhat counter-intuitively, that legal restrictions need to be loosened for democratic control of finance to be possible. For pension funds, more regulations led to more corporate control, not less.

This paper considers the rise of defined-contribution (DC) pensions - such as 401(k) plans - in order to contribute to the debate about neoliberalism. It challenges the generalizability of two common accounts: the weak state intervention thesis, which argues that neoliberal policy change is driven by state retreat and deregulation, and the state-managed transition thesis, which argues that neoliberal policies are both enacted and managed through new regulations. In contrast, this paper argues that the development of the employer-based pension system between 1970 and 1995 is an instance of "neoliberalism without neoliberals." A battery of regulations was passed between 1974 and the late 1980s that were intended to make the traditional system of definedbenefit (DB) pensioning more secure. However, this legislation triggered a business shift to 401(k)s. The legislation worked in such a counterintuitive way because of three factors related to changes in "the balance of class forces" in American society: (1) new laws increased costs for firms, with small businesses being hit the heaviest, (2) employment in the manufacturing sector, labor's traditional stronghold, declined as a share of total employment, and (3) because unions were unable or unwilling to unionize emergent sectors of the economy, new businesses in them were not compelled to negotiate DB plans. In such a context, growing regulatory costs pushed many firms to adopt DC pensions for their employees. The outcome was a major policy shift, considered by many to be a defining feature of the neoliberal era. ; Als Beitrag zur Debatte um den Neoliberalismus befasst sich dieser Artikel mit dem Aufstieg der betrieblichen Altersversorgung auf Basis 'garantierter Beiträge' (defined contributions, DC) in den USA, wie etwa der 401(k)-Rentenpläne. Er stellt zwei weitverbreitete Auffassungen hinsichtlich ihrer Allgemeingültigkeit infrage: zum einen die These des schwachen, in seinen Interventionsfähigkeiten begrenzten Staates, die besagt, der Politikwechsel hin zum Neoliberalismus werde durch den Rückzug des Staates und die Deregulierung vorangetrieben, und zum anderen die des staatlich gelenkten Übergangs, die behauptet, neoliberale politische Maßnahmen würden durch neue Regelungen in Kraft gesetzt und gesteuert. Demgegenüber legt diese Studie dar, dass die Entwicklung der betrieblichen Altersvorsorge zwischen 1970 und 1995 als ein Fall von "Neoliberalismus ohne Neoliberale" bezeichnet werden kann. Von 1974 bis in die späten 1980er-Jahre wurde eine Vielzahl von Regelungen verabschiedet, um das traditionelle Altersversorgungssystem auf Basis "garantierter Leistungen" (defined benefits, DB) sicherer zu machen. Doch lösten diese Gesetze vielmehr eine Umorientierung der Unternehmen zu 401(k)-Rentenplänen aus. Drei Faktoren im Zusammenhang mit den Veränderungen des "Kräfteverhältnisses zwischen den Klassen" in der US-amerikanischen Gesellschaft führten dazu, dass sich die Gesetze völlig anders auswirkten als erwartet. Erstens verursachten neue Gesetze Kostensteigerungen in Unternehmen, wobei Kleinbetriebe am stärksten betroffen waren. Zweitens sank der Anteil der Beschäftigung im produzierenden Gewerbe, einer traditionellen Arbeiterhochburg, an der Gesamtbeschäftigung. Und drittens konnten oder wollten die Gewerkschaften junge Wirtschaftssektoren nicht gewerkschaftlich organisieren; neue Unternehmen in diesen Bereichen waren nicht zur Aushandlung von Altersversorgungsplänen auf Basis garantierter Leistungen verpflichtet. In einem solchen Kontext wurden viele Betriebe durch die steigenden regelungsbedingten Kosten dazu gedrängt, für ihre Mitarbeiter eine Altersversorgung auf Basis garantierter Beiträge einzuführen. Die Folge war ein Politikwechsel von großer Tragweite, den viele als ein prägendes Merkmal der neoliberalen Ära ansehen.

Intro -- cover -- Title page -- Copyright page -- Publisher's Foreword -- Dedication -- Note on Spellings and Mileage -- Contents -- Ovwerseas Chinese and China maps -- Introduction -- Taiwan -- Kinmen Island, Taiwan -- The Korean "War" -- Vietnam War timeline -- Lotusland of the Pacific -- Pierre Elliot Trudeau -- The City of Angels -- Ping-Pong diplomacy -- The South Seas -- The Land of Oz -- Skull and Bones -- China: The Dragon Emerges -- U.S. China Trade History -- Darwin and the Theory of Evolution -- Fentanyl -- Finding the Meaning of Life in Jamaica -- Black Gold -- The Latest Blitz of London -- The Powell Manifesto -- The Grand Tour of Switzerland -- RAND Corporation Survey Explains the Economic Imbalance in the U.S. -- Montreal and the Prairies -- Chinese Communist Appointed to Canadian Senate -- California and the States -- The Gig Economy -- Tibet and India -- Executions -- Dubai Is The Future -- U.S. State of emergency -- Out of Africa -- Coercion of emigrants -- The Killing Fields of Cambodia -- The CCP and the Global Chinese Diaspora -- Claws of the Panda -- WalMart and the Destruction of Small Town America -- How the U.S. Oligarchy Built and Maintains Its Wealth -- Toronto the Big -- Canadian CEOs get even richer -- Taiwan and the Bear -- The Final Word -- Fentanyl -- Canada -- Mexico -- USA -- China -- Index -- Bibliography -- Michael McCarthy Travel Books Available on Amazon -- Contents -- Landmarks.

Contents -- Preface -- Chapter One: The Tangled Knot of Old and New -- Chapter Two: Objective Knowing and Authentic Living -- Chapter Three: Authentic Faith in a Secular Age -- Chapter Four: The Chill Winds of Modernity -- Epilogue -- Notes -- Bibliography -- Index