Excerpt: According to two separate news accounts, cracks may be appearing in the pension back-up systems for the United States and UK, respectively. Already jittery taxpayers may look at these warnings with heightened alarm. In 'Pension Agency Sounds Alarm on Big Three,' Wall Street Journal reporter John D. Stoll (November 28, 2008) writes that the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation ('PBGC') is worried that large automakers may offer early retirement or buyout deals to some plan participants, at the expense of those who remain.... In 'Pension lifeboat may be sunk by wave of firms being liquidated' (November 28, 2008), Phillip Inman and Simon Bowers - reporters for The Guardian - write that 'The Pension Protection Fund (PPF), which has already rescued more than 66 retirement schemes, may be forced to increase its levy on profitable companies to boost its finances or risk a government bail-out if more companies go bust.'

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