Pension Pulse

As Davos 2012 wraps up, it is my chance to write a critical comment denouncing the world's top 0.00000000001% for another boring summit where they myopically focused on Europe's debt crisis, warning that the eurozone continues to pose a severe threat to the global economy . Crackling tension among European leaders in Davos is set to spill over into an equally charged EU summit this week. Soros said it all when he took Germany to task . Even if a Greek debt deal is in the works , unless they come up with a lasting long-term solution, this deal won't mean a thing and eurozone will remain vulnerable to more speculative attacks. There is a reason why Soros is so successful, unlike most of his peers, he gets the bigger picture . But in my opinion, all this talk about "debt crisis" is completely misplaced. The developed world has an unemployment crisis and a retirement crisis , not a debt crisis, two themes that were largely ignored at this World Economic Forum. Wha...

Hugo Miller of Bloomberg reports, RIM’s Heins ‘Here to Fight’ for BlackBerry Revival : Research In Motion Ltd. (RIMM) ’s Thorsten Heins, five days into his job as chief executive officer, pledged to regain lost ground in the U.S. smartphone market and said he held talks with rivals eager to license its software. RIM will begin a campaign with U.S. carriers next week to entice consumers to try its latest BlackBerry 7 devices with touch screens and better Web browsers, Heins said yesterday in an interview at Bloomberg headquarters in New York. The promotions won’t be about “just simply money,” they will also involve mobile applications, or apps, he said. “We have to do something dramatically different in the U.S. to get our market share back,” said Heins, 54. “I’m here to fight. I’m here to win.” Heins, a 24-year veteran of Siemens AG (SIE) , faces the challenge of reversing momentum at RIM after the company lost out in the smartphone market to Apple Inc. (AAPL) ’s iPhone and...

Alex Morales and Jacqueline Simmons of Bloomberg report, Solar CEOs Predict Boom in China Will Ease Glut in 2012 : China may double its installations of solar panels this year, absorbing excess production that depressed prices and margins in 2011, chief executive officers from two of the industry’s top five manufactures said. Suntech Power Holdings Co. CEO Zhengrong Shi estimated the nation may add 4 gigawatts or more of panels, and Trina Solar Ltd. (TSL) CEO Jifan Gao expects 5 gigawatts. That compares with about 2.2 gigawatts installed in the country in 2011, more than double the capacity of the average nuclear reactor in the U.S. The cost of solar panels fell 47 percent last year as Chinese manufacturers led by Suntech boosted production, winning market share from Western rivals such as Q-Cells SE and First Solar Inc. With China’s government pushing to consolidate the industry, the remarks from Shi and Gao suggest rising demand may support the biggest panel manufacturers. “It’s...

Hui Min Neo of AFP reports, Hopes rise for Greek deal as US praises euro salvage bid : Europe's economic pointman said Friday he expected Greece to agree a deal with private creditors to write down its debt this weekend as the US praised efforts to combat the eurozone crisis. Speaking at the Davos forum, EU economic affairs commissioner Olli Rehn said the Greek debt agreement may be hammered out before a gathering of European Union leaders Monday, in what would be a major shot in the arm to the summit. "We're very close," he told the World Economic Forum in Davos. "They're about to close a deal, if not today maybe over the weekend, preferably in January rather than February." As he spoke in Switzerland, the Greek government in Athens was in talks with private creditors on a voluntary exchange of bonds that would wipe 100 billion euros ($130 billion) off the country's debt of 350 billion euros. The deal under discussion would see private c...

Julie Satow of the NYT reports, Anxiety Mounts Over Maturing Real Estate Loans : Borrowers and lenders are starting to grapple with the billions of dollars in commercial real estate loans made during the boom year of 2007 that are coming due this year, in a greatly contracted economy. Experts have warned of a rash of recapitalizations, refinancings and building sales. In New York City alone, nearly $70 billion worth of commercial mortgages that were bundled together and issued as collateral for bonds are maturing this year. Of those, $26 billion, or 37.4 percent, are five-year loans that were originated during the height of the real estate bubble, when underwriting standards were loosest, according to data from the research firm Trepp LLC . These include loans on prominent properties, including the Manhattan Mall, with $232 million maturing, and the Jumeirah Essex House, with a $180 million loan, according to Trepp. “These loans are going to have the hard...

Prime Minister Stephen Harper is in Davos touting 'major' changes to Canada's pension system : Prime Minister Stephen Harper has signalled his government will bring forward “major transformations” to the country in the coming months — in areas such as the retirement pension system, immigration, science and technology investment and the energy sector. Of those reforms, Harper said, getting a grip on slowing the rising costs of the country’s pension system is particularly critical. In the wake of Harper’s speech, it now appears that the Conservative government could be poised to gradually change the Old Age Security system so that the age of eligibility is raised to 67 from 65. Harper made the revelations in a major keynote speech Thursday at the World Economic Forum, the annual gathering of the world’s political and business elite. As expected, the prime minister was critical of Europe and the United States for not adequately dealing with the economic problems tha...