Description: Review of Fifty-Second Annual Report of the Board of Actuaries of the Civil Service Retirement System. The authors found it to be a concise well written report discussing a number of issues facing all pensions in an inflationary economy. Both the title and the dull format in the usual Government Printing Office style would seem to insure this document's instantaneous consignment to dead storage. However, behind the cover of this small pamphlet is a concise, well written report discussing-a-number of the issues facing not only federal pension programs at the present time, but all pensions in an inflationary economy. For example, several of the 11 pages devoted to the main report discuss the implications of static assumptions ignoring inflation as opposed to dynamic assumptions including inflation.

Description: Description of program parameters for next year.

Description: Eric Friedman’s comments on ‘The Case for Stochastic Present Values,” by Dimitry Mindlin

Description: On October 16, 1974, the Congress overrode the Presidential veto of H.R. 15301 The Railroad Retirement Act of 1974, a bill to restructure the railroad retirement system which was based on proposals made jointly by railroad management and labor. H.R. 15301 now P.L. 93-445 embodies some far reaching changes which are mainly directed toward relieving the difficult financial situation of the railroad retirement system.

Description: Comments from Eric Friedman on the paper by David J. Kehler that examines some of the underlying issues associated with public pension plan benefits and financing. It reviews concerns related to intergenerational equity and problems in maintaining the funded status of public DB retirement plans.

Description: Authors’ response to comments by Ryan Labs Asset Management on paper by James J. Rizzo Krzysztof M. Ostaszewski Piotr Krekora.

Description: Comments by Ryan Labs Asset Management on paper by James J. Rizzo Krzysztof M. Ostaszewski Piotr Krekora.

Description: The International Section Council in conjunction with the Actuaries without Borders section of the IAA and the Azerbaijan Actuarial Association recently sponsored a three-day seminar focused on retirement benefits in Baku, Azerbaijan.

Description: Comments from Eric Friedman on “The Debate over Applying FE Principles to the Funding on Public Pension Plans: A Transition Proposal and Other Ideas,” by Thomas Lowman

Description: Author response to Eric Friedman’s comments on ‘The Case for Stochastic Present Values,” by Dimitry Mindlin