Age shock : how finance is failing us

"Most countries face the future with an ageing population, yet most governments are cutting back on pensions and the care services needed by the elderly. Robin Blackburn exposes the perverse reasoning and special interests which have combined to produce this nonsensical state of affairs. This updated paperback edition of Age Shock includes a new preface explaining why the credit crunch and eurozone crisis have had such a devastating impact and outlining a way to guarantee decent pensions and care provision."@en
"The last few years have shown how badly the financial services industry performs as a custodian of savings and pension funds. The "skimming" of US mutual funds, the see-saw of the stock markets and a string of business scandals from Enron to Parmalat have wiped billions from the savings of employees on both sides of the Atlantic. They have also exposed the absence of responsibility at the heart of what Robin Blackburn calls 'grey capitalism.' Here, Blackburn takes forward the argument of his acclaimed Banking on Death and explains why attempts to meet the costs of the ageing society through a proliferation of financial products are doomed to fail and have a host of unfortunate side-effects. In fact, 'financial engineering, ' as it is called, has enabled corporations to escape taxation while allowing a new breed of chief executive to accumulate extravagant fortunes at the expense of shareholder and employee alike. -- Book jacket."