A woman reacts in front of the white coffin of a child, during the funeral service for quake victims in L'Aquila, central Italy, Friday, April 10, 2009. (AP)

Italy Mourns

A state funeral was held today for the victims of Monday’s earthquake in L’Aquila. Rachel Donadio of the New York Times joins us to talk about the emotional Good Friday service.

Pension Problems

Are pension plans next in line for a government bailout? The federal agency that insures pension plans has lost billions of dollars since its former director ordered the agency to abandon its conservative investment strategy and put much of its portfolio into stocks last year. Our guests are Olivia Mitchell, Executive Director of the Pension Research Council at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Business and Barry Young, Senior Pension Actuary with Principal Financial Group, based in Des Moines, Iowa.

Electronic Books

Kindle 2.0, the electronic book with its new computer voiced reader has recently been released. Meanwhile, Google is creating the largest on-line library in the world. We talk with David Weinberger, a fellow at Harvard’s Berkman Center for Internet and Society about the pros and cons of electronic books.

Good Friday Agreement

Today marks the 11th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement that set up a framework for the peace process and an end to The Troubles in Northern Ireland. The years since have been relatively peaceful, but recent violence is raising the tension level. The BBC’s Nick Childs reports on the future of the peace process in Northern Ireland.

Angus and Julia Stone

We talk with Angus and Julia Stone, an Australian brother-sister duo who made a splash at this year’s South by South West music festival and shot to number one on the iTunes singer-songwriter chart after the American release of the CD “A Book Like This.”

Music from the show

Ahmad Jamal, “Patterns”
Air, “Mike Mills”
Funk Brothers, “Keep Me Hangin’ On”
Massive Attack, “Future Proof”
The Wee Trio, “About a Girl”
Tito Puente, “All Blues”
Angus and Julia Stone, “Mango Tree”
Angus and Julia Stone, “Wasted”
Angus and Julia Stone, The Beast”
Angus and Julia Stone, “A Book Like This”
Angus and Julia Stone, “Hollywood”
Angus and Julia Stone, “Here We Go Again”

Brandon

I enjoyed the discussion on Pension Problems. I think the workforce issues that Mr. Young brought up are often overlooked as he correctly stated companies are often focused on the short term bottom line.

Mr. Young pointed out a very interesting somewhat contradictory effect that occurs for DC plans during an economic downturn. Just when companies are struggling and may look for ways to encourage older workers to retire in an effort to cut expenses, these same employees who might otherwise choose to leave are forced to delay retirement because of the dramatic decrease in their 401(k) balance. Although we have seen this effect in periods of past economic decline, it has never been this dramatic and it will be interesting to see how this plays out in the workforce over the next few years.

As a slight correction to what was printed in your overview above, it is The Principal (not Principle) Financial Group. While they have an office in Atlanta, their headquarters is in Des Moines, IA.
jryan

Thanks for your comment and for catching our typo Brandon, the correction has been made.
-Jill Ryan, Here & Now