Word: pension
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...Adjusting to the scale of the challenge of running Europe's third-largest airline after four years as boss of Irish carrier Aer Lingus "was easy," says Walsh. "I just multiplied everything by 10." Not all of BA's bigger numbers meant better. When he arrived, the company's pension fund was short of almost $3 billion, more than the shortfall at any other major British firm. And payroll for BA's 46,000 staff sucked up a bloated 30% of its costs...
...math, Walsh (a former Aer Lingus pilot who landed the top job there in 2001) quickly got to work cutting the figures down to size. On his first Monday in the BA job, he set about reaching a deal with trade unions to rub out the pension deficit over the next decade through one-off cash injections and changes to employee benefits. Two months later, "Slasher" - as Walsh was known at the Irish carrier for culling a third of its staff while rescuing it from the brink - went to work on BA's head count. Hundreds of senior managers...
Though there has been some good news on the economic front lately, with unemployment dipping to 6.4%, its lowest since 1992, tough questions for the country's future remain unresolved. Italy is hobbled by a chronic lack of economic and social mobility, an unsustainable pension system and public debt that stands at 106% of GDP. Illegal immigration is exploding while birth rates are among the lowest in Europe. Intractable poverty and organized crime remain endemic across the southern half of the country...
Whatever happens, most observers agree that Abe and the LDP lost by focusing on revising Japan's pacifist constitution and making education more patriotic while ordinary Japanese were more worried about the country's growing income gap and its faulty pension system. Whether or not Abe resigns, the Japanese government will have to put aside its grander ambitions and make pocketbook issues a priority. "Abe couldn't figure out how to balance the people's interests with his own," says Etsushi Tanifuji, deputy dean of politics at Tokyo's Waseda University. Fortunately for Japan, the democratic system...
...Meanwhile, the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pension Committee on Wednesday is scheduled to report out Senator Ted Kennedy's latest attempt at regulating tobacco products - he has tried and failed to pass similar bills four years running. This year's measure - which actually enjoys the support of Phillip Morris, the producer of Marlboro and the largest U.S. cigarette manufacturer - adds a controversial clause that would permit the use of cloves as a cigarette additive. Phillip Morris, a division of Altria, spent $5 billion in 2005 to buy a controlling stake in Sampoerna of Indonesia, a large maker of clove...