Another worry is GM's pension scheme, which is underfunded by $27 billion.
American has argued that its pension plan, which is underfunded, was very expensive, and that it spent more than other airlines do.
A major sticking point has been the fate of Bethlehem Steel's 67,000 retirees and their pension plan, which is underfunded by $4.3 billion.
In France, higher education is divided between the universities, which are underfunded, overcrowded and distrusted by employers, and the Grandes Ecoles, which have traditionally been the preserve of a social or educational élite.
Retirement payments will not be reduced, and the deficit of the private-sector pension system, which is underfunded by about $12 billion, will be all but erased by 2020, government projections say.
As the University of Westminster's Duncan Bowie put it in a paper for the committee: Boroughs with significant estate regeneration programmes which are underfunded may consider completing these schemes as a greater priority than providing additional affordable housing supply.
On May 10th a bankruptcy judge in Chicago gave United Airlines the right to default on its four employee pension plans, which are underfunded by $9.8 billion America's biggest-ever pension default.United, which has been struggling to climb out of bankruptcy since 2002, stopped contributing to its pension funds last July.
The largest of these costs is retirement benefits for public employees, which are underfunded by $218 billion, according to administration figures.
Gov. Pat Quinn has made it a priority for the legislature to find a solution to the state employee retirement programs, which are underfunded by $96 billion.
Unresolved questions remain about the firm's pension fund, which at the end of 2008 was underfunded by about $13 billion.Third, GM's market-share forecasts still look optimistic.
