Congress

This week U.S. defined contribution plan sponsors received a startling piece of news: At least four countries outside the U.S have better fee disclosure practices than those in the U.S. The report, issued by the General Accounting Office in March, reviewed best practices in hopes of enlightening U.S. retirement plan providers and regulators.

When lawmakers added a subsection to the tax code called the 401(k) more than three decades ago, they could not have imagined that this string of three numbers and a letter would become a fixture in the financial lexicon.

Who wants to hear about pensions? No one. But that’s sort of the point! Yesterday, I noted that the Senate’s two-year highway bill used a few gimmicks to paper over shortfalls in gas-tax revenue. And one of those was a little-noticed tweak in pension rules that could end up being quite important.

American Airlines wants to terminate the pensions of 130,000 workers as part of its bankruptcy proceeding. The move would be good for the company's balance sheet, but would it be good for America?