Multiemployer pensions take center stage in 2020

Published February 12, 2020 5:00am ET



As the primary season gets underway, one candidate, President Trump, doesn’t seem particularly worried about which presidential hopeful wins which state. He has a strong economic record to run on and he can seemingly easily expose the follies of his opponents’ big government plans. But he has a potential Achilles’ heel: failing multiemployer pension plans. Unless Trump embraces a sensible approach to managing millions in underwater pensions, people in the United States may have to deal with a President Biden … or Sanders.

Normally, “pension woes” are reserved for underfunded public pensions run into the ground by Democratic machine politicians in dysfunctional cities such as Chicago. Private pensions are doing fine for the most part. But their stellar returns, driven by meteoric economic growth, are being undermined by failing multiemployer plans.

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