Rosnick & Baker on The Wealth of American Households

By David Rosnick and Dean Baker

From the Abstract:

This paper presents data on the wealth of households by age cohort based on new data from the 2013 Survey of Consumer Finances (SCF). It shows that the upward redistribution of wealth continued between 2010 and 2013. As a result, most households had less wealth in 2013 than they did in 2010 and much less than in 1989, the first year examined. This is in spite of the fact that households were much less likely to have traditional defined-benefit pensions than in prior decades.

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Eileen Appelbaum on Private Equity & Retirement Savings

By Eileen Appelbaum

The decline in worker pensions creates a challenge for private equity (PE) funds. The funds currently get about a quarter of their capital from public-sector pension funds and another 10 percent from private-sector pension funds. But defined benefit pension plans, once enjoyed by most private-sector workers, have been largely dismantled by corporations. And public-sector pension plans have come under attack in recent years as part of a larger effort by politicians in some states to weaken or destroy public-sector unions. Private equity is worried that the goose that lays the golden eggs it relies on is on the endangered species list. With the industry so dependent on workers' retirement savings, its future growth prospects are likely to be tied to its ability to tap the estimated $6.6 trillion in 401(k) accounts.

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