Word: sectoral
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...appropriately dubbed "Pension Palpitations" report details, the S&P 500's pensions are now collectively underfunded by at least $115 billion. The problem stretches far beyond the finance sector. Five of the companies with the highest dollar amount of pension underfunding, according to the report, are Raytheon (underfunded by $1.6 billion), Johnson & Johnson ($1.5 billion), ExxonMobil ($1.4 billion), Macy's ($980 million) and Alcoa ($950 billion). "This is affecting the broad swath of companies that make up the fabric of what we call the 'real economy,'" says Mark T. Williams, a risk-management expert and finance professor at the Boston...
...plus side, Wall Street firms are expected to pay out $14 billion in year-end bonuses this year. It's still a lot, and most likely much more than what the firms would have paid out had the government not decided to bail out the financial sector. But bonus pay is down just over $19 billion from a year ago. What's more, Brad Hintz, an analyst at money manager Sanford Bernstein, predicts Wall Street employment will drop from its mid-July peak by around 43,000 employees by the end of next year...
...According to Japanese analysts, U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke may decide that it's best to lower rates again, to below 1%, in the coming months as the economy weakens. Even though ultra-low rates may have little immediate economic impact, they help to stabilize the financial sector as well as stock markets. Equities become more attractive when interest earned by stashing cash in the bank is lower than the inflation rate. "While the BOJ's zero-rate policy did not work as expected in terms of reviving the economy, it contributed to preventing the financial system from collapsing...
...Harvard’s endowment, earning an annualized return of 28.5 percent over the past 10 years. This return has been lower in more recent years, though, coming in at 9.3 percent in fiscal year 2008, and the current economic distress may further drive down investment opportunities in the sector. But Primack said that the deal, which would be one of the biggest private equity sales ever by an endowment, might not go through because HMC’s position is still comfortable enough that it would not have to accept a sale at a less-than-favorable price...
...holidays. The Maldives lie southeast of India, a jumble of nearly 20,000 idyllic islands and azure lagoons nestled in coral atolls (a word for reef formations which came to English, fittingly, from Dhivehi, the local Maldivian tongue). Gayoom, 71, is chiefly responsible for building up the lucrative tourism sector - which has fast become the country's leading industry, ahead of its traditional fisheries. It has made Maldivians - at least statistically - the most affluent people in South Asia, and the country host to waves of Hollywood celebrities who pay thousands of dollars for the chance to spend a night...