上个月，United Air Lines将迈出一步，成为第一届美国航空公司，以便在云水中关闭其养老金计划之一。作为现有计划的替代方案，航空公司的父母UAL公司，其中2002年12月提交破产保护，达成协议，为公司股票提供5.5亿美元的公票，如果运营商从破产中出现，则为公司股票兑换。
养老金福利担保公司，该公司监督养老金行业的Quasigovernments机构反对这一交易，它表示为试点救济“以牺牲联邦政府，其其他员工和债权人为代价”。PBGC在美国地区法院提出了一项议案，要求立即接管飞行员退休计划。航空公司及其飞行员希望不会在5月之前终止该计划。虽然细节尚未得到解决，但它看起来像Ual Corp.会使其养老金计划像旧波音707。
航空公司行业可能是尤为困难的海峡，但联合国在其养老金困境中有很多公司 - 在企业会议室，市政厅和州的国会大会上。养老金经理仍在清理2000年至2003年之间的完美风暴的碎片。他们遭受了令人讨厌的股票价格趋于令人讨厌的股票价格，这令他们抑制了他们的资产和下降利率，同时增加了其负债的现值。据SANTA MONICA，加利福尼亚州的普罗基纳（Californiabased Pension顾问Wilshire Assender）威廉·莫妮卡（Santa Monica）的普通公共计划调查的平均大型企业计划增加了19.6％的养老金资产 - 他们在西雅图顾问米兰美国调查的平均大型企业计划中增加了19.6％。- 下降利率意味着负债继续膨胀。
Last year's more modest stock market gains and the persistent flatness of key interest rates did little to alleviate a widespread pension funding crisis (although data on its extent won't be available for several months). The Federal Reserve Board increased the federal funds rate five times between June and December, yet fixed-income investor skittishness about the gaping U.S. budget and current-
account deficits left the yield on ten-year Treasury notes at about 4.2 percent on December 31 -- about where it was at the start of the year.
Says John Ehrhardt, a principal at Milliman's New York office, "Many companies have taken pension contribution holidays for ten or 15 years, and now cash requirements for pension plans are going to be the norm."
In the bubble years "corporate management got lulled into a false sense of security that they were at zero costs for funding their pension benefits," says Roz Hewsenian, a senior consultant with Wilshire Associates. "Then the music stopped." John Myers, CEO of GE Asset Management, the investment arm of General Electric Co. and overseer of the company's $79 billion retirement plan, puts it bluntly: "In many ways the industry confused brains with a bull market."
由于这种普遍的错误，养老金健康的关键衡量，资金比率 - 流动资产除以当前负债的价值 - 截至2003年底的公司计划平均为88.5％（最近最近根据Milliman的说法，可用的数字。这是从2002年底的82.3％，但是从1999年的高点哭泣超过129.9％，局限于95％左右，分析师和顾问认为舒适。威尔郡报告说，在公共计划中，2003年底，平均资金比例为82％，从2002年的91％下降。
实际上，情况可能比许多人在一起。要确定其养老金负债的现值，企业计划依赖于基于现行公司债券收益率的折扣率。该公式可以低估这些责任，从而掩盖危险的资金，争论Institutional Investor's Journal of Portfolio Managementeditor Frank Fabozzi and money manager and consultant Ronald Ryan (see page 84).
为养老养老金行业的目前的脆弱感，证券和交易委员会在10月份表示，它已经向企业养老金会计发起了广泛的调查，审查了公司是否低估其养老金负债以操纵其收益。委员会要求提供来自波音公司，福特汽车公司，通用汽车公司和西北航空公司等的信息。
“航空公司行业是一个极端的案例，”拉塞尔投资集团研究与战略总监John Ilkiw说。“然而，您可以跨越多个经济部门，您可以听到正在讨论同样的养老金问题。”
“这些是养老基金的艰难时期，”国际纸业有限公司的65亿美元养老基金投资总监Robert Hunkeler说。“你面临着资金赤字。您正在处理未来多年的低收回环境的潜力。”
These difficult conditions pose an extraordinary challenge for the country's pension fund managers, who are increasingly hard-pressed to deliver on the promises made to their plan beneficiaries. Yet many are doing a fine job, earning well-deserved praise for their efforts. This year for the first time, Institutional Investor recognizes their achievements in its inaugural awards for investment excellence, saluting leaders of corporate pension funds, public pension funds, foundations and endowments (see boxes).
为了应对一些养老基金面临的全面危机和许多其他基金面临的严峻挑战，计划经理们正在部署各种策略，从创新策略到绝望策略。
在遇到这一挑战时，许多计划正在重新评估他们的资产拨款，以汉克勒表示，这是资金的未来回报将忽视20世纪80年代和90年代的历史斗牛市场。寻找额外的回报或alpha，许多计划，包括Hunkeler，已经制定或正在考虑进入对冲基金的侵略性。他们希望获得与传统股权指数不相关的强烈风险调整回报。知识产权已将其有针对性的对冲基金分配增加到总资产的5％，从两年前的1％起。
Quirk＆Associates咨询公司Darien，Quirk＆Associates估计，截至2005年底，所有各种机构的对冲基金投资的资金将超过1000亿美元，从2003年底为660亿美元。到2008年，凯西古典项目，机构对冲基金的资本总额可达3000亿美元。
在他们寻找alpha的情况下，在他们的越来越感觉中，大概要美国股权的胜利基准尤其困难，更多的企业和公共养老基金正在向他们的10％的资产向上致力于替代方案。除了对冲基金之外，该类别还包括私募股权，令人痛苦的债务和风险投资。（房地产通常被归类为单独的资产类别。）
Will this alpha hunt resolve the funding crisis? That's the $64 billion question. Kevin Quirk of Casey, Quirk argues that alpha strategies can be especially effective for small and medium-sized plans that are in reasonably solid shape. "With those funds," he says, "investments in these areas are going to have an impact."
然而，怀疑论者几乎与对冲基金亿万富翁一样共同。“对冲基金匆忙反映了养老金计划正在努力工作的事实，比应该工作的资产，”巴克莱全球投资者的客户咨询小组负责人“警告”，“巴克莱全球投资者负责人”，该投资者在资产中令人令人惊慌的1.2万亿美元绝大多数IT在指数基金中，但对冲基金大幅增加了81亿美元。
Other plans are trying to sidestep the whole deficit dilemma (though sometimes at the price of forgoing surpluses) by focusing more on liabilities -- and seeking to better match them with assets. It is not a new approach. The strategy goes back at least to the '80s, when pension funds used duration matching or immunization techniques, setting the duration of their bond holdings to match the expected duration of their liabilities. Now plans are trying to use the more sophisticated tactics to minimize the risk of a mismatch between assets and liabilities.
BGI的Waring指出，大多数企业计划赞助商衡量责任的持续时间，或对利率变化的敏感性，好像它具有单一的名义持续时间。“但名义持续时间是责任持续时间非常糟糕的描述符，”他指出。他认为，基金精算应该单独计算和衡量通货膨胀持续时间和实际利率持续时间。“这些数字是标称持续时间的隐式组成部分，对于常规债券几乎相同，但对于几乎所有的养老金负债都完全不同，”Waring说。“计划精算师可以计算这些持续时间，但很少。”
养老金管理人员也在重新思考他们的计划的利益。公司正在消除特权，如固定的生活费用调整，或暂时冻结福利水平;在公共计划的宇宙中，一些国家立法机构正在削减退休人员福利包。退休计划正在降低他们用于项目资产增长的精算假设，并重新评估他们如何估计其负债。2004年养老金资金股权法案，他们一直在养老金资金股权法案上得到了精算局，这使得养老金基金以较高的允许折扣率的形式得到了相当大的救济，即立即降低未来负债的现值。对于折扣率的每50个基点增加，典型15年持续时间的养老金负债的现值减少了6％至7.5％。
Despite all these maneuvers many pension plans find that they have no choice but to increase contributions to bolster their funding ratios. Companies tap corporate coffers, and state plans often raise funds by issuing pension obligation bonds. According to a study by UBS, in the first 11 months of 2003, state and local governments issued $15 billion in pension obligation bonds; that's up from less than $3 billion in 2002.
有些公司只是在毛巾上扔在毛巾上并终止他们界定的福利计划，最后一个垄断选项无法与公共计划不可用。PBGC报告192年截至2004年9月30日止终止的财政年度的新终端与2003财年为155财年。此期间，PBGC的净亏损从76亿美元增加到120.7亿美元。
10月，三角洲航空公司通过袭击大笔薪酬和福利与飞行员削减并冻结其养老金计划来避免破产。如果United终止其计划，该计划将在2003年底为48亿美元的负债，PBGC将不得不接受它，因为它都有废弃的企业退休计划。原子能机构将管理计划的投资组合，支付一些比例 - 但并非全部 - 承诺退休人员的福利。
一旦欢迎推动企业利润和福州到国家预算，退休计划现在是流失。据利姆曼介绍，前100名公司计划报告了2003年123亿美元的净养老金“费用”;一年同期，他们集体实现了36亿美元的养老金“收入”。（如果基金的回报超过必要符合责任时规定的金额，则盈余可以计入利润;缺口是一种费用，必须随着时间的推移从利润中扣除。）“过去三年的累积效果 - 甚至凭借2003年的强劲回报 - 意味着养老金收入的日子已经结束，“Milliman的Ehrhardt说。
在Wilshire对国家退休系统的年度调查中涵盖的123个公共资金中，93％的截至2003年年底欠惠润。这增加了2002年的79％和2001年的51％。十四州报告的资金比率低于70％。
The PBGC, which has its own deficit problems, is meant to serve as a backstop for ailing corporate plans, but there is no such protector of last resort for public pension funds. "That's why the real morass in retirement plans is in the public arena," contends Matthew Scanlan, head of business development at BGI. "Public plans look a lot better than they are, and they don't look good."
In many cases cities and states brazenly raided their public plan surpluses even after the bull market had ended (亚博赞助欧冠2001年11月)。例如,宾夕法尼亚州its legislators a 50 percent boost in their retirement packages, and teachers and other public workers got a 25 percent increase. New Jersey hiked benefits for state employees and teachers by 9 percent.
养老金会计规则允许公共和企业计划在几年内平均其报告的资产，这是一种称为平滑的策略。因为他们不必将这些资产标记为市场，所以，各国，市政和公司即使在熊市围绕其投资组合之后，也可以借鉴退休计划盈余。尽管如此，平滑只会推迟不可避免，最终资金率反映了耗尽的资产和肿胀的负债。
Faced with that sobering reality and the prospect of much more modest gains than during the bubble era, many corporate plans have lowered the returns they assume for assets -- often after being pressured by investors and analysts to do so. This should allow them to present a more realistic picture of their plans' health and enable funds to better prepare for future obligations by increasing corporate contributions and/or pursuing more alpha-generating investments. Of course, it will also lower expected corporate earnings.
Consulting firm Greenwich Associates says the median expected rate of return on assets for corporate plans fell to 8.55 percent at the end of 2003, down from 9.25 percent in 2002. Among public plans the average assumption has held steady for several years at 8 percent, reports Wilshire.
即使他们做出保守的假设，一些养老金管理人员也可能只有对其负债的程度的模糊掌握。“当我与计划赞助商见面时，我问他们如果他们了解他们的负债是什么，”BGI的Waring评论。“没有人说是的。”
为了省钱,sponso一些计划rs are rewriting benefit policies. The Arizona State Retirement System, which covers the retirements of all teachers and government workers in the state, has raised the cost of buying into a plan for those workers who transfer to Arizona from a public plan in another state. Before last August, Arizona allowed transferees to buy into its plan at a discount; by raising the cost of joining the plan, it expects to save $45 million a year. In addition, the Arizona plan was helped by a new state law requiring employers (counties, municipalities and school districts) to pay for any additional costs brought on by early retirement packages out of their own budgets: If, say, a school district raised a teacher's salary to entice him to retire early, it now has to pay into the pension fund. The Arizona plan figures this change could save it an additional $15 million a year.
该基金还将支付给前雇员的利息削减了留在8％至4％的计划中，每年节省2000万美元。与此同时，美国ASRS执行董事Paul Matson Notes，该计划并未减少任何成员福利。“虽然我们没有减少福利，但”马德森说，“我们已经前进，改变将允许减少缴费率和对计划资助状况的波动率较少。”
与此同时，一些公司计划正在削减计划福利，降低生活成本调整。Sargent＆Lundy是一家私人芝加哥的电气和核电站工程设计公司，略近两年前略近其175,000万美元的界定福利计划。该计划的1,500名员工符合在冻结时的薪水基础的资格;员工也可以参加401（k）。“我们肯定是有利可图的，”Sargent＆Lundy退休计划委员会主席Ken Davis说。“但是当您有一个定义的福利计划时，您无法控制进入的现金金额。通过使用401（k），我们可以为员工提供良好的利益，但更好地控制现金流量。”员工满足于新的制度，戴维斯报告，虽然他不会透露任何细节，但他指出，在冻结定义的福利计划后，401（k）的条款将改变为使员工更具吸引力。
对于Sargent＆Lundy，就许多美国公司而言，向员工提供退休福利已成为一个更复杂的努力。回到牛市中，企业养老金盈余是保存的礼物。但这似乎很久以前。
压力下的优雅
These are the worst of times, and, it seems, the worst of times in the investment management business.
几乎没有一天，报纸头条目前没有宣布即将剥夺养老金危机;养老金福利担保公司，以保护公司的养老金计划，本身可能需要救助。监管压力正在为金钱管理者安装，因为一些市场参与者的呼叫是更大的开放性和透明度。市场调节使许多专业人士重新审视基本投资假设。养老基金高管和基金会的首席投资人员和捐赠者正在以各种方式应对。许多人正在大修他们的资产拨款，降低他们对未来退货和拥有替代投资的预测，同时重点关注责任管理和风险控制。
To recognize the accomplishments of these executives, Institutional Investormagazine last month introduced its first awards for excellence in investment management. These awards, handed out at a gala dinner at New York's Plaza Hotel, are designed to honor the accomplishments of those who manage corporate and public pension plans, foundations and endowments. In selecting the finalists, the editors weighed, among other factors, nominees' innovativeness and their records of achievement in investment performance, asset allocation, liability management and risk control. The finalists, listed below, deserve praise for their achievements in especially trying times.
捐赠: Andrew Golden, president,Princeton University Investment Co.; John (Jack) Meyer, president and CEO, Harvard Management Co.; David Swensen,CIO,Yale University; Mark Yusko, former president and CEOof UNC Management Co. (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill endowment).
基础：Timothy Crowe，Cio，John S.和James L. Knight Foundation;Laurance（Laurie）Hoagland Jr.，Cio，William和Flora Hewlett基金会;D. Ellen Shuman，Cio，Carnegie Corp.的纽约;Linda Strumpf，Cio，Ford基金会。
CORPORATE PENSION PLANS: T. Britton Harris, president,Verizon Investment Management Corp.; Robert Hunkeler, vice president of investments, International Paper Co.; John Myers, CEO,GE Asset Management; William Quinn, founding president,AMR Investment Services.
公共养老金计划: Gary Findlay, executive director,Missouri State Employees Retirement System; Robert Maynard, CIO, Public Employee Retirement System of Idaho; Richard Moore,state treasurer,North Carolina Retirement System; Ronald Schmitz, director of investments, Oregon Public Employees Retirement System.
Strumpf: Arc of the diver
Linda Strumpf swims with sharks -- and not just the Wall Street kind. Since joining the Ford Foundation 23 years ago, the onetime technology research analyst has earned a reputation as a fearless scuba diver as well as an intrepid portfolio manager. Strumpf became chief investment officer in December 1992, when the foundation had $6.4 billion in assets; she now oversees $11 billion.
在全球范围内有13个办事处，非营利组织向努力促进民主价值观，减少贫困并鼓励国际合作的机构提供财政支持。法律要求每年分发5％的资产，基金会在12年的Strumpf的任期内作为CIO，分发了62亿美元。（于2004财年截至9月30日止，它给了5.2亿美元。）
“有些人认为作为投资专业人士是一件仿制性的，”57岁的Strumpf说，来自纽约大学的MBA，也是一个特许金融分析师。“但是当我环游世界并看到我们的基础工作时，它让我非常认真对待我的工作。我不只是为了获得一堆性能数字并继续前进。”
Strumpf无疑发布一些令人印象深刻的numbers. As of September 30, 2004, the ten-year annualized return on the foundation's assets was 11.4 percent, which compares favorably to the Northern Trust Universe performance results for plans over $1 billion, which delivered 9.8 percent . The portfolio's trailing 12-month return was 13.7 percent. Strumpf and her team of 18 investment professionals manage about half of the foundation's assets in-house. Currently, about 40 percent of the portfolio is allocated to U.S. equities, 17 percent is in international equities, and 10 percent is in private equity, Approximately 26 percent of the portfolio is dedicated to U.S. fixed-income investments, about 2 percent is in international fixed income, and 5 percent is in cash. Strumpf has been leery of incorporating hedge funds into the mix; she worries about transparency issues and reputational risk to the foundation (an issue she takes very seriously, as the organization does so much work in developing countries).
Strumpf says she made her most lucrative decision in 1993, when she decided to completely revamp and relaunch the foundation's private equity portfolio -- at the moment when the technological revolution was catching fire. She focused on early-stage venture funds investing in semiconductor and software technology, which led the organization to take stakes in such winners as Amazon.com, EBay, Google and Yahoo!.
Strumpf的水肺潜水 - 迄今为止，她最大的景象一直是鲸鲨，是地球上最大的鱼，桑给巴尔的海岸 - 促使基金会委员会成员之间的继承人令人担忧。“偶尔，他们确实担心，”她笑着说道。“但是我告诉他们，这里有这么美妙的员工，即使我确实被鲨鱼吃掉了，他们也不会错过一个节拍。我的任何一名高级工作人员都可以成为首席投资官。”
To Strumpf, that's just one way of mitigating risk. -- Loch Adamson
斯文：班级主管
作为长期投资者，耶鲁大学首席投资官David Swensen，大学巨头中的同行很少。作为有前途的投资专业人士的导师，50岁的斯文文似乎在课堂上。
His ever-expanding list of protégés includes leading CIOs and finance executives: Andrew Golden, president of Princeton University Investment Co.; Paula Volent, vice president for investments at Bowdoin College; Ellen Shuman, CIO at Carnegie Corp. of New York; and Ben Inker, CIO of quantitative developed equities and director of asset allocation at Grantham Mayo Van Otterloo & Co.
"He is just a wonderful guy to learn from," says Inker, who as a Yale undergraduate worked with Swensen on his finance thesis. "He never thought we should take for granted that people who ostensibly know what they're talking about actually do."
获得博士学位后。在耶鲁耶鲁的经济学中，斯文森在华尔街花了六年：三是萨罗斯兄弟的企业融资伙伴，他专注于开发新的金融技术，并在IBM公司之间建立了第一款货币互换之一 - 世界银行集团- 以及雷曼兄弟的高级副总统，专门从事货币交换活动。他于1985年回到了耶鲁，在他的前教授诺贝尔奖获奖经济学家詹姆斯·托宾敦促他认为他应该负责投资。
“创新对我而言，”斯文说。“耶鲁利用绝对回报作为资产课程，我的同事和我发起了对股权，真正多样化的投资组合的制度领取的举措。”
他已经提供了非凡的回报。根据全国大学和大学商业人员协会的一项调查，耶鲁五年和十年年度的年度返回率为15.0％，16.8％，是该国最高的国家之一。尽管如此，在2004财年，Arch-竞争对手哈佛管理有限公司及其总统杰克迈耶，杰尔·耶尔（Jack Meyer）杰出耶鲁，与耶鲁的19.4％相比，返回了21.1％。
Never one to miss a chance to impart practical investing wisdom, Swensen, a much-sought-after speaker, has also been known to lead the occasional beer-tasting seminar for qualified students at Yale. GMO's Inker fondly remembers Swensen expounding the finer points of foreign lagers and ales. Says Inker, "Dave thought that if we were going to drink beer -- and we were -- we really ought to be thoughtful consumers and not just buy Keystone Light." -- L.A.
Findlay: On the trail
休假，加里Findlay喜欢在密苏里杰弗森市的家里欣赏野鸡和鹌鹑。在工作中，作为52亿美元的密苏里州雇员退休系统的执行董事，Findlay，59，一直令人印象深刻的投资组合回报。
For the year ended June 30, 2004, the plan returned 17.1 percent, compared with 15.8 percent for the median public plan, as tracked by Santa Monica, Californiabased pension consultant Wilshire Associates. The three-year return was 5.5 percent, versus the 4.1 percent median, and the five-year return was 4.5 percent, versus 3.6 percent.
1968年在哥伦比亚大学哥伦比亚的哥伦比亚大学获得商务管理后，Fedlay曾担任美国军队的步兵中尉;他的旅游包括越南的一年作战职责。Findlay说，“军队中发展的领导技能可以在其他地方应用。”
In 1978, following a five-year stint as executive state secretary for the Missouri Local Government Employees Retirement System, Findlay took a job as a benefits consultant with Gabriel, Roeder, Smith & Co., an actuarial and benefits consulting firm that focuses on the public pension market. He became CEO in 1986. Six years later he joined the Missouri pension fund, known as Mosers, as executive director.
In the first half of 2003, Findlay, working closely with CIO Rick Dahl, decided to make a major change in asset allocation, doubling to 20 percent his allocation to alternatives -- not including hedge funds, which are categorized as either equity or debt. To do that, he shaved 5 percentage points each from 2002's allocation of 55 percent equity and 35 percent fixed income and added it to that year's 10 percent in alternative assets, which include commodities, distressed debt, private equity, real estate and timber. Mosers has placed 12.8 percent of its total assets in hedge fund portfolios: 7.2 percent in long-short equity funds and 5.6 percent in market-neutral bond funds.
博彩博览会，Mosers是第一批购买财政膨胀保护证券的养老基金之一。当美国财政部首先在1997年首次提供证券时，Mosers将总计划资产的10％分配给提示;目标仍然存在。“当您的负债是通货膨胀相关的时候，有一个通货膨胀联系资产是有道理的，”
notes Findlay.
Two years ago, bullish on distressed debt, Findlay decided to invest $100 million in the asset class. Mosers made an 80 percent return in less than a year.
Findlay是一家直言不讳的行业倡导者唯一的顾问，而不是经理经理的经理运营或提供投资服务。证券交易委员会目前正在调查这种潜在的利益冲突。对于其顾问，MOSERS使用仅限费用峰会策略组，尽管峰会是众多投资顾问之一，其商业实践正在调查秒。“Summit的唯一收入来源是计划赞助商的费用，”Findlay说。“秒已经采取了霰弹枪的方法，并询问了很多公司。我对峰会的每一切信心。”- Barbara Rudolph..
Quinn: Come fly with me
别怪威廉·奎恩。航空业可能会自由落体；退休人员可能为他们的福利而烦恼；准政府养老金福利担保公司（QuasigovernmentalPensionBenefitGuarantCorp.）可能面临不断膨胀的赤字，但通过这一切，奎因在管理美国航空公司130亿美元养老金计划方面做了出色的工作。
"Given market conditions and the state of the airline industry, these are trying times," acknowledges Quinn, 56. "We try to have a simple, disciplined approach, and it has paid off over time."
在过去三年中，母公司AMR公司在公司和财政部债券中持有大约40％的资产;这些证券的平均持续时间是18年来，相对于其他公司养老基金相当高。解释奎因，“我们保留更长的债券来对冲负债免遭利率下降。”AMR在美国股票中保留了28％的资产;额外的20％是EAFE股票，5％的新兴市场股票。所有库存组合都以价值偏差管理。私募股权资产总计7％。迄今为止，奎因避免了对冲基金。“我们仍然关注高成本和透明度问题，”他说。
Quinn's strategy has kept American flying high. For the year ended December 31, 2003, American's portfolio, which is entirely actively managed, gained 24.8 percent, compared with 19.6 percent for the average corporate return as tracked by Seattle-based consulting firm Milliman USA. The portfolio returned 7.5 percent over three years, compared with the average return of 0.2 percent, and 7.4 percent over five years, compared with the median 3.6 percent. Year to date through November, the portfolio was up about 13 percent.
奎因是一位纪律严明的价值投资者，他在2004年第三季度减仓之前，曾高估能源股数年。过去18个月，他在金融服务类股票方面也表现出色。
1969年，福特汉大学毕业和一位注册会计师，Quinn加入了Sky Chefs，美国航空公司的前餐饮子公司，1974年。四年后，他成为秘密商。1987年，当美国航空公司建立了AMR投资服务来管理公司的退休计划时，奎因被赶紧成为成立总统。
一些航空公司已被迫削减对退休计划的贡献。United Air Lines的父母破产UAL CORP宣布，它将终止其飞行员的养老基金，PBGC在法庭提出了一项议案，要求承担该计划的许可。但在美国，奎因说，“我们认为养老金义务很重要，我们为他们提供资金。”
He's quick to point out that AMR received a helping hand from a welcome source when its pilots agreed to a substantial pay cut last year. Their goal: to help preserve their retirement benefits. -- B.R.