November 5, 2012: The Central States Pension Fund's mid-year financial report indicates that the fund's assets stand at $17.7 billion, just about exactly where they stood at the beginning of 2012. The fund lost money on investment during the second quarter, after making a lot in the first quarter when the stock market zoomed upward. The fund has 68% of assets in stocks; half of the stock portfolio is managed by the Northern Trust Company,...

Steven Greenhouse The New York Times 13, 2012 View the original piece John Greene worked for 30 years at an Oscar Mayer plant in Madison, Wis., deboning hams and loading boxes of hot dogs. His 401(k) plan grew to $60,000, and soon after retiring he began withdrawing $3,600 a year from it, money that allowed him and his wife to take what he called a wondrous two-week trip to Scotland, his ancestral homeland. But when...

September 5, 2012: The 2012 first quarter financial report from the Central States Pension Fund has finally issued, and is available only on this website. The report indicates that the fund had $18.7 billion on March 31, 2012, a healthy increase over three months earlier. The bad news is that the stock market froth of the first quarter has not been repeated, and the fund's assets are now lower, probably about $1 billion lower. The...