Yep, pensions too. Should’ve included that along with 401k plans. State pensions have been particularly wacky, chasing a high rate of return with no apparent understanding of risk. CalPERS springs immediately to mind.
Found this little tidbit at Market Ticker, today on Deflation:
http://market-ticker.denninger.net/archives/2035-Its-Called-DEFLATION-Folks.html
Finance in all it’s forms, whether banking or insurance - produces nothing either. Every dollar of such “activity” comes about only as a parasitic drain on production. It cannot be otherwise. Further, speculative activity in all of its forms produces losers in exact proportion to winners - if Goldman makes $100 million speculating on oil prices, someone else loses the same $100 million. The net benefit to our nation’s economy? Zero - we merely moved money from one hand to another.
parsy