Pensions and Actuaries

A commentary in today's Wall street Journal, "Public Pensions Cook the Books." It concerns how two public pension plans in Montana are handling their actuarial services. Must reading for actuaries...

- Rick

Towers Watson

A big merger was just announced in the actuarial consulting world:

Towers Perrin + Watson Wyatt = Towers Watson.

This is being announced as a “merger of equals.”

- Rick

The Public Option

One of the big issues in the current health care reform discussions is the "public option": introducing a public provider to compete with private health insurers. Actuaries and others familiar with the insurance industry have seen this movie before, in health care and other lines of insurance -- with respect to both proposed and implemented public insurers.

Here are a couple of nice articles discussing the public option in an economic context:

(1) "The 'Public Plan' Would be the Only Plan," by Scott Harrington (professor at the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania), Wall Street Journal, June 15, 2009.

(2) "The Pitfalls of the Public Option," by N. Gregory Mankiw (professor at Harvard University), New York Times, June 27, 2009.

- Rick

A "Brief" Article on Economics

Hmmm... Perhaps economics need not be dull after all...

From MSN Money: "How your undies track the recession," by Michael Brush.

- Rick

Hyundai: Insurance and Marketing

An article about the South Korean automaker Hyundai, from The Economist. Note their use of insurance:

"...Hyundai is also benefiting from a novel scheme, launched in January, in which it offers to buy back cars from customers who lose their jobs within a year of their purchase. (The company essentially offers a smaller discount and then uses the money to buy an insurance policy.)"

Another reason for actuaries to study macroeconomics and modeling...

- Rick