Will the US government intervene in your Retirement Savings?

Save Money (Photo credit: 401(K) 2013)

According to Bloomberg (“Retirement Savings Accounts Draw U.S. Consumer Bureau Attention”), the U.S. government has recently expressed an interest in controlling the private pension savings of U.S. workers.

“The U.S. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is weighing whether it should take on a role in helping Americans manage the $19.4 trillion they have put into retirement savings, a move that would be the agency’s first foray into consumer investments.”

Oh, yeah.  We’re from the government and we’re here to help you.  And, despite the fact that we (the gov-co) are broke and bankrupt due to our own gross and even treasonous mismanagement of government tax revenues, we think it’s time that we now “protect” the $19 trillion you peons have saved.

 

Municipal Dominoes

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• December 17^th, Reuters. “U.S. faces tough future without Build America Bonds. U.S. state and local governments face a surge in borrowing costs after lawmakers refused to renew the federally subsidized Build America Bonds (“BABs”) program used to fund infrastructure projects and create jobs. Without BABs, the $2.8 trillion municipal bond market could see depressed prices and greater volatility. . . . California, the single biggest BABs seller at about $14 billion, receives federal rebates equal to 35 percent of the bonds’ interest costs. New York City has issued $8.9 billion of BABs, saving about $50 million a year in interest costs.

New York City saves $50 million per year? 35% off interest costs? What th’ hell is that? It’s peanuts. Can municipalities achieve solvency by reducing their interest payments by one-third? If our current economic problems could be solved by simply cutting interest rates, we wouldn’t have any economic problems.

 

State Budgets: Day of Reckoning

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60 Minutes investigated the growing inability of many state and local governments to pay their bills.  The resulting video focuses on facts that point to: 1) these state/local governmental entities (quasi “sovereigns”) have been borrowing and spending irrationally to provide seemingly “free” benefits, “entitlements” and pensions for over a decade; 2) much of the public has become dependent on these seemingly “free” (actually borrowed, debt-based) benefits; 3) the state and local governments’ ability to continue borrowing is ending; 4) these governmental entities’ ability to continue to supply the benefits, “entitlements” and pensions previously promised is ending; and 5) there will be a national catastrophe when those who depend on gov-co handouts are suddenly deprived of their primary means of support.

This is no joke.  We may see Americans begging for food or housing.  We will almost certainly see riots and political upheaval.

 

Ethical Questions and Pension Wars

The gov-co is bankrupt.  Cost-cutting measures are being implemented:

• August 9^th NYTimes (“Pentagon Plans Steps to Reduce Budget and Jobs”):

“Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates said he would close a military command, restrict the use of outside contractors and reduce the number of generals and admirals across the armed forces as part of a broad effort to rein in Pentagon spending. . . . Pentagon officials could not recall a time when a major command was shut down and vanished off the books.”

Financial circumstances must be truly desperate.

 

Pension Ponzi Schemes (pPs)

Two years ago, I realized that the total American debt was too great to ever be repaid in full, so I wrote a series of article that belabored the obvious:    What can’t be paid, won’t be paid.

 

Deficit Spending

All deficit spending by government is a way to tax children for the “free lunch”/”benefits” promised to our alleged adults.  In order to keep buying the support of the current voters, the government is destroying the future for those too young to vote and even too young to understand.  These children trust American adults and American politicians to take care of them.  The adults and politicians instead take care of themselves and sacrifice the children precisely because the kids are too young to understand, too young to organize, too young to vote.

Deficit spending the political equivalent of abortion.  It destroys the lives of those most innocent and least able to defend themselves.  It destroys the future to protect the present.  It is an abomination.