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[Clansgian AT wmconnect.com]

> Forget the pensions.  Companies are shedding pension plans as fast as they 
> can.  They are also cutting health care for retires even faster.  

I think you're right, Don, I'd take pensions clean out of the formula ... at 
least pensions in the usual sense of the word.  Some pension "funds" are 
backed by securities of some sort, but most simply promise to use current 
company 
assets to keep paying pensioner benefits.  What we saw this year in company 
bankruptcies to shed themselves of such things as pension obligations is only 
the 
beginning.