< The 2014 Pension 40: The Battle Is On
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Andrew Biggs
Resident Scholar
American Enterprise Institute
PNR
What retirement crisis? Andrew Biggs, 46, a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute and a former Social Security Administration deputy commissioner, branded fears of a retirement income crisis “imaginary” in a recent Wall Street Journal op-ed. Biggs asserts that the real problem lies with risks taken by state and local governments that could cause systemic damage to a safety net that ultimately is not as effective as it should be. Although Biggs admits, “A lot of people fall through the cracks,” he contends that the alarm over retirement income is often targeted at raising Social Security benefits, which would only reduce incentives to save and leave those truly at risk in the lurch. His solution: a universal retirement benefit not linked to earnings, coupled with defined contribution pensions and elimination of payroll taxes for older workers. Oft-cited numbers suggesting that upwards of 60 percent of people nearing retirement aren’t prepared for it underestimate how much income retirees actually have and overestimate how much they’ll need, Biggs says. His model indicates that the number of retirees in jeopardy is closer to 25 percent.
The 2014 Pension 40Click name to view profile.
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 |
| Bruce Rauner Illinois | John and Laura Arnold Laura and John Arnold Foundation | Randi Weingarten American Federation of Teachers | Rahm Emanuel Chicago | David Boies Boies, Schiller & Flexner |
| 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 |
| Randy DeFrehn National Coordinating Committee for Multiemployer Plans | Damon Silvers AFL-CIO | Laurence Fink BlackRock | Chris Christie New Jersey | Robin Diamonte United Technologies Corp. |
| 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 |
| Ted Eliopoulos California Public Employees’ Retirement System | John Kline Minnesota | J. Mark Iwry U.S. Treasury Department | Gina Raimondo Rhode Island | Phyllis Borzi U.S. Labor Department |
| 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 |
| Orrin Hatch Utah | Abigail Johnson Fidelity Investments | Ted Wheeler Oregon | Caitlin Long Morgan Stanley | James Hoffa International Brotherhood of Teamsters |
| 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 |
| Amy Kessler Prudential Financial | Alejandro García Padilla Puerto Rico | Christopher Klein U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Eastern District of Caifornia | Steven Rhodes Bankruptcy Court for the Eastern District of Michigan | Kevin de León California |
| 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 |
| David Draine Pew Charitable Trusts | Jordan Marks National Public Pension Coalition | Sam Liccardo California | Joshua Rauh Stanford Graduate School of Business | Karen Ferguson and Karen Friedman Pension Rights Center |
| 31 | 32 | 33 | 34 | 35 |
| Timothy Blake Moody’s Investors Service | Kathleen Kennedy Townsend Center for Retirement Initiatives, Georgetown University | Edward (Ted) Siedle Benchmark Financial Services | Daniel Loeb Third Point | Judy Mares Employee Benefits Security Administration, U.S. Labor Department |
| 36 | 37 | 38 | 39 | 40 |
| Andrew Biggs American Enterprise Institute | Andy Stern Columbia University | Kenneth Mehlman KKR & Co. | Teresa Ghilarducci New School for Social Research | A. Melissa Moye U.S. Treasury Department |
