Month: April 2021

5 States Where Pandemic Stress Could Hurt CEOs’ Health

Mary Pat Campbell

Link: https://www.thinkadvisor.com/2021/03/23/5-states-where-pandemic-stress-could-hurt-ceos-health/

Excerpt:

The Great Recession had the mortality effect of increasing a typical CEO’s age by about 1.5 years.

Anti-takeover laws had the mortality effect of decreasing a typical affected CEO’s age by about 2 years.

The Great Recession made an affected CEO look an average of 1.2 years older, based on assessments by computers equipped with age-estimation software.

Author(s): Allison Bell

Publication Date: 23 March 2021

Publication Site: Think Advisor

CEO Stress, Aging, and Death

Mary Pat Campbell

Link: https://www.nber.org/papers/w28550

Graphic:

Abstract:

We estimate the long-term effects of experiencing high levels of job demands on the mortality and aging of CEOs. The estimation exploits variation in takeover protection and industry crises. First, using hand-collected data on the dates of birth and death for 1,605 CEOs of large, publicly-listed U.S. firms, we estimate the resulting changes in mortality. The hazard estimates indicate that CEOs’ lifespan increases by two years when insulated from market discipline via anti-takeover laws, and decreases by 1.5 years in response to an industry-wide downturn. Second, we apply neural-network based machine-learning techniques to assess visible signs of aging in pictures of CEOs. We estimate that exposure to a distress shock during the Great Recession increases CEOs’ apparent age by one year over the next decade. Our findings imply significant health costs of managerial stress, also relative to known health risks.

Author(s): Mark Borgschulte, Marius Guenzel, Canyao Liu, Ulrike Malmendier

Publication Date: March 2021

Publication Site: NBER

Pandemic Accelerates Social Risks to Investment Portfolios

Mary Pat Campbell

Link: https://www.ai-cio.com/news/pandemic-accelerates-social-risks-investment-portfolios/

Excerpt:

According to State Street Global Advisors (SSGA)’s annual stewardship report, the COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated the trend of the increasing significance of social risks within environmental, social, and governance (ESG) risk management.

“Insufficient data remains a challenge, but the ‘S’ is undeniably more important than ever to investors and other stakeholders,” according to the report. “As a result, companies are more focused on social issues, which will likely lead to a proliferation in data over the coming years.”

The firm said it is working with the Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB) and others to develop relevant key performance indicators and is refining its approach to social issues such as human capital management.

Author(s): Michael Katz

Publication Date: 29 March 2021

Publication Site: ai-CIO

MassMutual Sees Crisis Hitting Younger Adults Harder

Mary Pat Campbell

Link: https://www.thinkadvisor.com/2021/03/29/massmutual-sees-crisis-hitting-younger-adults-harder/

Excerpt:

About 25% of the millennials and zoomers said they’re now having trouble with day-to-day expenses, compared with 19% of the GenXers and 9% of the boomers.

Twenty percent of the survey participants in the younger two age groups said they’ve had to adjust their lifestyles to keep costs down, compared with just 14% of the GenXers and 7% of the boomers.

Author(s): Allison Bell

Publication Date: 29 March 2021

Publication Site: Think Advisor

The Bitcoin Boomlet Comes to Local Government

Mary Pat Campbell

Link: https://www.governing.com/finance/the-bitcoin-boomlet-comes-to-local-government.html

Excerpt:

Lastly, Bitcoin is an investment vehicle that, if held in the city’s treasury, could help Miami’s fiscal prospects. After all, a currency whose per-unit value has increased 18,641 percent the last five years is more tempting than a currency that gradually declines in value. 

But just as Bitcoin has proven upwardly volatile, that volatility can spike downward (such as when Bitcoin lost one-third of its value in a two-week period in 2017). This means that any money Miami invests in Bitcoin could plummet in value if Bitcoin crashes. 

There are also technical issues with Bitcoin. The mining process consumes lots of energy, making it expensive and environmentally hazardous to produce. Bitcoin has an average transaction fee of $23, and relatively long processing times of between 10 minutes and several hours. And there are questions about whether, once all 21 million bitcoins are mined, monetary incentive will exist for the network of nodes to continue maintaining the blockchain. 

Author(s): Scott Beyer

Publication Date: 22 March 2021

Publication Site: Governing

The Heroic Congressional Fight to Save the Rich

Mary Pat Campbell

Link: https://taibbi.substack.com/p/the-heroic-congressional-fight-to

Graphic:

Excerpt:

However, the SALT cap didn’t so much go after “Democrats” as “affluent Democrats.” It only applied to people who itemize their taxes, which meant the 90% of Americans who take the standard deduction were unaffected. The deduction raised over $70 billion in just the first year, and roughly 56% of that money came just from the top 1% of taxpayers, living in a few states in particular.

The tax nastygram seemed directed at Trump’s hometown delegation. Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney in April of 2017 complained about the cost of protecting “Trump and his family here in NYC”; the SALT cap affected 19% of Maloney’s constituents in Brooklyn and on the Upper East Side, and taxpayers in that 19% each lost an average of $100,405 in breaks. Chuck Schumer, one of Trump’s fiercest critics, personally took over $58,000 in SALT deductions just in 2016.

Overall, 39 of the 40 districts most affected by the SALT cap were represented by Democrats. Of those, 28 came from New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut. Also affected: Nancy Pelosi’s San Francisco district, where residents lost an average of $53,471 of write-offs. Trump’s campaign promises to take on “elites” proved phony, except when he was able to effect this targeted partisan strike at the people he knew and hated the most: rich, socially liberal Democrats, especially ones from the tri-state area.

Author(s): Matt Taibbi

Publication Date: 23 April 2021

Publication Site: TK News at substack

Keep Up With the Standards: On ASOP 56, Modeling

Mary Pat Campbell

Link: https://www.soa.org/sections/modeling/modeling-newsletter/2021/april/mp-2021-04-campbell/

Excerpt:


If nothing else, having a checklist to go through while working on modeling can help you make sure you don’t miss anything. Hey, ASB, make some handy-dandy sticky note checklists we can stick on our monitors to ask us:

3.1 Does our model meet the intended purpose?

3.2 Do we understand the model, especially any weaknesses and limitations?

3.3 Are we relying on data or other information supplied by others?

3.4 Are we relying on models developed by others?

3.5 Are we relying on experts in the development of the model?

3.6 Have we evaluated and mitigated model risk?

3.7 Have we appropriately documented the model?

Author(s): Mary Pat Campbell

Publication Date: April 2021

Publication Site: The Modeling Platform at the Society of Actuaries

NJ Pension CAFR

Mary Pat Campbell
NJ Pension CAFR

Graphic:

Excerpt:

The Comprehensive Audited Financial Statement Report (CAFR) for the State of New Jersey, Division of Pensions and Benefits, as of June 30, 2020 appeared on the state website this month which means the actuarial reports should be out soon.

But, for now, some CAFR excerpts:

Financial Highlights Fiduciary Funds –Pension Trust Funds and Other Postemployment Benefit (OPEB) Plan (page 3)

Fiduciary net position decreased by $2.4 billion as a result of this year’s operations from $87.3 billion to $84.9 billion.

Additions for the year are $10.2 billion, which are comprised of member, employer, nonemployer, and employer specific and other pension contributions of $8.9 billion and net investment income of $1.3 billion.

Deductions for the year are $12.7 billion, which are comprised of benefits, refund payments, and transfers of $12.6 billion and administrative expenses of $62.0 million.

Author(s): John Bury

Publication Date: 21 April 2021

Publication Site: Burypensions

Pfizer Identifies Fake Covid-19 Shots Abroad as Criminals Exploit Vaccine Demand

Mary Pat Campbell

Link: https://www.wsj.com/articles/pfizer-identifies-fake-covid-19-shots-abroad-as-criminals-exploit-vaccine-demand-11619006403

Excerpt:

Fake shots for the pandemic can be easy to distinguish from real ones, experts said, because legitimate ones can be found for now sold only to governments, making any shots for sale on the internet counterfeit and potentially harmful.

Police in China and South Africa last month seized thousands of doses of counterfeit Covid-19 vaccines in warehouses and manufacturing plants, arresting dozens of people, according to the international police agency Interpol. Mexico also is investigating a shipment of some 6,000 doses of purported Sputnik vaccine from Russia, which were seized from a private plane headed to Honduras in March.

The Russia Direct Investment Fund, which leads efforts to market the vaccine internationally, said an analysis of photographs of the seized batch “suggests that it is a fake.” The Mexican Attorney General’s Office said it was investigating the matter and declined to comment further. Authorities haven’t determined whether the vaccines are genuine.

For months, agents from the National Intellectual Property Rights Coordination Center, an investigative arm of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, have been investigating fraud related to the Covid-19 pandemic globally, recovering $48 million of phony masks, personal protective equipment and other products. Last fall, investigators shifted their focus to include Covid-19 vaccines that were nearing potential clearance by regulators, beginning with online scams. They have removed 30 websites and seized 74 web domains, according to IPR Center officials.

Author(s): Jared S. Hopkins, José de Córdoba

Publication Date: 21 April 2021

Publication Site: Wall Street Journal

Pressure Intensifies On Biden To Restore A Tax Break Weakened By Trump

Mary Pat Campbell

Link: https://www.forbes.com/sites/lizfarmer/2021/04/21/pressure-intensifies-on-biden-to-restore-a-tax-break-weakened-by-trump/

Excerpt:

Mayors in blue states are lining up with Democrats in Congress to pressure the White House into restoring a tax break that was significantly reduced by former President Trump’s tax reform.

On Wednesday, Rep. Thomas Suozzi (N.Y.) joined officials from Albany; Columbia, S.C.; Philadelphia and San Diego to call for a repeal of the rule that limits state and local tax (SALT) deductions. They are calling for President Biden’s $3 trillion infrastructure proposal to include the repeal.

“No SALT, no deal,” Suozzi said on a conference call hosted by the U.S. Conference of Mayors.

Author(s): Liz Farmer

Publication Date: 21 April 2021

Publication Site: Forbes

CalPERS Employee Accused of Embezzling $685,000 from Beneficiary Bank and CalPERS Accounts Hasn’t Been Arrested, Much the Less Prosecuted. Why the Cover Up?

Mary Pat Campbell
CalPERS Employee Accused of Embezzling $685,000 from Beneficiary Bank and CalPERS Accounts Hasn’t Been Arrested, Much the Less Prosecuted. Why the Cover Up?

Excerpt:

As you can see from the embedded filing below, CalPERS is suing Gloria Najera, a former employee it says embezzled $685,000 from beneficiaries, including, Wells Fargo style, from a beneficiary’s bank accounts.

The civil claim is sketchy on the timetable, but Najera was a clerical worker responsible for updating beneficiary addresses and bank direct deposit information. That apparently also gave her access to at least the last four digits in their Social Security numbers. Najera used this information to pilfer directly from the bank account of one beneficiary to the tune of nearly $69,000. For nine others, she diverted funds from dormant CalPERS accounts (where CalPERS had reason to think the beneficiary was still alive but had only out-of-date bank deposit information) to bank accounts controlled by Najera and co-conspirators.

Yet despite CalPERS allegedly informing the police about the theft back in January, the perp of this huge embezzlement of beneficiary trust funds hasn’t even been arrested, much the less charged.

CalPERS instead is taking the virtually unheard of approach of merely filing a civil suit, rather than letting a prosecutor file criminal charges, even though California law requires that a criminal court order full restitution on behalf of CalPERS.

Author(s): Yves Smith

Publication Date: 22 April 2021

Publication Site: naked capitalism