pension funds

Yet another way that smart people subtly jigger the rules to make themselves richer and most other people poorer
The Wall Street Journal this morning exposes a, um, tax-avoidance strategy (which appears not to be slam-dunk-illegal, and therefore, standard operating procedure!) whereby companies sell their deferred-executive-compensation IOU's to their employee pension funds. Result: Executive fund gets cash now; employee-pension funds pay off only in the future . . if they're solvent . . if the company doesn't go bankrupt . . if the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation doesn't go bankrupt . . if Congress bails out the PBGC if it does go bankrupt. Wall Street Journal