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Tag Archives: USS
USS heading for the buffers – strikes seem inevitable – why?
News that University employers have agreed a deal with the University Superannuation Scheme that will leave members with substantial cuts in benefits , has not gone down well. Another wave of strikes beckons , deepening the plight of students who … Continue reading
USS and Future Service; – Michael Bromwich
Michael Bromwich has published on this blog before and I’m proud to publish his latest note on the University Superannuation Scheme. This is a long and technical blog which is very topical. Yesterday we heard more news of breakdowns in … Continue reading
Posted in pensions
Tagged Future Service, Michael Bromwich, Technical Provisions, USS
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Private markets – pension’s friend or foe?
Two articles appeared in the FT over the bank holiday weekend that show just how fractured pension investment strategy over private markets is becoming. In the one, David Fairs, the Pension Regulator’s policy Director expresses concern that small defined … Continue reading
Posted in pensions
Tagged Andrew Warwick-Thompson, BT, David Fairs, DWP, ft, private, public, TPR, USS
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The USS valuation and a way forward
The controversy over the University Superannuation Scheme’s current valuation sums up all that’s gone wrong with defined benefit pension schemes. Let’s start with the view of John Kay, one of Britain’s most respected and outspoken economists. John Kay, one of … Continue reading
Posted in pensions
Tagged #USS, John Kay, John Ralfe, Kevin Wesbroom, Mike Otsuka, Pensions, Sam Marsh, USS
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USS and the risks of power over other people’s wealth
In political science and popular discourse,[1] the horseshoe theory asserts that the far-left and the far-right, rather than being at opposite and opposing ends of a linear political continuum, closely resemble one another, analogous to the way that the opposite ends of a horseshoe are close together. ..Proponents … Continue reading
USS’ view of investment returns is anything but prudent – Keating
Once is chance, twice bad luck, but three times – “Enemy Action” USS has been at it again. On March 1 2021, they published a paper entitled: “The difference between our expected investment returns and our prudent assumptions”. The paper … Continue reading
Nick Hillman’s “USS trilogy” reviewed
HEPI (the higher educational policy group) has published three blogs on its website authored by Nick Hillman (pictured). The website hasn’t attracted much comment so I asked Con Keating to send me his. “Idiosyncracy” as a euphemism. When I accepted … Continue reading
The USS needs a plan that we all can understand
I am not smart enough to add much to the academic debate pursued by Professors Michael Bromwich and Dennis Leech , the venerable Con Keating and the scholarly Woon Wong. Readers looking for the views of Ros Altmann can find … Continue reading
Con Keating calls the “obscurantism” of USS
In recent weeks we have seen blogs from Professors Emeritus Michael Bromwich and Dennis Leech both addressing the travails of USS. The blogs can be read here and here respectively. Professor Bromwich’s note is a particularly good attempt at piercing … Continue reading
“Assumptions are dangerous” – Bromwich on USS
Universities Superannuation Scheme (USS): A consultation for the 2020 Valuation[1] Some General Views Michael Bromwich [a] Assumptions are dangerous things to make, and like all dangerous things to make, bombs, for instance, or strawberry shortcake, if you make even the … Continue reading