Description: R. Evan Inglis, the new chairperson of the SOA/AAA Joint Pension Finance Task Force, shares with us his view of the important pension finance issues facing actuaries and the task force’s vision of how pension finance can strengthen the actuarial profession.

Description: This note is labeled actuarial because it deals extensively with the force of interest, a concept which is characteristically of concern to the actuarial community. The authors’ personal point of view is that we should modify the basic definition of the compound interest.

Description: This article discusses how publicly traded companies fail to realize their full potential due to a lack of clarity in identifying which shareholders they are trying to serve, especially when viewing short term versus long term goals.

Description: Feature article discussing how market interest rates and bond yields dropped in response to the global financial crisis in late 2008, and they have struggled to return to their prior levels, in part because the Federal Reserve has made efforts to spur growth and lending in a sluggish U.S. economy.

Description: Reports the results of one application of a Future Research technique-in this case, forecasting future economic variables.

Description: Great damage is being done to the U.S. economy as a result of the widespread misunderstanding that the Consumer Price Index measures changes in the cost of living.

Description: Discusses the effects of inflation and the impact on business. This article sites several challenges that business will encounter during times of inflation.

Description: The Long and Short (Runs) of Investing in Equities by Peter Yoo from Risks and Rewards Newsletter, March 1999, Issue No. 32.

Description: This essay explores the role that the emerging defined contribution retirement system may be playing in the growth of wealth inequality in the United States. The current system leaves many Americans with little or no retirement savings. Those with higher accumulation levels appear to invest proportionally more in equities, which may have an exponential effect of balances over long time periods. The author hypothesizes that willingness to take investment risk involves the relationship between the amount an investor has accumulated and what she/he needs in order to cover basic costs of living. This is one reason that investors with greater accumulation levels may be able to earn higher rates of return. The essay concludes by suggesting that the U.S. defined contribution system should include all workers and provide additional fiduciary guidance. Examples reforms, both in the U.S. and other countries, are provided.