If you're flinching at the recent losses in your brokerage and 401(k) accounts, imagine how the managers of America's huge pension funds feel. The top 100 U.S. pension funds boasted a gargantuan $3.5 trillion in combined assets last September. Now, despite having fortified their reserves with huge stock-market gains in recent years, public and private pension funds are facing steep declines. Northrop Grumman, a giant in the aerospace and defense industry, called attention to this little-known fact in December. It warned that a drop in income from its pension investments could knock $50 million in pre-tax dollars off corporate profits this...
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