By: Russ Kamp, Managing Director, Ryan ALM, Inc. As a child playing football, I was told to look at my opponent's belt buckle when going to make a tackle, so as to avoid head fakes. Well, market participants cheering yesterday's...

By: Russ Kamp, Managing Director, Ryan ALM, Inc. I look forward to these Monday updates but would prefer a bit more activity to get everyone excited by the progress being realized in the quest to secure the pension promises that...

By: Russ Kamp, Managing Director, Ryan ALM, Inc. Yesterday, I produced the chart below with the intent to write a piece regarding premature recessionary fears. My premise was based on the fact that since 1970, recessions only occurred as unemployment...

By: Russ Kamp, Managing Director, Ryan ALM, Inc. It was announced earlier today that the Bank of England (BofE) has raised its key rate by 50 bps representing the largest increase since 1995. This marks the sixth consecutive meeting in...

By: Russ Kamp, Managing Director, Ryan ALM, Inc. Following the publication of yesterday's post, I received several good questions including the following: "Have real interest rates (nominal rate minus inflation) ever been below -5%, let alone the current -7%?" It...

By: Russ Kamp, Managing Director, Ryan ALM, Inc. We've been quite surprised by the magnitude of the moves in both US interest Rates (down) and US equities (up) since mid-June. In fact, July is one of only a handful of...

By: Russ Kamp, Managing Director, Ryan ALM, Inc. If it's Monday, it must but ARPA update day! We are pleased to report that there was some activity last week as reported by the PBGC. Teamsters Local Union No. 52 Pension...

By: Russ Kamp, Managing Director, Ryan ALM, Inc. We've recently gotten greater clarity from the PBGC in announcing their Final, Final Rules related to the ARPA multiemployer pension relief. Could we be getting closer to a resolution related to Delphi's...

By: Russ Kamp, Managing Director, Ryan ALM, Inc. The Great Resignation, aka the Big Quit or the Great Reshuffle, has been raging on since early 2021. We have witnessed a tremendous migration of workers from one job to another. Commentators...

By: Russ Kamp, Managing Director, Ryan ALM, Inc. I was extremely pleased to read Bridgett Hickey's recent FundFire article, "Pensions Return Expectations Fall Below 7% for First Time" in which she writes that the average public pension plan return on...