When is a board not a board?

When it's the board of the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC). PBGC has been in the news because its recent change in policy has resulted in huge losses. Part of the problem seems to be that the board did not review the policy change in any depth partly because they don't meet very often (they haven't met in 15 months). But a stronger criticism can be made that the make-up of the board is just wrong; the three members are the Secretaries of Labor, Commerce and my hero, Treasury. Do they have the time or expertise needed to advise an organization that is responsible for seeing that millions of Americans receive their pensions? It certainly doesn't look that way.

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