What happens now in a pension plan is that you can only accumulate a surplus equivalent to 10% of the liabilities. So you can see that with the volatility...the stock market, for instance, has a volatility of 18%. So you have to run the pension plan, and I can give you examples of plans that went into excess surpluses. At that point the employer has to stop contributions, and most of the time that means the employees stop also, so in a span of two years you can go from having too much money to not having enough. You have to run your plan between, essentially, equal to your liabilities and a maximum of 10% above those liabilities. It's a fairly narrow corridor, and what I'm advocating is that this corridor should be extended, because clearly you want to have the assets equal to the liabilities. I think there's room, in fact, to make it.... If it were 90%--I don't think people should necessarily die on the hill--then you could extend the amortization period, but that's really the idea. The tax law makes it so that you get only the maximum surplus, which is 10%.
On April 21st, 2009. See this statement in context.