While America Aged

How Pension Debts Ruined General Motors, Stopped the NYC Subways, Bankrupted San Diego, and Loom as the Next Financial Crisis

The retirement crisis facing America-and the road map for a way out-from The New York Times bestselling author of Origins of the Crash

In the last several decades, corporations and local governments made ruinous pension and healthcare promises to American workers. With these now coming due, they threaten to destroy twenty-first- century America's hopes for a comfortable retirement. With his trademark narrative panache, bestselling author Roger Lowenstein analyzes three fascinating case studies-General Motors, the New York City subway system, and the city of San Diego-each an object lesson and a compelling historical saga that illuminates how the pension crisis developed. Cumulative retirement deficits are approaching $1 trillion, and Lowenstein warns that these are only the first. Retirement pensions will continue to be a critical issue as the country ages, and While America Aged is the urgent call to action and prescription for reform.
While America AgedIntroduction

Part One: Who Owns General Motors?

1. Walter Reuther and the Treaty of Detroit
2. The Anti-Reuther

Part Two: The Public Freight

3. An Entitled Class
4. On Strike!

Part Three: Debacle in San Diego

5. Finest City
6. Pension Plot
7. The Bill Comes Due

Conclusion: The Way Out
Acknowledgments
Notes
Index

© Judy Slovin
Roger Lowenstein reported for The Wall Street Journal for more than a decade. His work has appeared in The Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg , The New York Review of Books, Fortune, The New York Times Magazine, and other publications. His books include Buffett, When Genius Failed, Origins of the Crash, While America Aged, and The End of Wall Street. He has three children and lives with his wife, Judy Slovin, in Newton, Massachusetts. View titles by Roger Lowenstein

About

The retirement crisis facing America-and the road map for a way out-from The New York Times bestselling author of Origins of the Crash

In the last several decades, corporations and local governments made ruinous pension and healthcare promises to American workers. With these now coming due, they threaten to destroy twenty-first- century America's hopes for a comfortable retirement. With his trademark narrative panache, bestselling author Roger Lowenstein analyzes three fascinating case studies-General Motors, the New York City subway system, and the city of San Diego-each an object lesson and a compelling historical saga that illuminates how the pension crisis developed. Cumulative retirement deficits are approaching $1 trillion, and Lowenstein warns that these are only the first. Retirement pensions will continue to be a critical issue as the country ages, and While America Aged is the urgent call to action and prescription for reform.

Table of Contents

While America AgedIntroduction

Part One: Who Owns General Motors?

1. Walter Reuther and the Treaty of Detroit
2. The Anti-Reuther

Part Two: The Public Freight

3. An Entitled Class
4. On Strike!

Part Three: Debacle in San Diego

5. Finest City
6. Pension Plot
7. The Bill Comes Due

Conclusion: The Way Out
Acknowledgments
Notes
Index

Author

© Judy Slovin
Roger Lowenstein reported for The Wall Street Journal for more than a decade. His work has appeared in The Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg , The New York Review of Books, Fortune, The New York Times Magazine, and other publications. His books include Buffett, When Genius Failed, Origins of the Crash, While America Aged, and The End of Wall Street. He has three children and lives with his wife, Judy Slovin, in Newton, Massachusetts. View titles by Roger Lowenstein