The Ignorant Investor

In the Boston Globe's story Pension law to usher in 401(k) era, I noticed this gem of a line:

. . . [401k] plans still might prove less generous for workers than current pension systems but may be the best workers can expect given the economic pressures many companies face, said Peg McGlinch, legislative director for US Representative Richard E. Neal, the Springfield Democrat who sits on the House Ways & Means committee that helped write the law.

Note the phrase "the best workers can expect given the economic pressures many companies face" is used at a time when corporations have never been more profitable and when wages are stagnant for many workers. The more accurate way to put it would be, "the best workers can expect given the economic pressures that many workers face at a time when good paying jobs with robust benefit packages are thin on the ground." Really, what choice do workers have but to accept whatever they can get?

I haven't had the chance to read all about the new law, and what I saw looked good for investors. But that line just made me laugh. The PR departments at corporate America are just terrific these days. When they speak to Wall Street, they brag about how profitable they are. When they speak to Congress, they go in with the trouser pockets of their Brooks Brothers suits hanging out. Poor us, they say. Poor, poor us.