I can remember a CEO lamenting to me one time that he was a little too late when he hired on to get a defined benefit pension plan. The company had went to defined contribution plan and it did not seem nearly as lucrative to him. His company may have fully funded their plan and his predecessors will get their pension, or maybe they will not. Don't know. His defined contribution plan might not look so bad after all if the defined benefit plan can not pay out everything promised.

Lots of pensions are going to look like Puerto Rico's teacher plan. Unless Bernanke gets the helicopter out.

Which brings to another subject. Zero Hedge pointed out quite a while back that at some point the Fed had to taper their purchases, because with the deficit declining there would be a point in the future where the Fed was buying the entire bond market offering. Something about people might catch on if it became obvious the Fed was monetizing everything. It will be interesting if the economy goes in the tank again, what bullets they will try next. What assets will they buy this time? There are limits to the bond market purchases and as I understand it what they have been purchasing was already affecting liquidity of the market. Any ideas of what they might do if they have to step on the accelerator?

John