What If Boomers Can't Retire?

What If Boomers Can't Retire?

by Thornton Parker, Hazel Henderson
Released November 2002
Publisher(s): Berrett-Koehler Publishers
ISBN: 9781605098081

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Book description

When it was first published, What If Boomers Can't Retire? predicted what would happen when boomers switched from buying stocks to selling them for retirement income. Since then-and as predicted by author Thornton Parker-stocks have become less important, prices have declined, corporations have shifted their emphasis from inflating stocks to just surviving, and there is currently a recession in full swing.
This book shows that there is a bright side, however. If enough boomers work in their later years and preserve their capital, and if the country improves the way it uses capital, the results can lead to fuller lives for millions of people, healthier communities, and more sustainable economies worldwide. Parker details specific actions that individuals and organizations can take to gradually make the shift from the dangerously risky pursuit of phantom wealth to productive investments based on real accomplishments, goods, and services.

Table of contents

  1. Cover Page
  2. Title Page
  3. Copyright Page
  4. Foreword
  5. Preface to the Paperback Edition
    1. Why This Book Was Written
    2. How It Is Organized
    3. “We”
  6. Acknowledgments
  7. Introduction: Beware of Phantom Wealth
    1. The Five Main Messages of This Book
    2. What Is Phantom Wealth?
    3. Will Baby Boomers Have Enough Money to Retire?
    4. Money Isn’t Everything
    5. Related Views
    6. The Challenge
    7. Highlights
  8. PART I Baby Boomers and Their Retirement Plans
    1. CHAPTER 1: Social Security: The Tip of the Retirement Iceberg
      1. The Financial Aspect of the Social Security Problem
      2. Social Security and the Federal Budget
      3. Stocks and Social Security
      4. What You Can Do to Raise Awareness of the Problem
      5. Summary
    2. CHAPTER 2: Can Stocks Help Baby Boomers Retire?
      1. The Five Main Sources of Income for People Over 65
      2. The Stocks-for-Retirement (SFR) Cycle
      3. The Critical Flaw in the SFR Cycle
      4. System-Failure Analysis
      5. Foreign Buyers
      6. Retirement Investments for Income
      7. Real Returns and Phantom Returns from Stocks
      8. The Scale Effect Problem
      9. Retirement Plans and Pyramid Schemes
      10. What Else Might Happen?
      11. Summary
    3. CHAPTER 3: Views from Eight Other Books
      1. The Optimists
      2. The Historians
      3. The Bubblers
      4. The Realists
      5. Some Comparisons
      6. Putting It All Together
      7. What Difference Does It Make?
      8. Summary
    4. CHAPTER 4: How Baby Boomers’ Later Years Will Unfold
      1. Riding Down the Escalator
      2. The Retirement Self-Sufficiency Problem
      3. It Doesn’t Have to Happen
      4. Summary
  9. PART II Phantom Wealth and Its Effects
    1. CHAPTER 5: Stocks, Wealth, and Phantom Wealth
      1. Two Analytical Approaches
      2. Productive and Parasitic Investing
      3. Five Classes of Corporations
      4. Summary
    2. CHAPTER 6: The Drive to Create Phantom Wealth
      1. Real and Phantom Returns
      2. Large Parasitic Investors and Phantom Returns
      3. EVA, MVA, and the Cost-of-Equity Paradox
      4. Summary
    3. CHAPTER 7: Why Stock Prices Don’t Create Real Wealth
      1. Capitalized Value
      2. Supply and Demand
      3. The Supply of Stocks
      4. Trading
      5. Managing Stock Prices
      6. Company Valuations
      7. Measurement Error
      8. Summary
    4. CHAPTER 8: How Phantom Wealth Hurts the Economy
      1. The Productive Investment Gap
      2. Dangers of Unsustainable Growth
      3. Economic Distortion
      4. National Costs of Stock Price Gains
      5. Market and Wealth Concentration
      6. Economic Regulation
      7. The Leak
      8. Other Discussions of the Effects of Parasitic Investing for Phantom Returns
      9. Summary
  10. PART III Guiding the Future—Yours and Society’s
    1. CHAPTER 9: How We Can Meet Our Real Needs
      1. Changing Our Ways of Thinking
      2. Projecting Our Needs and the Resources Available to Meet Them
      3. Replacing the Phantom Wealth Structure
      4. Reviewing Our Lifestyles and Consumption Patterns
      5. Preparing for Active Aging
      6. Summary
    2. CHAPTER 10: What Individuals Can Do
      1. Baby Boomers
      2. Younger Workers
      3. Parents of Baby Boomers
      4. Wealthy People
      5. Visionary Leaders
      6. Financial Services Professionals
      7. Corporate Directors, Executives, and Managers
      8. Government Officials
      9. Professors
      10. Heads of Philanthropic Foundations
      11. Five Whys (or Hows)
      12. Summary
    3. CHAPTER 11: What Organizations Can Do
      1. Due-Diligence Analyses of the Stocks-for-Retirement Cycle
      2. Evaluate Retirement Portfolios Realistically
      3. Develop Active Aging Programs Rather Than Just Retirement Programs
      4. Form Active Aging Clubs
      5. Develop Ways to Avoid the Impossible Decision
      6. New Financial Instruments and Institutions
      7. Economics, Accounting, and Transactions
      8. Foundations, Experiments
      9. Virtuous Cycles
      10. SEC1 and SEC2
      11. Summary
    4. CHAPTER 12: Conclusion: How to Change a Very Big System
      1. The Role of the Federal Government
      2. Americans Are Not Alone
      3. Productive Investments and Merging Interests
      4. Idealism and Realism
      5. Summary of This Book
  11. Appendixes
    1. Appendix A
    2. Appendix B
    3. Appendix C
    4. Appendix D
  12. Notes
  13. Glossary
  14. Index
  15. About the Author
  16. Berrett-Koehler Publishers

Product information

  • Title: What If Boomers Can't Retire?
  • Author(s): Thornton Parker, Hazel Henderson
  • Release date: November 2002
  • Publisher(s): Berrett-Koehler Publishers
  • ISBN: 9781605098081