After the two-year bear market that popped out of the tech bubble, the Standard & Poor’s 500 stock index fell 50 per cent to below 800 in 2002, and 80 per cent of US corporate pension plans fell into an underfunded position. The Republican-led Congress responded with the Pension Protection Act of 2006, primarily aimed at shoring up defined benefit plans, as well as to increase participation and savings levels in workplace 401(k) savings plans.

Today the S&P 500 is below the 800 level again, and as of early October, the Congressional Budget Office estimated that 401(k) plans had lost $2,000bn (£1,330bn, €1,572bn) of value in 15 months. Now there is more talk of change in pension regulations, but this time it is coming from the newly-elected Democratic majority in the House of Representatives.