mr. gotbaum. thank you so much for being so optimistic. i wish i could say the same. back in 1985, there were more than 125,000 plans. today there are fewer than 20,000, and companies have been freezing them, shutting them down, you know, like fleas, and been saying that in recent years a very low interest rate are the culprit for the death of these pension plans, and now we've seen attacks on public pension plans. california, new york, in about 20 states, i think, there are legislation either actively or under consideration to convert the db plans into some kind of defined contribution plans. so what does the pbgc see doing in its role to encourage traditional pension plans to look beyond the insured corporate and private pension plans to create some kind of a public private partnership that will encourage more retirement security for the vast majority of americans? >> i'm sorry. i didn't catch your name? >> [ inaudible ]. >> yes. what we are doing is trying first to preserve the plans we have, and i'll talk about that in a second. but, also, to try to encourage opti

mr. gotbaum and pbgc. gotbaum is pension director of the pension benefit guarantee corporation and was appointed director by president obama in july 2010. he has helped manage public, private and nonprofit institutions for three decades. for more than a decade of that time, mr. gotbaum was an investment banker in new york and london where he advised businesses, unions and governments on a diverse range of mergers, acquisitions and restructurings in steel, transportation and other industries. during the clinton administration, he helped positions -- he held positions at omb, treasury and defense, and he worked on the white house staff during the carter administration. and while mr. gotbaum was appointed by the president and confirmed by the senate, pbgc collects insurance premiums from employers that sponsor insurance pension plans, and it earns money from investments and receives funds from pension plans it has taken over. but i'm not going to talk anymore about what pbgc does, i'm going to let you do that.