When Gordon Brown, the chancellor of the exchequer, raised employer national-insurance contributions by £4 billion ($7 billion) a year in his 2002 budget, British business cried foul. But on October 31st, David Norgrove, chairman of the Pensions Regulator, set out proposals that will involve a cash call double that amount to get rid of company pension-fund shortfalls over the next ten years, and there was no great fuss. Instead, the stockmarket was galvanised by a takeover spree by foreign bidders for some big British firms. A sanguine interpretation of this week's events is that prescient markets had already taken on board the scale of action needed to address pension-fund deficits. More likely, however, they have not woken up to the full impact of the regulator's proposals. That would be par for the course. There is a long, worrying history of government meddling in company pensions whose full impact is only appreciated years after the event.
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