"When they win, it is their’s, but any losses are passed to the taxpayers. Bankers should be bankers – not hedge fund managers who keep 100% of the profits using other people’s savings." Excellent point. He makes several others that lay the blame at the feet of our over intrusive governments.
What he fails to mention is the manipulation of the Stock Market.
The markets right now are an over inflated inner tube.
They are going to bust, and when they do, it will be loud and messy.
The Fed has been "pumping" fictitious money. People have been pouring huge amounts of their ever decreasing earning power into IRAs, 401Ks, and the Stock Market for decades. It is vastly inflated. With interest rates so low, there was no incentive to save in bank accounts. T-bills were "safe" but gave a low return. So people gambled big time in the markets, and the financial managers took their cut and told them everything would be fine. The Dow hits record heights, while every single economic indicator portends disaster (growth, real inflation, job participation rate, debt, job creation, etc). This is madness.
There are 77 million Baby Boomers, with 10,000 retiring each day.
And every single day, they draw their retirement riches from the Ponzi scheme markets.
There are fewer, and fewer, young productive workers to feed the beast.
He's right - - this will not end well.
That is the first time I have seen that benefit chart. It presents my thoughts exactly that it seems people are being urged to “contribute” but I rarely see what the benefit, the exact payout, will be. It used to be a person was told they would receive $x.xx when they retired, but now all they are told is to contribute.
I have a vested Boeing retirement amount stated as to its value today and the projected value in the future. It is the only retirement “pension plan” that I have seen in the private sector.
Demographics are bad for most of the developed world US, Japan, EU. Retirees and pensioners will at some point need to withdrawal money from their funds, bank accounts, pensions etc. Baby boomers in the US, are on average in their late 50s, early 60s, just past their peak earning years, and right now at around the peak of their lifetime wealth, and heavily invested in the markets. When this wave recedes, the demographics will not sustain a recovery in the markets. Japan’s real estate and stock market has still not recovered since the 90s because of an aging population.