Posted on 12/11/2008, 11:48:06 AM by Joiseydude
The bad news is, someone has to pay for all these great infrastructure projects. Taxes will be difficult to raise without kicking the economy while it's down, since people are already vastly poorer from the housing and stock market bubbles. That leaves the holders of already deflated retirement accounts.
The temptation to use 401Ks and IRAs to subsidize infrastructure "investments" will be overwhelming. And it will be relatively easy to accomplish. One day soon – when inflation starts heading up toward the stratosphere – the Obama administration will recognize they can't afford the interest on the federal debt any more for all the infrastructure "investments."
The solution? It's elementary, my dear Watson. Simply confiscate retirement accounts. Oh, they wouldn't call it that, of course. All they would need to do is to require that 401K, IRA and other self-directed retirement plans be "invested" in Treasury bonds, as a condition of retaining their tax-deferred status. The once-vast amount of money in these accounts will force the price of federal debt back down to where 401K/IRA "investors" will earn about 3 percent interest on their "government-guaranteed" investment.
(Excerpt) Read more at wnd.com ...
This will be the biggest robbery in history, and if the US taxpayers don’t stand up against this, we are doomed. Really. Next it will be our houses...
I seriously doubt that the taxpayer can stand up to this, this will be mandated by executive order or some such monkey business.
B4 Obambi gets mine I’ll quit my job take my 401k and pay the early withdrawl penalty and he can kiss my @ss
“take my 401k and pay the early withdrawl penalty...”
Yup. Most will do the same.
Zero would cause a bigger stock market crash.
LLS
“Monkey business” (love your term) by President Monkeyboy... wait until he starts flinging his own feces at us.
LLS
LLS
When all was said and done I think it was a 60/40 split, and I got the 40.
We’ve decided we’d do the same, i.e. pay the penalty, and the taxes...something is better than nothing!
already did that
It will be more than the ten percent early withdrawal penalty. You'll have to pay current income tax on the withdrawl, too.
Either way, 0bama will get all or half of it. Your way? The feds don't have to pay interest on the amount confiscated in taxes.
Bernie Ebbers ruined my 401K. If the goverment wants my wealth they will have to take my land and house (paid for before the “bubble” burst).
What will the market look like after the Trillions in 401k money disappear?
Given that the vast majority of 401-K accounts are invested in corporate stocks and bonds,along with some municipals, this sort of act would require a sell-off of stocks and bonds like the world has never seen, causing a crash of the stock markets in an instant. I mean, if the government needs cash, they would have to sell the instruments. The problem is, who would buy them? I suppose foreign governments might... The only possible way I can see of this sort of thing working is immediate implementation of a totally socialist economy, where all ownership of those stocks and bonds are immediately transferred to the federal government, in return for the assurance that the government will take care of us all. I think about 1/2 of the population (the ones who voted for Obama) would go for that...
Mark
“I’ll quit my job take my 401k and pay the early withdrawl penalty”
Really? What if they up the penalty to 20%? 25%? More?
I’m thinking they won’t mind much if people do that.
They will do this just as FDR closed the banks and forbade Americans from owning gold. I fear that we are close to that kind of mentality that would allow this. Those that have the most to loose will move their IRA’s to Swiss banks and be spared. The rest will see their lifelong savings disappear.
As for the houses, after the House of Lords and the House of Commons give up theirs, come talk to me./s
Watch Lord Obama make the confiscation retroactive. We are so screwed.
Maybe Obama will get the Federal government to buy a whole bunch of "short" positions in the Dow and S&P, announce the 401(k) grab, then cash in on the short sales.
I still don't believe this kind of grab can be pulled off. They could institute higher taxes on withdrawls, but I just can't see a way to damage that much of a good thing by going after 401(k)s.
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